We are becoming increasingly aware of how environmental factors influence children’s early development and health trajectories. We primarily learn directly how ambient conditions, such as air pollution and lack of nutritious food, affect the function of genes and what diseases we may develop over time. I learned this through observational research.
But a new study led by global health researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, provides some of the clearest and most comprehensive evidence to date about what is known about stress physiology and “epigenetic programming.” We provide the following sections. In a large randomized controlled trial conducted in rural Bangladesh, the research team found that an integrated intervention that included drinking water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutrition improved the set point of the physiological stress system in early childhood, reactivity. , was found to affect accommodation.
The survey results are nature communicationsdetails how health interventions are delivered had a measurable effect The study will look at the children studied at a genetic level, including strengthening the functioning of the stress response system, reducing oxidative stress in the body, and reducing DNA methylation levels. Oxidative stress can damage cells, proteins, and DNA, contribute to aging, and can lead to diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Methylation is a chemical modification of DNA or other molecules that is often caused by environmental conditions that can persist during cell division.
Rigorous research design
The study is the latest in a series of findings from a large-scale, ground-breaking study in Bangladesh that looked at more than 5,500 pregnant women and the children they gave birth to. Women were placed in her 720 study cluster and assigned to her one of seven groups. Participants in her four groups received either clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, hand-washing stations, or nutritional counseling and nutritional supplements. Her remaining three groups received water/hygiene/handwashing, a combined water/hygiene/handwashing/nutrition intervention, or no intervention at all (control group).
The researchers said the design and scale of their study, known as the “WASH Benefits Bangladesh” trial, resulted in more scientifically rigorous results than most stress physiology and epigenetic studies conducted to date. ing. Intervention and control groups for comparison.
Audrey Lin, who started at UC Santa Cruz as an assistant professor of microbiology and environmental toxicology in July 2023, said, “Here we see differences in outcomes between the intervention and control groups, but neither It’s also quite large,” he said. “When we began launching his WASH Benefits trial in 2009, its scale was unprecedented in the health and nutrition research field.”
global relevance
Additionally, this study was conducted in a resource-poor region, making it more relevant on a global scale. Much of the previous research has been conducted in high-income countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, where access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities is relatively high compared to other countries around the world.
“This is exactly the situation that the majority of the world’s population faces,” said Scott, who lived in Bangladesh and Kenya for six years to help set up WASH trials and train teams in the field. Lin said. “When this kind of research is done in high-income countries, we don’t get an accurate picture of all the important stressors that can affect children.”
This study also differs from other literature in that it used physical interventions to improve young children’s stress physiology in low-resource settings, rather than psychosocial measures such as behavioral therapy or parent coaching. It’s about being there. By introducing safe drinking water, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition improvements, and showing exactly when and how they change children’s physiology, these measures can be seen by governments as psychosocial interventions. It may be easier to introduce than
Still, Lin said the improvements reported by the team show that physical interventions are comparable to the impact of psychosocial measures. The authors of this study write in their paper:The magnitude of the effects of this environmental and nutritional intervention on cortisol production is within the range of intervention effects of psychosocial interventions reported in early childhood.”
Lin explained that even greater health benefits could be achieved by combining these physical and psychosocial interventions.
Continuation of research
The WASH Benefits trial enrolled its first participant in 2012, and researchers continue to monitor participants. The hope is that this trial will develop into a longitudinal study that will allow researchers to see the downstream effects of physiological changes caused by interventions introduced during the first two years of life.
“We often hear that what happens in the womb can have a lifelong impact, especially when it comes to health and the development of certain diseases,” Lin says. “The experimental design of this trial serves as a powerful platform for finding associations between our early interventions and the health outcomes of our study participants.”
Lin will be teaching her first course on research methodology at UC Santa Cruz in the fall.It will be kept on campus. Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicologyincluded as part of an interdisciplinary program Global and community health programs.
The study, “Cluster Randomized Trial of Water, Hygiene, Handwashing, and Nutritional Interventions on Stress and Epigenetic Programming,” was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. .
