Biological and behavioural aspects of health and mortality

The paper addresses the impact child ‘dysnutrition’ (a child that is both stunted and overweight) has on the understanding of the Household Double Burden of Malnutrition (HHDBM - stunted child overweight mother pairs), by assessing the definition of a HHDBM as well as exploring the socioeconomic explanatory pattern of its development. In addition pre and post-natal hypotheses for the development of a HHDBM are explored. A cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative samples from 2000 onwards will be conducted. 72 Demographic and Health Surveys for low and middle income countries are used, containing anthropometric data on weight and height for both mothers and under-fives. Multinomial multilevel regression models are used to explore the HHDBM and its determinants.

Prior research on how pubertal timing is associated with adolescent psychological distress has remained inconclusive. At the same time, emerging research has begun its attention to the effects of romantic and sexual relationships on adolescent psychological well-being. Much empirical work examines either side of the story using western samples. Yet, a non-western society presents its distinct social and cultural context that may shape the aforementioned factors differently to adolescent distress development. This study seeks to uncover relative influences of pubertal timing versus sexual/romantic relationships on trajectories of psychological distress and aims to understand how gender differences play out in shaping these relationships in Taiwan. Using growth curve modeling based on the longitudinal surveys of Taiwan Youth Project (n=2,595), multivariate analyses suggest early maturity, parental distress, early first dating, and female sex are at greater risks for distress onset. A faster increase in distress over time was associated with parental alcohol misuse and early first sex. These results underscore the contributing roles that biological variables and early sex/romantic involvements play in psychological adjustment over the course from adolescence to young adulthood, independently of aging effects and family backgrounds.

Abstract:
Malnutrition among children is a significant factor contributing directly to infant and child deaths. Malnutrition among infant and children not only impairs cognitive development but also impacts their overall health, longevity, school performance, resulting in low labor productivity in the prime working ages. Reduction in child malnutrition and poverty as an MDG has to be achieved by 2015. The malnutrition statistics in the state of MP for children under age 5 increased from 54% to 60% over NFHS 2 and 3 intervening period.
Therefore the Government of M P embarked upon implementing Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers at the district hospital to control and prevent undernutrition status among children. 251 severely malnourished children aged 0-60 months were admitted in the NRC during the 6 month study period. Children were admitted for 2 weeks in the NRC. 97% of children reported weight gain during their stay at NRC with 40% of children reported to have gained weight of more than 15% from the date of admission.
This paper aims to understand and analyze the process and factors resulting in success of NRC in reducing undernutrition among children through active engagement of parents and government health system in the State of MP.

This study investigates the association between the marriage among the blood relatives
and the adverse pregnancy outcomes based on the data of married women from the nationally
representative India Human Development Survey. The occurrence of consanguineous marriages is
more predominant in the states of southern India and among the socioeconomically disadvantageous
groups. The results of Cox proportional hazard regression model reveal that, the women in
consanguineous union were more likely to have adverse pregnancy outcomes including stillbirths
(RR=1.59, p-value < 0.01), abortions (RR = 3.03, p-value < 0.01), miscarriages (RR=1.94, p-value <
0.01) and spontaneous miscarriages (RR=1.70, p-value < 0.01) than their counterparts in nonconsanguineous
marriage. The consanguineous marriage emerges as a critical predictor of adverse
pregnancy outcomes in India. In order to avoid wastage of pregnancy and related reproductive health
problems in India, it is imperative to initiate awareness creation measures regarding the adverse
effects of consanguineous marriage, particularly in those regions where it is still prevalent.

Maternal mortality and morbidity issues in Nigeria have continued to generate series of concerns in health literature. This is given that the conditions of pregnant women are characterised by poor dietary habits consistent with low food intake before, during and after pregnancy resulting in high rate of maternal deaths. This study therefore investigated the socio-cultural correlates of food intake among pregnant women in Southwest Nigeria as a way of understanding the context in which pregnancy outcomes take place. Data were collected through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Observation, In-depth Interviews (IDIs) and survey questionnaire. The findings show that patterns of social relationships existing between family members like Mother-in-laws, parents, siblings, cognates, members of religious group and neighbours have significant influence on women’s food intake during pregnancy and lactation; men’s choice of food affects women’s food preference and eating patterns during the period of pregnancy.
The objectives of the study include examining the relationship between factors related to cultural, demographic, and socioeconomic status of women and food intake during pregnancy.

Global advances in medicine and health practices, along with epidemiological changes, have improved health across the world. However, these changes appear to be mediated by environmental, cultural factors and behavioral gaps remain across countries. Given these factors, it is reasonable to assume that the United States and South Korea likely have differential underlying biological statuses; however, little research has investigated possible cross-national differences. Drawing from nationally representative cross-sectional panel data (2007-2010 of NHANES and Korean NHANES), we compared two countries who aged 50+ along 8 indicators of biological risk: Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total, HDL, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, Body Mass Index (BMI), and glycated hemoglobin(N=5,761 for US; N=11,315 for South Korea). Findings indicate that while Americans were more likely to be obese, Koreans were more likely to have higher DBP and glycosylated hemoglobin levels. Americans, rates of obesity increased through age 70; however, among Koreans, no obesity differences were found across age-groups. DBP was higher among younger Koreans, particularly among men. Significant gender differences across all biomarkers were found among Koreans while no differences in fasting triglycerides were found among Americans.

Living together creates the conditions for a spouse’s health to be inter-related with the health of the other spouse, especially among middle-aged or older couples. The article explores the association between the determinants of a couple’s health and a set of biomarkers, through a system of simultaneous equations –one for each spouse, as well as secondary equations for controlling endogeneity– using a dataset of middle-aged adults from Costa Rica. There are positive correlations between the errors of the paired equations, although the size of the correlations is relatively small (around 0.10). Individual and economic variables do not seem to have a strong effect on health, but self-reported stress is related with both own and spouse’s health. Female spouse´s self-reported stress is directly associated with male’s levels of cholesterol, HDL, and CRP, while male spouse´s stress is positively associated with several female health variables: cholesterol, HDL, HbA1C, and systolic blood pressure.

Studies in health sector have revealed socioeconomic inequalities between indigenous and non indigenous population. India is not an exception to this “health divide”, but there is dearth of studies exploring this divide between indigenous and non indigenous child health. The present study aims at decomposing socioeconomic inequalities among underweight, stunting and wasting child population under five years of age using kids file from National Family Health Survey-3 data. The study has used Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition which enables to quantify the part of the health gap due to selected predictors. Children belonging to Schedule Caste/ Schedule Tribe (SC/ST) groups are considered as indigenous and non SC/ST as non indigenous population. Findings demonstrate the health gap among indigenous and non indigenous child population. The selected predictors explained 69%,49% and 62% inequalities among underweight, stunted and wasted children respectively with the highest contribution of poor economic status (52%,49% and 56%) and mother’s illiteracy(25%, 29% and 21%) in the considered indicators. Considering religion as a factor for inequality is not significantly justified by the study. The study prioritizes the need for targeted intervention to enhance economic status and mother’s education to narrow down the health divide.

Health and disease are critical concepts in bioethics with far-reaching social and political implications. In view of the aforesaid background it is proposed to study the differentials in Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Body Mass Index (BMI) and Diabetes and to study the effect of socio-economic and demographic indicators on BMR, BMI and Diabetes in selected states of India. The present study relies on National Family Health Survey-III conducted in 2005-06 for understanding the gender differentials in BMR, BMI and Diabetes (main dependent variables). The Independent variables will be various socio-demographic indicators like age, sex, highest educational level, place of residence, religion, caste/tribe, wealth index, occupation, alcohol and tobacco use. BMR, BMI and Diabetes are correlated with each other and differ by gender with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics. The means BMR is higher in males besides higher prevalence of diabetes than females. Females have highest percentage of overweight and underweight. Logistic regression result showed high correlation between those indicators with diabetes.

We present a theoretical model of behavior and nutrient allocation for organisms with discrete juvenile (larval) and adult stages, each with distinct diets, nutritional needs and foraging strategies. We predict optimal schedules of foraging and reproduction across a limited lifespan and examine the consequences for nutrient dynamics, paying particular attention to conditions under which it is optimal to tolerate starvation or to conserve resources and how these decisions affect mortality across the life cycle. We derive these optimal behavioral schedules assuming two alternative scenarios of environmental conditions, in which we do or do not impose deterioration in survival with age (senescence). We find that even in the absence of imposed senescence, terminal investment near the end of reproductive lifespans reduced survival probabilities of older individuals. We predicted earlier terminal investment and earlier senescence when reproductive overheads are low and when the survival costs of carbon depletion are small. Our findings suggest that resource allocation decisions alone are sufficient to produce signals of senescence and other age-patterns of mortality in animals optimizing decision schedules across their reproductive life cycles. We conclude that behavioral patterns of individuals can be strong drivers of observed d