Cesar G Victora, Fernando P Hartwig, Luis P Vidaletti, Reynaldo Martorell, Clive Osmond, Linda M Richter, Aryeh D Stein, Aluisio J D Barros, Linda S Adair, Fernando C Barros, Santosh K Bhargava, Bernardo L Horta, Maria F Kroker-Lobos, Nanette R Lee, Ana Maria B Menezes, Joseph Murray, Shane A Norris, Harshpal S Sachdev, Alan Stein, Jithin S Varghese, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Robert E Black
The survival and nutrition of children and, to a lesser extent, adolescents have improved substantially in the past two decades. Improvements have been linked to the delivery of effective biomedical, behavioural, and environmental interventions; however, large disparities exist between and within countries. Using data from 95 national surveys in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), we analyse how strongly the health, nutrition, and cognitive development of children and adolescents are related to early-life poverty. Additionally, using data from six large, long-running birth cohorts in LMICs, we show how early-life poverty can have a lasting effect on health and human capital throughout the life course. We emphasise the importance of implementing multisectoral anti-poverty policies and programmes to complement specific health and nutrition interventions delivered at an individual level, particularly at a time when COVID-19 continues to disrupt economic, health, and educational gains achieved in the recent past. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Human Development and Violence Research Centre, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; Laney Graduate School, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States; MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK, Southampton, United Kingdom; Department of Science and Innovation, National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Human Development, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; SAMRC Pathways for Health Research Unit, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; MRC–Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; African Health Research Institute, Durban, South Africa; Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; Post-Graduate Program of Health in the Life Cycle, Catholic University of Pelotas, Pelotas, Brazil; Sunder Lal Jain Hospital, Delhi, India; INCAP Research Center for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases, Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, Guatemala City, Guatemala; USC Office of Population Studies Foundation, University of San Carlos, Cebu, Philippines; Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research, New Delhi, India; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK, Oxford, United Kingdom; Centre for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada; Institute for Global Health and Development, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan; Institute for International Programs, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
