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Biomedical subjects

A Lechtig

Publications and source records attributed to A Lechtig.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

Effects of maternal nutrition on fetal growth and infant development.

The results of a food supplementation study conducted in four chronically malnourished rural villages in Guatemala were analyzed to determine possible effects on the study children's early mental and physical development. One of two food supplements, atole and fresco, were given to pregnant and lactating mothers and the infants born to them up to three years of age. The level of supplement received was noted and the subsequent course of the children's development observed. Food supplementation of pregnant mothers was found to correlate with higher weights of their babies at birth. No other major maternal variables--home diet, body height and/or weight, morbidity, obstetric characteristics, or socioeconomic status--could account for this association. At 36 months of age the children who had received a large amount of food supplementation showed a far lower prevalence of growth retardation than did those who received smaller quantities. Again, this correlation could not be attributed to any other major maternal variables. In regard to mental development, food supplementation was found to correlate with better performance in psychological tests beginning at six months of age. At 36 months the correlations were significant in five different tests. The results of this analysis have wide-ranging implications for public health. Given the recognized association between low birthweight and infant mortality, they point especially to the importance of maternal nutrition during pregnancy in programs aimed at reducing this serious problem.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1976

Protein-calorie supplementation and postnatal physical growth: a review of findings from developing countries.

The literature on the effects of protein-calorie supplementation on physical growth rates in height and weight is reviewed. Only studies carried out in moderately malnourished children from developing nations are considered. Two main questions are asked: 1) Do changes in protein-calorie intake cause changes in growth in these children, and 2) How does the impact on growth of supplemental foods vary with changing protein-calorie amounts of the supplement and of the home diet? Although, the experiments reviewed were shown to have a series of limitations, it was concluded that protein-calorie supplementation is causally related to growth. Moreover, the evidence reviewed suggests that the relative contribution of calories and proteins to the association depends upon which nutrient is limiting in the home diet. That is, if proteins are limiting, proteins and not calories are apparently beneficial for growth rates. On the other hand, if calories are limiting, calories alone seem to improve growth rates. This suggests that before expensive supplementation programs are instituted, one should first investigate which nutrients are most limiting in the home diet.

Body Height↗
PubMed1976

The one-day recall dietary survey: a review of its usefulness to estimate protein and calorie intake.

This paper reviews the usefulness of the 1-day recall method for assessing calorie and protein intake. To this end, it discusses the basic assumptions in determining nutrient intake of either populations or individuals. It is concluded that the 1-day recall survey is valid and reliable to estimate mean dietary calorie and protein intake in population groups. Its reliability to estimate individual intake is, however, low, and similar to that of other more complicated dietary survey techniques. In consequence, frequent surveys per person are required to reliably estimate usual individual intake. Basic assumptions necessary to infer nutritional status as well as main limiting nutrients from dietary surveys are discussed. It is concluded that as long as basic objectives and assumptions are clear, the 1-day recall survey is a useful and practical tool estimate calorie and protein intake of population groups. In addition, a simplified one-day recall survey may be a suitable means for assessing calorie and protein individual intake provided that enough number of surveys per subject are performed.

Diet Surveys↗
PubMed1976

Systems analysis in nutrition and health planning: approximate model relating birth weight and age to risk of deficient growth.

This paper summarizes the initial phase of an effort to develop semiquantitative methods for nutrition and health planning. The general approach is to utilize the methods of systems analysis and operations research where appropriate, but the emphasis is on developing a simplified, approximate analysis that government planning groups could conveniently apply in evaluating various potential programs for attaining specific nutrition and health objectives, while satisfying certain constraints (e.g., budget, facilities, personnel). An essential element of the analysis is a model that provides an approximate description of malnutrition (inadequate growth, as indicated by weight for age) and mortality in terms of those variables that can be affected by intervention programs. We have concentrated initially on using the results of two INCAP longitudinal studies to develop models relating the incidence of malnutrition (second and third degree on the Gomez scale) to age and previous growth, including birth weight. The two studies cover rural Guatemalan communities with considerable variability in ethnic, socioeconomic, and ecological conditions. Because they are tentative, the resulting models are discussed only qualitatively and not quantitatively. The models may serve as baselines to estimate the consequences of potential programs aimed at different target groups, such as pregnant women and children whose weights at birth or thereafter fall below prescribed levels. The possible benefits of using models of this nature in nutrition and health planning are discussed.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Effect of moderate maternal malnutrition on the placenta.

The results of two studies of the influence of moderate maternal malnutrition on the weight and chemical characteristics of the placenta are discussed. In the first study, two groups of pregnant women of high and low socioeconomic status from Guatemala City were studied. Socioeconomic status was defined by family income, educational level of the mother, and environmental sanitary conditions. Both groups were very similar with respect to age, parity, gestational age, and absence of severe disease during pregnancy. The average placental weight in the low socioeconomic group was 15 per cent below that of the high socioeconomic group and there was a consistent association between the postpartum maternal weight and placental weight. There were no differences between the two groups regarding placental concentration of fat, protein, water, ash, hemoglobin, and DNA; hydroxyproline and fat concentration were significantly lower in the low socioeconomic group. The hypothesis that the difference in placental weight observed between the two groups was primarily due to maternal nutritional status was tested in the second study by means of nutritional intervention in four rural villages in Guatemala. Two of the villages received a protein-calorie preparation while the other two received a calorie supplement. Placental weight was higher among women with high levels of supplemented calories during pregnancy, independently of the type of food supplement ingested. On the average, the groups with low caloric supplementation (smaller than 20,000 calories) had placental weight 11 per cent below those with high caloric supplementation (larger than or equal to 20,000 calories), In contrast to placental weight, the concentration of placental chemical components studied was not associated with caloric supplementation. It was concluded that moderate protein-calorie malnutrition during pregnancy leads to lower placental weight without significantly changing the concentration of the biochemical components studied. The reduction of placental weight may be the mechanism by which maternal malnutrition is associated with high prevalence of low-birth-weight babies in these populations.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1975

Acute morbidity and physical growth in rural Guatemalan children.

The relationship between morbidity and physical growth increments was investigated in 716 Guatemalan children ranging in age from 15 days to 7 years. The growth variables investigated were semestral and yearly increments in total body length and weight. The number of days ill with diarrhea, fever, and respiratory illnesses per semester or year was used as an indicator of morbidity. The morbidity data were collected through bi-weekly retrospective interviews of mothers. Children less ill with diarrhea had substantially larger increments in length and weight than children who were ill with diarrhea a greater percentage of the time. In contrast, fever and respiratory illnesses did not affect growth rates. These findings highlight the fact that diarrhea is a major public health problem in developing nations.

Body Height↗
PubMed1975

Length and weight in rural Guatemalan Ladino children: birth to seven years of age.

The present study reports 5,029 length and weight measurements as well as percentile distributions for a mixed longitudinal series of 1,119 rural Guatemalan Ladino children. The study sample, birth through seven years, is representative of children in clinically good health, but of suboptimal nutrition. Boys are longer and heavier than girls over the age range. Guatemalan children of both sexes are smaller than American white children from Denver. Differences are least at birth, and increase through two years of age. Between two and five years, differences between the rural Guatemalan Ladino and Denver samples are rather stable, but then increase through seven years. Despite these differences there is a linear weight for length relationship which is the same across all preschool ages, both sexes, and for both the Guatemalan and Denver populations. This implies that age, sex, ethnic differences between the two groups compared, and mild-to-moderate protein-calorie malnutrition do not affect the relationship between weight and length in preschool children.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Diarrheal diseases and growth retardation in preschool Guatemalan children.

The relationship between diarrheal diseases and growth increments in total body length and weight was investigated in 716 rural Ladino Gautemalan children. Data on diarrheal diseases were provided by the mothers through retrospective surveys carried out at 14-day intervals. Increments in length and weight, semestral from near birth at four years and yearly thence to seven, were related to days ill with diarrheal diseases during the same time interval. Because the data here reported were collected over a two year period, a child may have had information for more than one period. In total, 1,343 child periods were investigated. Days ill with diarrheal diseases were found to be significantly associated with reduced growth in length and weight. It was assumed that the average differences in growth by seven years of age between children in the present sample and children from well-to-do societies, are mainly a function of environmental differences and consequently, a measure of the extent of growth retardation. By expressing the growth retardation specifically associated with diarrheal diseases as a fraction of the above differences it was then estimated that around 10% of this growth retardation was associated with diarrheal diseases.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1975

Influence of maternal nutrition on birth weight.

This paper discusses some conditions necessary to detect an effect of maternal nutrition on birth weight and the relative contribution of calories and protein to such an effect. The expected dose- and time-response relationships for nutritional interventions aimed at the improvement of birth weight are also discussed. There appears to be a minimal level of nutrients which must be available in order to obtain adequate birth weight. However, above this minimum level, pregnant women can adapt themselves to a wide variety of food intake, both in quantity and quality, without affecting birth weight. The relative contribution of calories and protein to an increase in birth weight depends on the limiting nutrients of the home diet in the population under study. Other factors like physical activity, prevalence of disease and magnitude of the maternal nutritional stores before pregnancy are also important determinants of the relative contribution of calories and protein to birth weight. The anticipated input of a nutritional intervention on birth weight should range between 25 and 84 g of birth weight/10,000 kcal ingested during pregnancy. This estimate was computed from analyses based on four sources of published data: weight gain during pregnancy, prepregnant weight, fetomaternal body composition, and food intake during pregnancy. The expected reduction in proportion of low birth weight (LBW less than 2.5 kg) babies following a nutritional intervention will depend not only on the estimated range of fetal weight increase but also on the total amount of supplemented calories ingested during pregnancy as well as on the existent proportion of low birth weight babies prior to the intervention. The offspring of women who have low prepregnant weight, poor diet, low level of replacement of the home diet by the supplement, low physical activity during pregnancy and good health status will show larger increase in birth weight per unit of supplemented calories. Finally, nutritional interventions during pregnancy as opposed to earlier in the life of the mother, should have the higher impact on birth weight. In consequence, interventions as of pregnancy are recommended.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1975

Nutritional status and the timing of deciduous tooth eruption.

The number of deciduous teeth in a sample of rural Ladino Guatemalan children was counted every 3 months through 24 months of age, and at 6-month intervals from 24 to 36 months. Nutritional status at birth, whether expressed as full-term birth weight or as maternal caloric supplementation during pregnancy, influences the timing of deciduous tooth eruption. Furthermore, the timing of deciduous tooth eruption seems more closely associated with postnatal weight than with birth weight. Although indices of nutritional deficiencies are associated with retarded tooth eruption, the use of mean number of deciduous teeth erupted as an estimate of mean chronological age in populations living under conditions of mild-to-moderate malnutrition is relatively accurate because errors of age estimation based on mean values for the present sample only vary between 1 and 2 months.

Birth Weight↗
PubMed1975

Head and chest circumferences in rural Guatemalan Ladino children, birth to seven years of age.

Growth patterns in head and chest circumferences are reported for a mixed-longitudinal sample of rural Guatemalan Ladino children from birth to 7 years of age. The sample is representative of a population with suboptimal nutrition. Both circumferences show similar rapid growth from birth through 9 months, after which chest circumference continues to increase more rapidly, while head circumference increases at a slower rate. Chest circumference provides nutritional information apparently not contained in length and weight. Compared to a sample of well-nourished children from Denver, the head circumferences of Guatemalan children are consistently smaller. Differences are relatively small at birth, are well established by 6 months, and become progressively greater through 24 months. After 2 years the mean smaller head circumference of the Guatemalan children also reflects stunted growth during the first 2 years of life. Similarly, among 5-year-old Guatemalan children of similar stature, head circumference at 5 years of age indicates which of these children were more stunted in stature at 2 years of age.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1975

Effect of food supplementation during pregnancy on birthweight.

The high prevalence of low-birthweight (less than or equal to 2,500 gm) babies in many poor communities is a major public health problem. Studies in humans in situations of acute starvation suggest an effect of maternal nutrition on birthweight, but less clear results appear under situations of moderate maternal malnutrition. We studied the effects of food supplementation during pregnancy on birthweight in four rural villages of Guatemala, in which two types of supplements were distributed: protein-caloric and caloric. The caloric supplementation increased the total caloric intake during pregnancy. In both supplements, the amount of calories supplemented during pregnancy showed a consistent association with birthweight. In the combined sample the proportion of low-birthweight babies in the high-supplement group (G greater than or equal to 20,000 supplemented calories during pregnancy) was 9% compared with 19% in the low-supplement group (less than 20,000 supplemented calories during pregnancy). The relationship between caloric supplementation and birthweight (29 gm of birthweight per 10,000 supplemented calories) was basically unchanged after controlling for the maternal home diet, height, head circumference, parity, gestational age, duration of disease during pregnancy, socioeconomic status, and different rates of missing data. Moreover, a similar association was found in consecutive pregnancies of the same mother. We concluded that caloric supplementation during pregnancy produced the observed increase in birthweight.

Age Factors↗