Person: Belachew, T.
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Belachew
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Belachew, T.
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- Spatial farming systems diversity and micronutrient intakes of rural children in Ethiopia(Wiley, 2022) Moges, T.; Brouwer, I.; Delbiso, T.D.; Remans, R.; Baudron, F.; Belachew, T.; Groot, J.
Publication - Soil zinc is associated with serum zinc but not with linear growth of children in Ethiopia(MDPI, 2019) Tessema, M.; De Groote, H.; Brouwer, I.; Feskens, E.; Belachew, T.; Zerfu, D.; Belay, A.; Demelash, Yoseph; Gunaratna, N.S.To our knowledge, the relationships among soil zinc, serum zinc and children’s linear growth have not been studied geographically or at a national level in any country. We use data from the cross-sectional, nationally representative Ethiopian National Micronutrient Survey (ENMS) (n = 1776), which provided anthropometric and serum zinc (n = 1171) data on children aged 6–59 months. Soil zinc levels were extracted for each child from the digital soil map of Ethiopia, developed by the Africa Soil Information Service. Children’s linear growth was computed using length/height and age converted into Z-scores for height-for-age. Multi-level mixed linear regression models were used for the analysis. Nationally, 28% of children aged 6–59 months were zinc deficient (24% when adjusted for inflammation) and 38% were stunted. Twenty percent of households in the ENMS were located on zinc-deficient soils. Soil zinc (in mg/kg) was positively associated with serum zinc (in µg/dL) (b = 0.9, p = 0.020) and weight-for-height-Z-score (b = 0.05, p = 0.045) but linear growth was not associated with soil zinc (p = 0.604) or serum zinc (p = 0.506) among Ethiopian preschool children. Intervention studies are needed to determine whether there are causal links between soil and human zinc status.
Publication - Associations among high-quality protein and energy intake, serum transthyretin, serum amino acids and linear growth of children in Ethiopia(MDPI, 2018) Tessema, M.; Gunaratna, N.S.; Brouwer, I.; Donato, K.; Cohen, J.L.; Mcconnell, M.; Belachew, T.; Belayneh, D.; De Groote, H.Limited evidence is available on the associations of high-quality protein and energy intake, serum transthyretin (TTR), serum amino acids and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) with linear growth of young children. Data collected during the baseline of a randomized control trial involving rural Ethiopian children aged 6-35 months (n = 873) were analyzed to evaluate the associations among height/length-for-age z-scores, dietary intakes, and these biomarkers (i.e., serum level of TTR, IGF-1, tryptophan and lysine, and inflammation). The prevalence of stunting was higher for children >23 months (38%) than ≤23 months (25%). The prevalence of inflammation was 35% and of intestinal parasites 48%. Three-quarters of the children were energy deficient, and stunted children had lower daily energy intake that non-stunted children (p < 0.05). Intakes of tryptophan, protein, and energy, and serum levels of tryptophan and IGF-1 were positively correlated with the linear growth of children. Controlling for inflammation, intestinal parasites, and sociodemographic characteristics, daily tryptophan (b = 0.01, p = 0.001), protein (b = 0.01, p = 0.01) and energy (b = 0.0003, p = 0.04) intakes and serum TTR (b = 2.58, p = 0.04) and IGF-1 (b = 0.01, p = 0.003) were positively associated with linear growth of children. Linear growth failure in Ethiopian children is likely associated with low quality protein intake and inadequate energy intake. Nutrition programs that emphasize improved protein quantity and quality and energy intake may enhance the linear growth of young children and need to be further investigated in longitudinal and interventional studies.
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