Activity levels and maternal-child behavior in undernutrition: studies in Jamaica

ABSTRACT

It has been well established that children suffering from severe or moderate protein energy malnutrition in early childhood show delayed development, but the mechanisms linking undernutrition to poor development are not well understood. One holds that undernutrition causes irreversible central nervous system changes that affect function... The authors have recently reviewed, in detail, studies on activity and undernutrition n children. This work will briefly review the literature on activity levels and behavior in undernourished children and then describe two Jamaican studies that addresses aspects of the functional isolation hypothesis. Activity levels will be discussed first, then, other behaviors