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What Makes Children Grow?
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What Makes Children Grow?

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Children's Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (2 November 2021) | Viewed by 10249

Special Issue Editors

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christiane Scheffler

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Guest Editor
University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Human Biology
Interests: human growth and development, social environment, nutrition
Prof. Dr. Michael Hermanussen

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Guest Editor
Christian-Albrecht-University Kiel, 24098 Kiel, Germany
Interests: Clinical and research paediatrician, child growth and development, nutrition
Dr. Detlef Groth

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Guest Editor
University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany
Interests: biostatistics, human growth
Prof. Barry Bogin

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Guest Editor
School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, UK
Interests: human growth, evolution, biocultural anthropology, nutrition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Young people do need food to grow, but young people and pregnant women also need the type of support and care that comes from the healthy social–economic–political–emotional environments (SEPE). People need the physical and emotional security of knowing that they will have a diet that meets all nutrient requirements, the security of good water, sanitation, and protection from infection, and the security of other material safeguards, such as adequate housing. Families require secure livelihoods to ensure their emotional and physical needs. These are the minimal requirements. However, these alone do not make for a healthy, well-grown person. People also need self-confidence and to be loved. Healthy human growth is a ‘love story’. ‘Love’ has many meanings. Here, we focus only on those that relate to the biocultural needs of people and child growth. Pregnant women, infants, and children lacking social–emotional security and love suffer growth failure, even death, despite having physical necessities. Human growth is successful only with true wellbeing and the opportunity to participate in healthy social and community environments, including appropriate informal and formal education, and hope for the future.

This Special Issue integrates research from multiple perspectives to better understand ‘what makes children grow’ and how best to intervene when growth falters. Examples of articles to be included are: (1) Growth towards a Target, or Growth within a Frame? (2) Educational Effects on Height are not Mediated via Nutrition: Evidence from Indian and Indonesian Child Growth Data; (3) No Relevant Length*Weight Cross-Correlation in Frequently Measured Growth Data; (4) The Conundrum of Multiple Correlations. Calculating Association Chains by St. Nicolas House Analysis; (5) Separating Relevant Associations between Environmental Factors in Low and Middle Income Countries, and Child Growth by St. Nicolas House Analysis; (6) Fear, Violence, Inequality and Stunting in Guatemala.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christiane Scheffler
Prof. Dr. Michael Hermanussen
Dr. Detlef Groth
Prof. Barry Bogin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • stunting
  • biocultural
  • St Nicholas House Analysis
  • growth target
  • community effects
  • strategic growth adjustment
  • SEPE

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3874 KiB  
Article
Chain Reversion for Detecting Associations in Interacting Variables—St. Nicolas House Analysis
by Michael Hermanussen, Christian Aßmann and Detlef Groth
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(4), 1741; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041741 - 11 Feb 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 2817
Abstract
(1) Background: We present a new statistical approach labeled as “St. Nicolas House Analysis” (SNHA) for detecting and visualizing extensive interactions among variables. (2) Method: We rank absolute bivariate correlation coefficients in descending order according to magnitude and create hierarchic “association chains” defined [...] Read more.
(1) Background: We present a new statistical approach labeled as “St. Nicolas House Analysis” (SNHA) for detecting and visualizing extensive interactions among variables. (2) Method: We rank absolute bivariate correlation coefficients in descending order according to magnitude and create hierarchic “association chains” defined by sequences where reversing start and end point does not alter the ordering of elements. Association chains are used to characterize dependence structures of interacting variables by a graph. (3) Results: SNHA depicts association chains in highly, but also in weakly correlated data, and is robust towards spurious accidental associations. Overlapping association chains can be visualized as network graphs. Between independent variables significantly fewer associations are detected compared to standard correlation or linear model-based approaches. (4) Conclusion: We propose reversible association chains as a principle to detect dependencies among variables. The proposed method can be conceptualized as a non-parametric statistical method. It is especially suited for secondary data analysis as only aggregate information such as correlations matrices are required. The analysis provides an initial approach for clarifying potential associations that may be subject to subsequent hypothesis testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue What Makes Children Grow?)
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13 pages, 1418 KiB  
Article
Stunting as a Synonym of Social Disadvantage and Poor Parental Education
by Christiane Scheffler, Michael Hermanussen, Sugi Deny Pranoto Soegianto, Alexandro Valent Homalessy, Samuel Yan Touw, Sevany Isabella Angi, Queen Sugih Ariyani, Tjahyo Suryanto, Giovanni Kathlix Immanuel Matulessy, Taolin Fransiskus, Andrea V. Ch. Safira, Maria Natalia Puteri, Rani Rahmani, Debora Natalia Ndaparoka, Maria Kurniati Ester Payong, Yohannes Dian Indrajati, Reynardo Kurnia Hadiyanto Purba, Regina Maya Manubulu, Madarina Julia and Aman B. Pulungan
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(3), 1350; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031350 - 2 Feb 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 6613
Abstract
Socially, economically, politically and emotionally (SEPE) disadvantaged children are shorter than children from affluent background. In view of previous work on the lack of association between nutrition and child growth, we performed a study in urban schoolchildren. We measured 723 children (5.83 to [...] Read more.
Socially, economically, politically and emotionally (SEPE) disadvantaged children are shorter than children from affluent background. In view of previous work on the lack of association between nutrition and child growth, we performed a study in urban schoolchildren. We measured 723 children (5.83 to 13.83 years); Kupang, Indonesia; three schools with different social background. We investigated anthropometric data, clinical signs of malnutrition, physical fitness, parental education, and household equipment. Subjective self-confidence was assessed by the MacArthur test. The prevalence of stunting was between 8.5% and 46.8%. Clinical signs of under- or malnutrition were absent even in the most underprivileged children. There was no delay in tooth eruption. Underprivileged children are physically fitter than the wealthy. The correlation between height and state of nutrition (BMI_SDS, skinfold_SDS, MUAC_SDS) ranged between r = 0.69 (p < 0.01) and r = 0.43 (p < 0.01) in private school children, and between r = 0.07 (ns) and r = 0.32 (p < 0.01) in the underprivileged children. Maternal education interacted with height in affluent (r = 0.20, p < 0.01) and in underprivileged children (r = 0.20, p < 0.01). The shortness of SEPE disadvantaged children was not associated with anthropometric and clinical signs of malnutrition, nor with delay in physical development. Stunting is a complex phenomenon and may be considered a synonym of social disadvantage and poor parental education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue What Makes Children Grow?)
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