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Event Description

An overview of a research proposal on to investigate child stunting and its association with environmental enteric dysfunction in Indonesia.

Abstract

When infants are raised in sub-optimal conditions, their linear growth rate slows, leading to stunted growth. This affects nearly a quarter of children globally, and around 30% of children in Indonesia. Children that are stunted are at greater risk of non-communicable disease in adulthood, give birth to stunted children, and have lower cognitive performance and educational attainment. One of the strongest correlates of stunting is poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) conditions. It has been thought that the link between WASH and stunting is through diarrhoea, but recent high-powered randomised controlled trials have demonstrated that this is unlikely. Leading research is now suggesting that the link between WASH and stunting is through environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) - chronic exposure to faecal pathogens resulting in changes in small-intestinal morphology and function, ultimately causing linear growth faltering. Little is known about EED and its association with growth faltering in Indonesia where erroneous food supplementation programs are the predominant intervention to stunting. This thesis will aim to investigate linear growth faltering patterns and EED in Indonesia.

Speaker Bio

Mr Callum Lowe is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Applied Epidemiology at NCEPH. He completed his Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) - Science at the ANU in 2021 and then worked as a research assistant in the former Department of Global Health. His research to date has pertained to maternal and child nutrition and infectious diseases of poverty and their relationship with poor sanitary and hygiene conditions.