Malnutrition and mental development

Abstract

To determine if chronic, but not severe, undernutrition modifies behavior and mental capacity of preschool children, two groups of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds and nutritional status were studied. A high incidence of retardation in psychomotor development was observed in the group from the lower socioeconomic level. The degree of retardation was directly related to the amount of animal protein consumed and also to the retardation of physical and cranial growth. The results, although they do not allow the formulation of definite conclusions, suggest that chronic undernutrition in the child acts in a negative way upon mental and psychomotor maturation.