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Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India

BACKGROUND: Mental retardation is one of the most common disabilities of childhood. The research on childhood malnutrition and its relationship with cognitive functioning suggests that malnutrition alone does not cause mental retardation. OBJECTIVE: To identify the relation between malnutrition and...

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Autores principales: Raina, Sunil Kumar, Sharma, Shailja, Bhardwaj, Ashok, Singh, Mitasha, Chaudhary, Sanjeev, Kashyap, Vipasha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4898100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27365949
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0976-3147.182776
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author Raina, Sunil Kumar
Sharma, Shailja
Bhardwaj, Ashok
Singh, Mitasha
Chaudhary, Sanjeev
Kashyap, Vipasha
author_facet Raina, Sunil Kumar
Sharma, Shailja
Bhardwaj, Ashok
Singh, Mitasha
Chaudhary, Sanjeev
Kashyap, Vipasha
author_sort Raina, Sunil Kumar
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Mental retardation is one of the most common disabilities of childhood. The research on childhood malnutrition and its relationship with cognitive functioning suggests that malnutrition alone does not cause mental retardation. OBJECTIVE: To identify the relation between malnutrition and cognition among children from a Sub-Himalayan state in North India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A two-phase cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural, urban, and slum area of district Kangra. A 30-cluster sampling technique was used to screen a population of children 1–10 years of age from five randomly selected panchayats (village government units) of district Kangra. The screening was based on a modified version of the ten questions screen, adapted to the local population. In the first phase, a door-to-door survey was done to identify suspects of mental retardation. In the second phase, the children found positive in the first phase were called for clinical examination to confirm mental retardation. Anthropometric assessment of all study children was done by measuring weight and height. The nutritional assessment was done by categorizing them according to Waterlow classification for malnutrition. RESULTS: Out of the total 5300 children, 1.7% were diagnosed as mentally retarded. No positive association was reported with different types of malnutrition and mental retardation. A weakly positive association existed between nutritional status and mental retardation (correlation coefficient-0.04). Children who were both wasted and stunted had the highest risk (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval – 5.57, 2.29–10.36) of mental retardation as compared to normal. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition may be one of the causes but certainly not the only cause of mental retardation. Other causes may be contributing more significantly toward it.
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spelling pubmed-48981002016-07-01 Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India Raina, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Shailja Bhardwaj, Ashok Singh, Mitasha Chaudhary, Sanjeev Kashyap, Vipasha J Neurosci Rural Pract Original Article BACKGROUND: Mental retardation is one of the most common disabilities of childhood. The research on childhood malnutrition and its relationship with cognitive functioning suggests that malnutrition alone does not cause mental retardation. OBJECTIVE: To identify the relation between malnutrition and cognition among children from a Sub-Himalayan state in North India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A two-phase cross-sectional study was conducted in the rural, urban, and slum area of district Kangra. A 30-cluster sampling technique was used to screen a population of children 1–10 years of age from five randomly selected panchayats (village government units) of district Kangra. The screening was based on a modified version of the ten questions screen, adapted to the local population. In the first phase, a door-to-door survey was done to identify suspects of mental retardation. In the second phase, the children found positive in the first phase were called for clinical examination to confirm mental retardation. Anthropometric assessment of all study children was done by measuring weight and height. The nutritional assessment was done by categorizing them according to Waterlow classification for malnutrition. RESULTS: Out of the total 5300 children, 1.7% were diagnosed as mentally retarded. No positive association was reported with different types of malnutrition and mental retardation. A weakly positive association existed between nutritional status and mental retardation (correlation coefficient-0.04). Children who were both wasted and stunted had the highest risk (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval – 5.57, 2.29–10.36) of mental retardation as compared to normal. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition may be one of the causes but certainly not the only cause of mental retardation. Other causes may be contributing more significantly toward it. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC4898100/ /pubmed/27365949 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0976-3147.182776 Text en Copyright: © Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
spellingShingle Original Article
Raina, Sunil Kumar
Sharma, Shailja
Bhardwaj, Ashok
Singh, Mitasha
Chaudhary, Sanjeev
Kashyap, Vipasha
Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title_full Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title_fullStr Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title_full_unstemmed Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title_short Malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: A population-based study from Sub-Himalayan India
title_sort malnutrition as a cause of mental retardation: a population-based study from sub-himalayan india
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4898100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27365949
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0976-3147.182776
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