Consequences and Context of Stunting in the Amazon

亚马逊地区发育迟缓的后果和背景

• 批准号: 1519120
• 负责人: Susan Tanner
• 金额: $ 30.04万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1519120&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Consequences; Context; Stunting; Amazon

Research in anthropology has provided important insights into the adaptive nature of human growth, but more research is needed on how human growth may be shaped by changing local conditions and cultural factors, in order to understand the impact of early life factors on biological outcomes later in life. If conditions during early childhood growth are connected to later-life outcomes, then there should be a relationship between linear growth stunting early in life (2-5 years of age) and adult body proportions and fatness, as well as later measures of cardiovascular function (blood pressure) and metabolic rates. Additionally, this relationship should be particularly visible among groups who are experiencing lifestyle and nutrition transitions, or concurrent changes in diet and activity levels. To test these predictions, this project will collect data on diet, activity levels, household conditions (demographic information, wealth), and measures of body composition (height, weight, body fat), resting metabolic rate (a measure of energy use), and blood pressure in youth and adults from the Tsimane' population, an Amazonian society of farmers and foragers currently experiencing nutritional and socioeconomic change. Data from this project, combined with earlier waves of data collection on this population, will be used for growth curve modeling and statistical analysis to evaluate patterns of growth during rapid social and cultural change. Further, the results may be incorporated into disciplines such as developmental biology, pediatrics, as well as global and indigenous health, and therefore may provide insights into global nutrition transitions or contribute to understanding metabolic disorders in the U.S. and globally. The proposed research will contribute to student training, international collaborations, and science outreach in the research community. Human growth is fundamentally a biocultural process that is best understood through a life-history perspective. Life history theory explicitly grapples with how trade-offs between competing domains, such as growth, reproduction, and maintenance serve to enhance survival and reproduction in dynamic environments. Less research has focused explicitly on how growth patterns may be shaped by local conditions and, by extension, the relationship between early life growth trajectories and potential trade-offs that may result in downstream health outcomes. The investigators will collect, from across thirteen Tsimane' communities, demographic, economic, dietary, and nutritional information, as well as anthropometric measures of body composition (height, weight, skinfold measurements) for all participants, physical activity data and resting metabolic rate on a sub-sample of youth and adults, and blood pressure for all adults. Combining these data with a large, publically available longitudinal data set (Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study) will allow statistical evaluation of hypotheses that build on the standard models of human growth, but incorporate measurements of changing socioeconomic and nutritional environments. Specifically, the hypotheses will evaluate: (1) the relationship between linear growth stunting early in life (2-5 years of age) and later body proportions and fatness, (2) the relationship between stunting and later measures of cardiovascular health (blood pressure) and metabolic rates, and (3) the relationship between household conditions, reliance on purchased foods, physical activity levels, and measures of body fatness.

人类学研究为人类生长的适应性提供了重要见解，但需要更多的研究来了解如何通过改变当地条件和文化因素来塑造人类生长，以便了解早期生活因素对以后生活的生物学结果的影响。如果儿童早期生长的状况与以后的生活结果有关，那么生命早期（2-5岁）的线性生长迟缓与成人的身体比例和脂肪以及后来的心血管功能（血压）和代谢率的测量之间应该存在关系。此外，这种关系在正在经历生活方式和营养转变或饮食和活动水平同时变化的群体中尤其明显。为了检验这些预测，该项目将从 Tsimane 人口中收集有关饮食、活动水平、家庭状况（人口统计信息、财富）、身体成分（身高、体重、体脂）、静息代谢率（能量消耗的衡量标准）和血压的数据。Tsimane 是一个由农民和采集者组成的亚马逊社会，目前正在经历营养和社会经济的变化。该项目的数据与该人群的早期数据收集相结合，将用于增长曲线建模和统计分析，以评估快速社会和文化变革期间的增长模式。此外，研究结果可能会被纳入发育生物学、儿科以及全球和本土健康等学科，因此可能会提供对全球营养转变的见解或有助于了解美国和全球的代谢紊乱。拟议的研究将有助于学生培训、国际合作和研究界的科学推广。人类成长从根本上来说是一个生物文化过程，最好从生命史的角度来理解。生命史理论明确地解决了生长、繁殖和维持等竞争领域之间的权衡如何有助于增强动态环境中的生存和繁殖。很少有研究明确关注当地条件如何塑造生长模式，以及早期生命生长轨迹与可能导致下游健康结果的潜在权衡之间的关系。研究人员将从 Tsimane 的 13 个社区收集人口、经济、饮食和营养信息，以及所有参与者的身体成分（身高、体重、皮褶测量）的人体测量数据、青少年和成人子样本的体力活动数据和静息代谢率，以及所有成年人的血压。将这些数据与公开的大型纵向数据集（Tsimane 的亚马逊小组研究）相结合，将能够对基于人类生长标准模型的假设进行统计评估，但纳入了不断变化的社会经济和营养环境的测量结果。具体来说，这些假设将评估：（1）生命早期（2-5岁）线性生长迟缓与后来的身体比例和脂肪之间的关系，（2）发育迟缓与后来的心血管健康指标（血压）和代谢率之间的关系，以及（3）家庭条件、对购买食物的依赖、体力活动水平和身体脂肪指标之间的关系。