The relationship between poverty and social determinants of growth in low-income Brazilian children
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Simplicio Lemos, Thaisa Maria.
The relationship between poverty and social determinants of growth in low-income Brazilian children. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3PG1TSRExport
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TitleThe relationship between poverty and social determinants of growth in low-income Brazilian children
Date Created2016
Other Date2016-01 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (xi, 143 p. : ill.)
DescriptionStunting affects 159 million children under the age of five, while 41 million children are overweight. In general, poorer nutritional and health outcomes are associated with poverty. Poverty has several dimensions and can be defined in several ways, not only as monetary (income) poverty, and sociodemographic characteristics should also be taken into consideration when investigating the influence of poverty on health and nutrition of individuals. The objective of this dissertation was to determine how social and parental characteristics influence nutritional status of children relative to (income) poverty, using longitudinal data from about nutrition education intervention conducted with 500 low-income Brazilian children followed from birth to 7 years. Children living below the poverty line (BPL) had higher prevalence of stunting at 7y compared to children living above the poverty line (APL). Prevalence of overweight did not differ between groups. BPL was associated with increased odds of short exclusive breastfeeding, and participation in a nutritional intervention did not reduce the gap between infants ABL or BPL, indicating poorer children continue to be more vulnerable. More than income, living conditions of poor families could have been associated with the poorer nutritional outcomes of the BPL. We found that paternal education was associated with lower odds of stunting at 1, 4 and 7y, and infants who lived in extended families grew more from birth to 12 months, but had worst breastfeeding practices. Traditionally, nutritional interventions target lower income individuals, to alleviate nutritional and health gaps between lower and higher income individuals. Indeed, children living under extreme poverty had worse linear growth, noticeable at 7y, and traditional nutritional education interventions might not be enough to reduce the gap between the poorest and the better-off individuals. Nutritional status during infancy was a strong predictor of nutritional status during childhood, suggesting the potential of early interventions to avoid both stunting and overweight during childhood. Finally, more educated fathers had lower odds of having stunted children. Future studies should investigate the effectiveness of nutritional education programs targeting not only mothers, but also fathers.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Thaisa Maria Simplicio Lemos
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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