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Childhood starvation occurs worldwide, and we need to understand the effects of malnutrition on later development. These investigators compared cognitive development and school performance in 1559 children at ages 3 and 11 years with food-intake levels at age 3; the children were born from 1969 to 1970 on the island of Mauritius.
Indicators of malnutrition were anemia (hemoglobin [Hgb] level, <8.5g/dL); kwashiorkor (protein depletion); sparse, thin hair; and angular stomatitis (a sign of vitamin A and B deficiencies). At least one indicator was identified in 22.6% of children; low Hgb was the most common (17.0%), and the others occurred in 5.8% to 7.0% of children. Researchers controlled for psychosocial adversity, which was higher in childr…