Inter-Generational Influences in Developing Countries: understanding years of malnutrition
The last class’ discussion got me really
into maternal health and child nutrition patterns and wanting to know what
factors in terms of mother’s composition might limit the ability for a child to
be fully healthy. Are there certain pre-genetically determined characteristics
that are out of the control of those in developing countries that might deter
any kind of intervention program from actually being effective? I realize that
yes, stress, height, body mass index etc., can be related to ability to be
fertile but wanting to see if there was any research out there that had found
anything in particular with regards to growth of the child and correlation with
maternal characteristics such as BMI.
You see,
although we get frustrated week by week in our discussions regarding how long
development and health programs take to show results, we need to be humbled by
the fact that we are not combating 10 years of globalization and neoliberalism
ideologies in all cases and all that have come with it. Sometimes we are reversing ages of genetic code that have been the
result of several limiting factors such as improper nutrition from generations
before them. To really see such impactful results in these communities will not
only take time, but also requires us to not attach to one factor that might be
the cause and know that there are so many identifiers that we are probably not
even aware of as of yet as public health professionals. Let’s not have our
frustrations fog our abilities to critically analyze these situations, but use
our frustrations to motivate us to move things forward.
References
Addo, O. Y., Stein, A. D., Fall, C. H., Gigante, D.
P., Guntupalli, A. M., Horta, B. L., … Martorell, R. (2013). Maternal Height
and Child Growth Patterns. The Journal of Pediatrics, 163(2),
549–554.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2013.02.002
Amy,
ReplyDeleteIt is just now that we are looking at the lasting impact of environmental exposure, malnutrition etc., on the progeny of those exposed. I study the effects of early lead exposure on Alzheimer's Disease (AD). We should not use our children as epigenetic detectors, for things that is curable or avoidable. The paradigm need to be prevention at all cost. Every community need to feel that they are and can be healthy parts of the world. Annual health communications based on surveillance especially in high risk communities need to take place. Map the data report data cumulatively. With new data you can influence policy. Always clearly define the problem engage communities, governments through training, and facts based on surveillance program, and adopt policies for intervention, and partner with these parties so that they can become advocates.
I find looking at genetics for health discrepancies to be fascinating. So often we blame people’s individual choices for their health problems. Looking towards the future of interventions, I feel that genetics can play are large part. I would not be a supporter of genetic testing for terminating complicated pregnancies, but I do believe genetics should be looked at as a risk factor. My personal interest in genetics has been their influence on weight. In other classes, we have talked about people being predisposed to obesity. I think this is an important part of the United States’ issues with looking at the obesity epidemic. I look forward to the future work done in genetics.
ReplyDeleteWhile of course we want to make progress now, the reality is that we are facing a history of nutritional/environmental/lifestyle factors that still affect health today. The tricky part about this is that the full result of improved conditions may not be experienced for several generations, while funding demands statistics and results now. Public health initiatives already face problems with proving effectiveness to maintain funding, and this generational lapse only exacerbates the problem. More scientific research needs to be done to solidify these links and make it well known that epigenetic factors cannot be undone in a single generation, but that conditions must still be improved so that future generations will have a better chance at healthy, happy living.
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