Early-Life Nutrition Increases Intellectual Function

ATLANTA—According to a recent prospective cohort study at Emory University, improved early-life nutrition is associated with increased intellectual functioning in adulthood after taking into account the effect of schooling (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(7):612-618). The subjects were individuals who had participated as children in a nutrition supplementation intervention trial from March 1, 1969, through February 28, 1977 (n=2392). From May 1, 2002, through April 30, 2004, adequate information for analysis was obtained from 1,448 of 2,118 individuals (68.4 percent) not known to have died. Individuals exposed to atole (a protein-rich enhanced nutrition supplement) at birth to 24 months of age were compared with those exposed to the supplement at other ages or to fresco, a sugar-sweetened beverage. In models controlling for years of schooling and other predictors of intellectual functioning, exposure to atole at birth to 24 months of age was associated with an increase of 3.46 points and 1.74 points on the InterAmerican Series and Raven Progressive Matrices tests, respectively. There was no statistical interaction between exposure to atole at birth to age 24 months and years of schooling on either outcome (P=0.24 and P=0.60, respectively).