Impact of Diet and Nutrition on Growth and Development in Young Children

NCT06018636 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: Nutrition & Child Development
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 832
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The association between nutrition in early life and its long-term health consequences has long been known. However, there is a scarcity of scientific evidence on how nutritional status affects child growth and development in remote, rural agro-pastoral communities with distinct dietary intake habits, geographical location, socio-economic status, and cultures.

Conditions

Nutrition; Growth; Development; Stunting; Wasting; Obesity; Child Development

Keywords

Nutritional status; Malnutrition; Growth; Cognitive Development; Anthropometry; Agropastoral; remote; rural; Urban

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Impact of dietary intake/patterns on Child growth as assessed by body mass index (BMI)

  Child growth will be assessed through changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) from baseline and each year till the child is 5 years of age. The formula is BMI = kg/m2 where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m2 is their height in metres squared. These data will be categorised further on the basis of the dietary intake patterns of the children as assessed by Infant and Young child feeding practices (IYCF) questionnaire.

  5 years

• Impact of dietary intake/patterns on Child development

  Assessment of child development from baseline and each year till the child is 5 years of age. Child development will be assessed by changes in Head circumference and a validated questionnaire (Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3). The EASQ-3 contains 21 questions, targeting child's Communication, Gross motor, Fine motor, Problem solving and Personal-Social skills, each having a total score of 0-60 and cut-off value at 22.77, 41.84, 30.16, 24.62 and 33.71, respectively. Score below the cut-off value indicates possible developmental delays while score slightly above the cut-off value indicates further learning activities and monitoring.

  5 years

• Factors associated with child growth as assessed by changes in BMI

  The relationship between child growth and socio-demographic characteristics of the parents, household food insecurity, mother dietary intake (minimum dietary diversity score), and childhood trauma (assessed through Childhood Trauma Scale). CTS is a validated questionnaire containing 16 questions on 04 different aspects trauma i.e., Physical Neglect, Physical Abuse, Emotional Neglect and Emotional Abuse. Total score ranges from 0-80 while 0-20 for each section. Each section has four different cut-off values indicating None, Low, Moderate or Severe neglect/abuse.

  5 years

• Factors associated with child development (based on Head circumference and EASQ-3)

  The relationship between child development and socio-demographic characteristics of the parents, household food insecurity, mother dietary intake (minimum dietary diversity score), and childhood trauma (assessed through Childhood Trauma Scale).

  5 years

Study Arms (2)

Group 1

Infants and young children residing in agropastoral communities of District Swat, Pakistan

Group 2

Infant and young children residing in urban areas of district Swat, Pakistan

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 1 Day - 24 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

The target population (infants and young children) residing either in rural, agro-pastoral communities or urban clusters will be recruited from the respective communities. A list of potential participants will be obtained from Extended Program on Immunization (EPI) data of available with local health facilities (Basic Health Unit).

You may qualify if:

• Households living in the area from the last two 2 years.
• Households having infants or young children ≤ years.
• Households planning to reside in the same area for the next 1 year.

You may not qualify if:

• Children with any co-existent systemic diseases, confirmed from medical records.
• Children on continuous medications for any medical issue.
• Physically or mentally handicapped children

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Khyber Medical University Peshawar: lead
• University of Chester: collaborator
• University of Glasgow: collaborator
• University of Bern: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Dr. Muhammad Shahzad

Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19040, Pakistan

RECRUITING

Related Publications (3)

• Ramakrishnan U. Prevalence of micronutrient malnutrition worldwide. Nutr Rev. 2002 May;60(5 Pt 2):S46-52. doi: 10.1301/00296640260130731.

  PMID: 12035858 BACKGROUND

• Roth DE, Krishna A, Leung M, Shi J, Bassani DG, Barros AJD. Early childhood linear growth faltering in low-income and middle-income countries as a whole-population condition: analysis of 179 Demographic and Health Surveys from 64 countries (1993-2015). Lancet Glob Health. 2017 Dec;5(12):e1249-e1257. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30418-7.

  PMID: 29132614 BACKGROUND

• Lee A, Cheung CK, Lo K, Keung VM, Mui LW, Tam WWS. Studying Impact of Nutrition on Growth (SING): a prospective cohort for comparing the health outcomes of young children with the dietary quality score. BMJ Open. 2017 Nov 8;7(11):e018380. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-018380.

  PMID: 29122800 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Growth Disorders; Cachexia; Obesity; Malnutrition

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Weight Loss; Body Weight Changes; Body Weight; Signs and Symptoms; Thinness; Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases

Study Officials

• Muhammad Shahzad, PhD

  Khyber Medical University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Muhammad Shahzad, PhD

CONTACT

00923459048796; shahzad.ibms@kmu.edu.pk

Ahsan Saidal, MHR

CONTACT

00923348294105; ahsan.ipms@kmu.edu.pk

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 6, 2023
• First Posted: August 30, 2023
• Study Start: June 28, 2023
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2028
• Last Updated: January 8, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

PA (1)