2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
A study on child growth and its related environmental factors in Asian developing countries with special focus on growth stage
| Project/Area Number |
18790394
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Public health/Health science
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
SEKIYAMA Makiko The University of Tokyo, サステイナビリティ学連携研究機構, 特任助教 (90396896)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2009
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| Keywords | インドネシア / 社会医学 / 環境 / 子どもの成長 / 栄養学 |
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| Research Abstract |
In Asian developing countries, child growth and its related environmental factors is one of the major issues in public health and human biology. It is still under debate whether it is appropriate to apply international growth standards to especially rural children in developing countries. Also, it is still unclear whether the environmentally 'rich' children in developing countries grow as well as children in Western countries. This study, by conducting inclusive survey on child growth and its related environmental factors, aimed to compare the growth of children in Asian developing countries with that of the international standards. Further, by clarifying the environmental factors that determine child growth, this study aimed to propose the solution for improving child growth. The school children in West Java, Indonesia, showed slower growth than international standards and 39% of the subjects were categorized as stunting (HAZ<-2) and 44% of them were underweight (WAZ<-2). Both HAZ and
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WAZ were better in urban children than in rural children and the difference between the urban and the rural was more prominent in HAZ. The result of dietary survey showed that the rural children took chicken and sea fish less frequently than the urban children, indicating that the difference of protein intake explains the different growth between the rural and the urban children. Further, rural children consumed inadequate amount of protein, Vitamin A and calcium, which may retard their growth. The subject of this study was mostly school children before the puberty, who are more susceptible to environmental factors than children after the puberty. This study clearly showed the significant effect of nutrient intake on child growth, indicating that the improvement of nutrient intake is necessary for improving growth of rural children. Further, as growth retardation in rural children was more prominent in height, the poor nutrient intake among rural children was considered as the accumulative effect since the early stage of their life. Less
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