New research shows early childhood interventions have lasting positive effects
- 2 min. read ▪ Published
Recent research co-authored by UC Berkeley School of Public Health Epidemiology postdoctoral scholar Helen Pitchik and Community Health Sciences Professor Lia Fernald showed that sanitation and nutrition benefits children received before age two have lasting, positive effects.
The study was a follow up five years after the completion of an earlier two-year sanitation and nutrition intervention trial in Bangladesh, originally implemented in 2012 and co-led by Jack Colford at UC Berkeley and Steve Luby at Stanford. This initial study was supported by a five-year, $10.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to evaluate several interventions to combat diarrheal disease in developing countries. Researchers found that individual or combined water, handwashing, sanitation, and nutrition interventions during pregnancy and after birth improved developmental outcomes of children at one and two years of age.
That study compared the outcomes of children born to groups of women who received interventions from pregnancy to age two including chlorinated water, handwashing with soap, upgraded sanitation, and nutrition counselling and supplements, in various configurations. These groups were compared to children whose mothers received no interventions.
After two years of intervention, the researchers assessed the participating children and found that the interventions reduced diarrhea and improved child development for the children now aged two years.
Researchers were interested to know if these early impacts on child development would be sustained to school age. As there is currently sparse evidence on what interventions work to improve longer-term child development outcomes, this large rigorously designed and implemented intervention trial was an ideal setting to test this question.
Between September 2019 and February 2021, five years after the initial interventions ended, the new group of researchers was able to conduct a full set of child development assessments on 3,833 children. Children who had received interventions before age two had improved child development scores compared to those who had not. They also had improved prosocial behaviors, such as sharing and being considerate, and reduced difficult behaviors. However “no intervention effects were observed for fine motor, executive functioning, or school achievement outcomes.”
“We found small, sustained benefits of water, sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition interventions delivered in early life (from pregnancy through age two) on child cognitive and social-emotional outcomes, maternal mental health, and stimulation in the home environment when children are school-aged (seven years of age),” said Pitchik. “With a goal of informing interventions and policies that can work to improve children’s outcomes over the life course, this study adds important evidence on an approach that could confer long term benefits for child well-being.”
