Peer-reviewed article
Nutritional status of children aged 6-59 mo born to mothers treated for severe acute malnutrition in childhood: an observational Lwiro cohort study in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chimanuka Murhima'alika C, Chiribagula Zalinga C, Neven A, Amani G, Mwene-Batu P et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined children aged 6-59 months born to mothers who had experienced severe acute malnutrition in their own childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children whose mothers had childhood malnutrition were significantly more likely to be malnourished themselves, with higher rates of global acute malnutrition, severe acute malnutrition, stunting, and being underweight. The findings suggest that maternal childhood malnutrition has lasting effects on the next generation's nutritional status, even after adjusting for current household conditions and maternal body mass index.
Key points
- Global acute malnutrition was 31.4% in children of exposed mothers versus 15.4% in unexposed (odds ratio 2.50)
- Severe acute malnutrition was 12.9% in exposed versus 6.5% in unexposed children (odds ratio not separately stated but significant)
- Stunting was 54.5% in exposed versus 39.5% in unexposed children (odds ratio 1.79)
- Underweight was 32.0% in exposed versus 19.4% in unexposed children (odds ratio 2.02)
- After adjustment for household type, age, and maternal BMI, global acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition remained significantly higher in the exposed group
Limitations
This is an observational study without experimental design, so causation cannot be established. The study cannot determine which specific mechanisms (biological, socioeconomic, or behavioral) explain why maternal childhood malnutrition predicts offspring malnutrition.
Abstract
Background Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is one of the main causes of child mortality, but little is known about the condition of the offspring of survivors. Objectives This study aimed to describe the nutritional status of children born to mothers who were exposed to childhood SAM. Methods This was an observational cohort study of children aged 6-59 mo drawn from the Lwiro cohort in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from March to May 2019. Exposure was defined as having a mother exposed to childhood SAM or not. We measured anthropometric parameters (weight, height, middle upper arm circumference) and edema to evaluate malnutrition. Child health indicators were assessed, as well as hemoglobin, human immunodeficiency virus serology, and parasitic infestation rates. Linear, binary, and ordinal logistic regressions with clustered robust standard errors were used to analyze differences between exposed and unexposed for continuous and dichotomous variables and malnutrition, respectively. Results A total of 178 exposed and 124 unexposed children were included. Median age of exposed and unexposed children was 27.1 mo and 24.3 mo, respectively. Females were 47.2% exposed and 54.0% unexposed (P = 0.161). Global acute malnutrition (GAM) and SAM were respectively 31.4% and 12.9% in exposed compared with 15.4% and 6.5% in unexposed [odds ratio (OR): 2.50; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.36, 4.59; P = 0.003]. Stunting was 54.5% in exposed compared with 39.5% in unexposed (OR: 1.79; 95% CI: 1.11, 2.89; P = 0.018). Underweight was 32.0% in exposed compared with 19.4% in unexposed (OR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.14, 3.56; P = 0.015). Adjusting for household type, age, and maternal body mass index, we observed persistence of GAM prevalence with SAM in unexposed 14.2 (95% CI: 8.3, 20.2), compared with 6.5 (95% CI: 2.9, 10.1) in unexposed, P = 0.010. No significant differences in prevalence were observed for anemia and intestinal parasitosis. Conclusions In DRC, children whose mothers had been exposed to childhood malnutrition had a higher prevalence of malnutrition than children born to unexposed mothers. GAM and stunting exceed the extreme severity threshold set by the World Health Organization.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Observational comparison of nutritional status in children aged 6-59 months born to mothers with versus without childhood severe acute malnutrition exposure
- Population
- Children aged 6-59 months in the Lwiro cohort, Democratic Republic of Congo; 178 exposed and 124 unexposed children
Key finding
Global acute malnutrition: 31.4% exposed vs 15.4% unexposed (OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.36-4.59, P=0.003)
C et al. · Europe PMC · 26 Sept 2025