title: Risk factors affecting child cognitive development: a summary of nutrition, environment, and maternal-child interaction indicators for sub-Saharan Africa.
abstract: An estimated 200 million children worldwide fail to meet their development potential due to poverty, poor health and unstimulating environments. Missing developmental milestones has lasting effects on adult human capital. Africa has a large burden of risk factors for poor child development. The objective of this paper is to identify scope for improvement at the country level in three domains--nutrition, environment, and mother-child interactions. We used nationally representative data from large-scale surveys, data repositories and country reports from 2000 to 2014. Overall, there was heterogeneity in performance across domains, suggesting that each country faces distinct challenges in addressing risk factors for poor child development. Data were lacking for many indicators, especially in the mother-child interaction domain. There is a clear need to improve routine collection of high-quality, country-level indicators relevant to child development to assess risk and track progress.
authors.affiliation: 1Nutrition and Health Sciences,Laney Graduate School,Emory University,Atlanta,GA,USA.
authors.forename: N D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6463-5094
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.affiliation: 1Nutrition and Health Sciences,Laney Graduate School,Emory University,Atlanta,GA,USA.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Stein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004782:Environmental Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Africa; child development; human capital