Early nutrition, growth and cognitive development of infants from birth to 2 years in Malaysia: a study protocol.
BACKGROUND
The first 2 years of life is a critical period of rapid growth and brain development. During this period, nutrition and environmental factors play important roles in growth and cognitive development of a child. This report describes the study protocol of early nutrition, growth and cognitive development of infants from birth to 2 years of age.


METHODS
This is a prospective cohort study of mothers and infants recruited from government health clinics in Seremban district in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Infants are followed-up at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Pre-natal factors that include mother's pre-pregnancy body mass index, gestational weight gain, blood glucose and blood pressure during pregnancy, infant's gestational age, birth weight and head circumference at birth are obtained from patient card. Post-natal factors assessed at each follow-up are feeding practices, dietary intake, anthropometric measurements and cognitive development of infants. Iron status is assessed at 6 months, while infant temperament and home environment are assessed at 12 months. Maternal intelligence is assessed at 18 months.


CONCLUSIONS
Early life nutritional programming is of current interest as many longitudinal studies are actively being conducted in developed countries to investigate this concept. The concept however is relatively new in developing countries such as Malaysia. This study will provide useful information on early nutrition and infant development in the first two years of life which can be further followed up to identify factors that track into childhood and contribute to growth and cognitive deviations.
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Abdul Razak
AR
Nurliyana
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. zalilahms@upm.edu.my.|Research Centre of Excellence, Nutrition and Non-Communicable Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. zalilahms@upm.edu.my.
Zalilah
Z
Mohd Shariff
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.|Research Centre of Excellence, Nutrition and Non-Communicable Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Mohd Nasir
MN
Mohd Taib
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Wan Ying
WY
Gan
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Kit-Aun
KA
Tan
Cognitive development; Cohort study; Early life nutrition; Growth; Infants
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