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Zinab B, Ali R, Megersa BS, Belachew T, Kedir E, Girma T, Abdisa A, Berhane M, Admasu B, Friis H, Abera M, Olsen MF, Andersen GS, Wells JCK, Filteau S, Wibaek R, Nitsch D, Yilma D. Association of linear growth velocities between 0 and 6 years with kidney function and size at 10 years: A birth cohort study in Ethiopia. Am J Clin Nutr 2023; 118:1145-1152. [PMID: 37758061 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.09.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2023] [Revised: 09/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Risk of noncommunicable diseases accrues from fetal life, with early childhood growth having an important role in adult disease risk. There is a need to understand how early-life growth relates to kidney function and size. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to assess the association of linear growth velocities among children between 0 and 6 y with kidney function and size among children aged 10 y. METHODS The Ethiopian Anthropometric and Body Composition birth cohort recruited infants born at term to mothers living in Jimma with a birth weight of ≥1500 g and without congenital malformations. Participants were followed up with 13 measurements between birth and 6 y of age. The latest follow-up was at ages 7-12 y with measurement of serum cystatin C as a marker of kidney function and ultrasound assessment of kidney dimensions. Kidney volume was computed using an ellipsoid formula. Linear-spline multilevel modeling was used to compute linear growth velocities between 0 and 6 y. Multiple linear regression modeling was used to examine the associations of linear growth velocities in selected age periods with cystatin C and kidney size. RESULTS Data were captured from 355 children, at a mean age of 10 (range 7-12) y. The linear growth velocity was high between 0 and 3 mo and then decreased with age. There was no evidence of an association of growth velocity ≤24 mo with cystatin C at 10 y. Between 24 and 48 and 48 and 76 mo, serum cystatin C was higher by 2.3% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.6, 4.2] and 2.1% (95% CI: 0.3, 4.0) for 1 SD higher linear growth velocity, respectively. We found a positive association between linear growth velocities at all intervals between 0 and 6 y and kidney volume. CONCLUSIONS Greater linear growth between 0 and 6 y of development was positively associated with kidney size, and greater growth velocity after 2 y was associated with higher serum cystatin C concentrations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beakal Zinab
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia; Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Rahma Ali
- Department of Population and Family Health, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia; Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Bikila S Megersa
- Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Tefera Belachew
- Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Elias Kedir
- Department of Radiology, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Tsinuel Girma
- Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | | | - Melkamu Berhane
- Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Faculty of Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Bitiya Admasu
- Department of Population and Family Health, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Henrik Friis
- Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mubarek Abera
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
| | - Mette F Olsen
- Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Jonathan C K Wells
- Childhood Nutrition Research Center, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom
| | - Suzanne Filteau
- Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Dorothea Nitsch
- Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel Yilma
- Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
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Wells JCK, Stock JT. Life History Transitions at the Origins of Agriculture: A Model for Understanding How Niche Construction Impacts Human Growth, Demography and Health. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2020; 11:325. [PMID: 32508752 PMCID: PMC7253633 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2020.00325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2019] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Over recent millennia, human populations have regularly reconstructed their subsistence niches, changing both how they obtain food and the conditions in which they live. For example, over the last 12,000 years the vast majority of human populations shifted from foraging to practicing different forms of agriculture. The shift to farming is widely understood to have impacted several aspects of human demography and biology, including mortality risk, population growth, adult body size, and physical markers of health. However, these trends have not been integrated within an over-arching conceptual framework, and there is poor understanding of why populations tended to increase in population size during periods when markers of health deteriorated. Here, we offer a novel conceptual approach based on evolutionary life history theory. This theory assumes that energy availability is finite and must be allocated in competition between the functions of maintenance, growth, reproduction, and defence. In any given environment, and at any given stage during the life-course, natural selection favours energy allocation strategies that maximise fitness. We argue that the origins of agriculture involved profound transformations in human life history strategies, impacting both the availability of energy and the way that it was allocated between life history functions in the body. Although overall energy supply increased, the diet composition changed, while sedentary populations were challenged by new infectious burdens. We propose that this composite new ecological niche favoured increased energy allocation to defence (immune function) and reproduction, thus reducing the allocation to growth and maintenance. We review evidence in support of this hypothesis and highlight how further work could address both heterogeneity and specific aspects of the origins of agriculture in more detail. Our approach can be applied to many other transformations of the human subsistence niche, and can shed new light on the way that health, height, life expectancy, and fertility patterns are changing in association with globalization and nutrition transition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan C. K. Wells
- Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, Population, Policy and Practice Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Jonathan C. K. Wells
| | - Jay T. Stock
- Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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Associations of stunting at 2 years with body composition and blood pressure at 8 years of age: longitudinal cohort analysis from lowland Nepal. Eur J Clin Nutr 2018; 73:302-310. [PMID: 30154534 PMCID: PMC6368558 DOI: 10.1038/s41430-018-0291-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2017] [Revised: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 08/03/2018] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Stunting remains a very common form of child malnutrition worldwide, particularly in South Asian populations. There is poor understanding of how it develops and how it is associated with subsequent phenotype. SUBJECTS/METHODS We used data from a longitudinal cohort of children (n = 841) in lowland Nepal to investigate associations of stunting at 2 years with maternal traits and early growth patterns, and with body size and composition, kidney dimensions by ultrasound, lung function by spirometry and blood pressure (BP) at 8 years. RESULTS Compared to non-stunted children, children stunted at 2 years came from poorer families and had shorter, lighter mothers. They tended to have higher birth order, were born smaller, and remained shorter, lighter and thinner at 8 years. They had lower leg length, lean and fat masses, smaller kidneys, and reduced lung function (all p < 0.0001). These differences persisted with smaller magnitude after adjusting for current height, maternal height and education, family assets and birth order. Stunting was not associated with BP. DISCUSSION Stunting developed on an inter-generational timescale in this population and its risk increased with birth order. At 8 years, children stunted at 2 years had deficits in tissue masses and some aspects of physical function that were only partially attributable to their persisting short height and maternal phenotype. This suggests that the early stunting is associated with greater deficits in long-term outcomes than would be expected from the persistent short stature alone.
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Wells JCK. The capacity-load model of non-communicable disease risk: understanding the effects of child malnutrition, ethnicity and the social determinants of health. Eur J Clin Nutr 2018; 72:688-697. [PMID: 29748656 DOI: 10.1038/s41430-018-0142-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2018] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
The capacity-load model is a conceptual model developed to improve understanding of the life-course aetiology of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their ecological and societal risk factors. The model addresses continuous associations of both (a) nutrition and growth patterns in early life and (b) lifestyle factors at older ages with NCD risk. Metabolic capacity refers to physiological traits strongly contingent on early nutrition and growth during the first 1000 days, which promote the long-term capacity for homeostasis in the context of fuel metabolism and cardiovascular health. Metabolic load refers to components of nutritional status and lifestyle that challenge homeostasis. The higher the load, and the lower the capacity, the greater the NCD risk. The model therefore helps understand dose-response associations of both early development and later phenotype with NCD risk. Infancy represents a critical developmental period, during which slow growth can constrain metabolic capacity, whereas rapid weight gain may elevate metabolic load. Severe acute malnutrition in early childhood (stunting, wasting) may continue to deplete metabolic capacity, and confer elevated susceptibility to NCDs in the long term. The model can be applied to associations of NCD risk with socio-economic position (SEP): lower SEP is generally associated with lower capacity but often also with elevated load. The model can also help explain ethnic differences in NCD risk, as both early growth patterns and later body composition differ systematically between ethnic groups. Recent work has begun to clarify the role of organ development in metabolic capacity, which may further contribute to ethnic differences in NCD risk.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan C K Wells
- Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
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