Findings from recent research presented in an issue of The Lancet involving two researchers from the University of the West Indies show that more than 200 million children under 5 years fail to reach their potential in cognitive development because of poverty, poor health and nutrition, and lack of early stimulation. This was presented in the first paper in a three part Series on child development, which began on January 6.
Professor Susan Walker of the Tropical Medicine Research Institute, The University of the West Indies is lead author of the second paper in the series and Dr Julie Meeks Gardner of the Caribbean Child Development Centre is a co-author. Professor Walker and Dr Meeks Gardner are also members of the International Child Development Steering Group which initiated and coordinated the series.
The Series shows that most of these children – 89 million – live in south Asia and that ten countries (India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania) account for 145 million (66%) of the 219 million disadvantaged children in the developing world.
In the second paper in the Series researchers identify the main causes of poor child development – stunting, iodine and iron deficiencies, and inadequate cognitive and social-emotional stimulation. Other potential risk factors include exposure to violence, maternal depression, exposure to lead and arsenic, and some infectious diseases.
Interventions that address these causal factors can therefore reduce the burden of poor child development, say the authors of the final paper in the Series, which deals with the assessment
strategies that exist to tackle poor child development, identifies effective programmes, and defines characteristics of effectiveness.