Centro de Excelencia en Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales, Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Lima, Peru.
Facultad de Economía y Planificación, Universidad Nacional Agraria de la Molina, Lima, Peru.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 18;16(2):e0246542. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246542. eCollection 2021.
To estimate the impact of stunting on the development of effective verbal communication (EVC) in children aged 24 to 36 months.
We conducted a retrospective, quasi-experimental study design using data from 4452 children between 24 and 36 months of age available in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) section of the Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES) 2019 survey. Achievement of EVC was considered as the dependent variable. After propensity score matching analysis, a total 601 children were included in the exposed (children with stunting) and 3848 in the unexposed group (children without stunting). The psmatch2 Stata software command was used to estimate the impact of stunting on EVC with a level of 5% for significance.
The EVC indicator was achieved by 57.4% of the children between 24 and 36 months of age evaluated, while the prevalence of stunting in this population was 14%. The evaluation of impact showed that the group exposed to stunting was 8% less likely to show EVC compared to the unexposed group (ATT -0.08; 95% CI -0.106 to -0.054; p<0.001).
The presence of stunting was found to have a significant impact on the propensity to show EVC in Peruvian children between 24 and 36 months of age. Strengthening of strategies for reducing malnutrition in vulnerable areas, as well as those directly affecting EVC is a priority for diminishing gaps in the achievement of this indicator in our country.
评估发育迟缓对 24 至 36 个月儿童有效语言交流（EVC）发展的影响。
我们使用 2019 年人口与家庭健康调查（ENDES）早期儿童发展（ECD）部分中 4452 名 24 至 36 个月儿童的数据进行了回顾性准实验研究设计。EVC 的实现被视为因变量。在倾向评分匹配分析后，共有 601 名儿童纳入暴露组（发育迟缓儿童），3848 名儿童纳入非暴露组（无发育迟缓儿童）。使用 psmatch2 Stata 软件命令估计发育迟缓对 EVC 的影响，显著性水平为 5%。
24 至 36 个月评估的儿童中，有 57.4%达到 EVC 指标，而该人群中发育迟缓的患病率为 14%。影响评估显示，与未暴露组相比，暴露于发育迟缓的组显示 EVC 的可能性低 8%（ATT-0.08；95%CI-0.106 至-0.054；p<0.001）。
在秘鲁 24 至 36 个月儿童中，发育迟缓的存在显著影响了他们表现出 EVC 的倾向。加强在弱势地区减少营养不良的战略，以及直接影响 EVC 的战略，是缩小我国实现这一指标差距的优先事项。
