The first 1000 days of life: prenatal and postnatal risk factors for morbidity and growth in a birth cohort in southern India.

Objective: To estimate the burden and assess prenatal and postnatal determinants of illnesses experienced by children residing in a semiurban slum, during the first 1000 days of life.

Design: Community-based birth cohort

Setting: Southern India

Participants: Four hundred and ninety-seven children of 561 pregnant women recruited and followed for 2 years with surveillance and anthropometry.

Main Outcome Measure: Incidence rates of illness; rates of clinic visits and hospitalisations; factors associated with low birth weight, various illnesses and growth.

Burden of childhood diseases and malnutrition in a semi-urban slum in southern India.

Background: India has seen rapid unorganized urbanization in the past few decades. However, the burden of childhood diseases and malnutrition in such populations is difficult to quantify. The morbidity experience of children living in semi-urban slums of a southern Indian city is described.