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BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment throughout life is associated with conditions from early stages such as premature birth, malnutrition, low socioeconomic status (SES) and lower educational status. OBJECTIVE: Estimate the influence of childhood conditions on cognition in middle aged participants of a Mexican birth cohort. METHODS: Eighty-two participants aged 52 years (50 female and 32 male) were studied. Cognitive function was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), adapted and validated Spanish version. To estimate the effect of childhood conditions on the MMSE result, multiple linear regression models were performed adjusting for the presence of adult variables associated with MMSE. RESULTS: The childhood variables with a positive effect on cognition were: weight for height at birth, length increments at 6 months of age, weaning age, higher maternal height as well as educational status, newspaper reading and political or religious involvement in both parents, higher SES and housing quality; also, the schooling of the maternal grandmother and if the paternal grandfather read the newspaper. With a negative effect were: maternal overweight, older paternal age, higher paternal height, and nuclear family (vs. the extended family at 3-year follow-up). These models were adjusted for adult variables such as educational status, height, inflammation markers and alcohol intake. CONCLUSION: Childhood conditions such as infant nutrition and growth, parental educational status, SES, and family structure had effects on cognition in midlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Introduction: child maltreatment (CM) can have a negative impact on physical and mental health in childhood and throughout life. Objective: to determine the frequency of malnutrition in cases of CM from the Clínica de Atención Integral al Niño Maltratado (CAINM) of the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría (INP), Mexico. Material and methods: this was a cross-sectional, retrospective, descriptive study of children with CM. Height/age, weight/height, and body mass index/age were used to determine malnutrition status (undernutrition and overweight or obesity). The frequency of malnutrition by age group and sex were compared using X2 tests. The prevalence of malnutrition at CAINM was compared to that expected in Mexico (ENSANUT-2012), serving as a reference for children without CM, using one-sample Poisson tests. Results: of the 117 cases, 41 % presented wasting or overweight/obesity, and 25 % were growth-stunted. Neither wasting nor stunting displayed any difference between age groups (p > 0.05). Overweight/obesity was observed more frequently in adolescents than in schoolchildren (p < 0.05). Being overweight or obese was most frequently associated with sexual abuse, and wasting and stunting were most often associated with neglect. Compared to the population without CM, the group under 5 years of age had a higher prevalence of wasting (p < 0.01), and those aged 5 to 11 years had a higher prevalence of both wasting and stunting (p < 0.001). Conclusions: CM cases were characterized by acute undernutrition and stunting as well as by adolescents who were overweight or obese. Malnutrition in the pediatric population should be analyzed from a wider perspective, including possible CM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess and relate the nutritional status by type of abuse in a pediatric population diagnosed with physical abuse (PA) and sexual abuse (SA)., Material and Methods: It's a retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive study of 178 clinical records of children aged less than 12 years, attended at the Clinic for the Integral Care of the Abused Child of the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CAINM-INP-UNAM), during the period 1994 to 2005. The relationship of nutritional status with the type of abuse was analyzed in two age ranges (3 months to less than five years, and five to 11 years) and gender with Student t and chi-square tests., Results: We identified that, in girls PA was associated with stunting (PA: 48% vs. SA: 12%, p < 0.005 and PA: 21% vs. SA: 0%, p < 0.002) and wasting (PA: 21% vs. SA: 0%, p < 0.01 and PA: 21% vs. SA: 0%, p < 0.002). Whereas in girls SA was associated with overweight and obesity in age range five to 11 years (PA: 0% vs. SA: 31%; p < 0.01)., Conclusions: This study identified acute and chronic under nutrition in girls with PA, and overweight and obesity in girls with SA. These findings enrich the knowledge for the suspicion of maltreatment child syndrome during the search of the aetiology of the clinical expression studied.