Relationship between childhood short stature and academic achievement in adolescents and young adults--a longitudinal study

Association of short stature with life satisfaction and self-rated health in children and adolescents: the CASPIAN-IV study

BACKGROUND

Data on stature in Iranian children and adolescents at national level are limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of short stature with life satisfaction (LS) and self-rated health (SRH) in children and adolescents.

METHODS

Data were obtained from a nationwide survey entitled childhood and adolescence surveillance and prevention of adult non-communicable disease (CASPIAN IV). Participants were 14,880 children and adolescents, aged 6-18 years, who were selected using multistage, cluster sampling method from rural and urban areas of 30 provinces of Iran. LS and SRH were evaluated for every participant by the validated questionnaire prepared based on the global school-based student health survey of the World Health Organization (WHO). Height was measured according to the standard protocol. Short stature was defined as height less than -2 standard deviation (SD) below the mean height for age and sex.

RESULTS

Overall, 13,484 participants with a mean (SD) age of 12.5 (3.36) years (49.24% girls, 50.75% boys) completed the study (response rate 90.6%). The prevalence of short stature, poor SRH and life dissatisfaction was 9%, 20.04% and 20.09%, respectively. Although in the univariate model, participants with short stature had significantly lower odds of LS [odds ratio (OR): 0.83, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.71-0.97] and good SRH (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.68-0.92), in the multivariate model, only the association of short stature with good SRH remained statistically significant (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.69-0.98).

CONCLUSIONS

Results of the present study show that participants with short stature are at the greater risk of poor SRH and decreased LS in comparison with the subjects with normal height.

Nutritional status and cognitive performance of mother-child pairs in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to assess the nutritional status and cognitive performance of women and their 5-year-old children using a cross-sectional design. Cognitive performance of mothers and children was assessed with Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-II (KABC-II). Demographic characteristics, food consumption patterns and anthropometry were also measured. Four rural districts in Sidama, southern Ethiopia served as the setting for this study. Subjects were one hundred women and their 5-year-old children. Mean ± standard deviation age of the mothers was 29 ± 6 years and family size was 7.0 ± 2.6. Maternal body mass index (BMI) ranged from 15.3 to 29.0 with 14% of the mothers having BMI < 18.5. Anthropometric assessment of children revealed 29% to be stunted (height-for-age z-score < -2) and 12% to be underweight (weight-for-age z-score < -2). Mothers' education significantly contributed to prediction of both mothers' and children's cognitive test scores. There were significant differences in mean cognitive test scores between stunted and non-stunted, and between underweight and normal-weight children. Height-for-age z-scores were correlated with scores for short-term memory (r = 0.42, P < 0.001), and visual processing (r = 0.42, P < 0.001) indices and weight-for-age z-scores were also correlated with scores of short-term memory (r = 0.41, P < 0.001) and visual processing (r = 0.43, P < 0.001) indices. Malnutrition in the community likely contributed to the cognitive performance of the subjects. Performance on memory and visual processing tasks was significantly lower in children with growth deficits suggesting that efficient and cost effective methods to alleviate malnutrition and food insecurity would impact not only child health but also cognitive function.