Effects of early-life poverty on health and human capital in children and adolescents: analyses of national surveys and birth cohort studies in LIMCs

Victora, Cesar G., Hartwig, Fernando P., Vidaletti, Luis P., Martorell, Reynaldo, Osmond, Clive, Richter, Linda M., Stein, Aryeh D., Barros, Aluisio J.D., Adair, Linda S., Barros, Fernando C., Bhargava, Santosh K., Horta, Bernardo L., Kroker-Lobos, Maria F., Lee, Nanette R., Menezes, Ana Maria B., Murray, Joseph, Norris, Shane A., Sachdev, Harshpal Singh, Stein, Alan, Varghese, Jithin S., Bhutta, Zulfiqar A. and Black, Robert E. (2022) Effects of early-life poverty on health and human capital in children and adolescents: analyses of national surveys and birth cohort studies in LIMCs. The Lancet, 399 (10336), 1741-1752. (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02716-1).

Abstract

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.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Clive Osmond

Author: Shane A. Norris

Download statistics