Navigating the complexity of a collaborative, system-wide public health programme: learning from a longitudinal qualitative evaluation of the ActEarly City Collaboratory.

Background: Addressing the upstream social determinants of health (e.g. built environment, education) can reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.

Inequalities in adiposity trends between 1979 and 1999 in Guatemalan children.

Background: Guatemala suffered from civil war and high levels of inequality and childhood stunting in the second half of the 20th century, but little is known about inequalities in secular trends in adiposity.

Objectives: To investigate differences in childhood body mass index (BMI) and skinfold thickness trajectories from 1979 to 1999 between three groups of children: High socioeconomic position (SEP) Ladino, Low SEP Ladino, and Low SEP Indigenous Maya.

Methods: The sample comprised 19 346 children aged 7-17 years with 54 638 observations.

Meta-evaluation of a whole systems programme, ActEarly: A study protocol.

Introduction: Living in an area with high levels of child poverty predisposes children to poorer mental and physical health. ActEarly is a 5-year research programme that comprises a large number of interventions (>20) with citizen science and co-production embedded. It aims to improve the health and well-being of children and families living in two areas of the UK with high levels of deprivation; Bradford in West Yorkshire, and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Development of Public Health Core Outcome Sets for Systems-Wide Promotion of Early Life Health and Wellbeing.

We aimed to develop a core outcome set (COS) for systems-wide public health interventions seeking to promote early life health and wellbeing. Research was embedded within the existing systems-based intervention research programme 'ActEarly', located in two different areas with high rates of child poverty, Bradford (West Yorkshire) and the Borough of Tower Hamlets (London). 168 potential outcomes were derived from five local government outcome frameworks, a community-led survey and an ActEarly consortium workshop.

Growth delay: an alternative measure of population health based on child height distributions.

Background: Indicators of child height, such as mean height-for-age -scores (HAZ), height-for-age difference (HAD) and stunting prevalence, do not account for differences in population-average bone developmental stage.

Aim: Propose a measure of child height that conveys the dependency of linear growth on stage rather than chronological age.

Subjects And Methods: Using Demographic and Health Surveys (2000-2018; 64 countries), we generated: (1) predicted HAZ at specific ages (HAZ regressed on age); (2) height-age (age at which mean height matches the WHO Growth Standards median); (3) Growth delay (GD), the difference between chronological age and height-age; (4) HAD; and (5) stunting prevalence.

Early childhood weight gain: Latent patterns and body composition outcomes.

Background: Despite early childhood weight gain being a key indicator of obesity risk, we do not have a good understanding of the different patterns that exist.

Objectives: To identify and characterise distinct groups of children displaying similar early-life weight trajectories.

Methods: A growth mixture model captured heterogeneity in weight trajectories between 0 and 60 months in 1390 children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Distinct Body Mass Index Trajectories to Young-Adulthood Obesity and Their Different Cardiometabolic Consequences.

[Figure: see text].

How can two biological variables have opposing secular trends, yet be positively related? A demonstration using timing of puberty and adult height.

Timing of puberty and adult height have opposing secular trends yet are positively associated in individuals. We demonstrate this using data from a single sample and discuss possible statistical and epidemiological reasons behind it. The sample comprised 365 females from Fels Longitudinal Study born 1929-1992.

Differences and secular trends in childhood IQ trajectories in Guatemala City.

This study documents differences in childhood IQ trajectories of Guatemala City children, aged 6-15 years and born 1961-1993, according to school attended, height-for-age -scores (HAZ) and over time (Flynn effect). IQ data come from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala Longitudinal Study of Child and Adolescent Development. IQ was measured using standardised tests from the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Test-series.

Life course associations of height, weight, fatness, grip strength, and all-cause mortality for high socioeconomic status Guatemalans.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between physical growth in preadult life with five outcomes at ages 64 to 76: weight, body mass index (BMI), estimated body fat percentage, hand grip strength, and mortality.

Methods: Super-imposition by translation and rotation (SITAR) growth curves of 40 484 Guatemalan individuals aged 3 to 19 years were modeled for the parameters of size, timing and intensity (peak growth velocity, eg, cm/year) of height, weight, BMI, and grip strength. Associations between the SITAR parameters and old age outcomes were tested using linear and binary logistic regression for a follow-up sample of high socioeconomic status (SES) Guatemalans, of whom 50 were aged 64 to 76 years at re-measurement and 45 died prior to the year 2017.

Instability in longitudinal childhood IQ scores of Guatemalan high SES individuals born between 1941-1953.

Childhood IQ has been used to predict later life outcomes across disciplines in epidemiology, education, and psychology. Most often only a single childhood IQ test is available or is used for these purposes in the belief that IQ is stable across the life course. The primary aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal stability of individuals' IQ test scores derived from school-age tests.

Smaller long bone cross-sectional size in people who died of tuberculosis: Insights on frailty factors from a 19th and early 20th century Finnish population.

There is little research on how individuals suffering from tuberculosis may differ from those not infected in terms of overall skeletal morphology. Tuberculosis was endemic in 19th and early 20th century Finland making documented skeletal collections of Finns ideal to study effects of the disease on bone. The present study compares long bone cross-sectional total area between individuals who died of tuberculosis and those with another recorded cause of death in a Finnish sample.