2021 MRC: Child Malnutrition and Adult NCD: Generating Evidence on mechanistic links to inform future policy/practice – Dr Debbie Thompson

The CHANGE Project: Child malnutrition is a major global public health problem and includes both undernutrition and overweight/obesity. Wasting (low weight-for-height) is a particularly severe form of undernutrition. Affecting some 49 million children globally, wasting contributes to 900,000 deaths per year in children aged < 5 years. Current programmes often see rapid return to normal weight as desirable, and thus encourage fast catch-up growth. However, studies in high income countries show that too rapid weight gain in small infants causes harm by increasing risk of future non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Whether this also applies to low-income settings is unknown. Using a life course approach, we will combine clinical data from 3 malnutrition cohorts (in Jamaica, Malawi and Ethiopia) of children, adolescents and adults who survived early life malnutrition to explore these relationships

Investigators: Marko Kerac (PI), Debbie Thompson, Natasha Lelijveld, Mubarek Mengistie, Melkamu Berhane, Abena Amoah, Amelia Crampin, Gerard Bryan Gonzales, Albert Koulman, Jonathan Swann,

Sponsor: Medical Research Council, UK

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