Developmental delays affect between 150 and 200 million children <5 years of age worldwide. Outside of diet supplement studies, relatively little is known about the relationships between diet quality and developmental status in resource-poor settings. We examined associations between different aspects of dietary quality (dietary diversity score [DDS] and animal-source food [ASF] consumption) and child development (assessed using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3 [ASQ-3]) among children whose families were enrolled in a community development intervention trial (implemented by Heifer Nepal) in western Nepal. Two sets of analyses were performed: (a) cross-sectional Sample (N = 629) seen at the endline survey and (b) longitudinal sample (N = 269) with complete dietary records (six surveys over 48 months). In both samples, child development was significantly related to household wealth, maternal education, and especially home environmental quality. In the cross-sectional sample, greater consumption of eggs (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.80, p = .04) or dairy products (aOR 0.95, p = .05) over the previous 7 days significantly reduced odds of low total ASQ score, by logistic regression analysis. In the longitudinal sample, only egg consumption and cumulative DDS and ASF scores were associated with significantly reduced odds of low total ASQ score (aORs 0.59-0.89). In adjusted linear regression analysis, both cumulative DDS (β [CI]: 1.92 [0.4, 3.5]) and ASF scores (2.46 [0.3, 4.7]) were significantly associated with greater continuous total child development. Programmes targeting child development must address home environmental quality as well as long-term diet quality.

中文翻译：

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随着时间的推移，饮食质量与尼泊尔农村儿童的更好发展有关。

发育迟缓影响了全球1.5亿至2亿名5岁以下的儿童。在饮食补充研究之外，对于资源匮乏地区的饮食质量与发育状况之间的关系知之甚少。我们研究了家庭中儿童的饮食质量（饮食多样性评分[DDS]和动物源食品[ASF]消费）与儿童发育（使用年龄和阶段问卷3 [ASQ-3]评估）不同方面之间的关联。参加了尼泊尔西部的社区发展干预试验（由小母牛尼泊尔实施）。进行了两组分析：（a）在最终调查中看到的横断面样本（N = 629）和（b）具有完整饮食记录的纵断面样本（N = 269）（48个月内进行了六次调查）。在两个样本中 儿童发展与家庭财富，孕产妇教育，尤其是家庭环境质量密切相关。在该横截面样本中，在过去的7天中，鸡蛋（调整后的优势比[aOR] 0.80，p = .04）或乳制品（aOR 0.95，p = .05）的大量食用显着降低了总ASQ得分低的几率，通过逻辑回归分析。在纵向样本中，只有鸡蛋消耗量和累积DDS和ASF得分与总ASQ得分低的几率显着降低有关（aOR为0.59-0.89）。在调整后的线性回归分析中，累积DDS（β[CI]：1.92 [0.4，3.5]）和ASF分数（2.46 [0.3，4.7]）均与更大的持续儿童总体发育显着相关。针对儿童发展的计划必须解决家庭环境质量以及长期饮食质量问题。