Associação entre baixa estatura em crianças e transtornos mentais maternos: influência de fatores socioeconômicos

Abstract

Malnutrition is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a cellular imbalance between supply of nutrients and energy and the body's necessary demand for growth, maintenance and specific functions. The short stature in children due to nutritional deficits causes biological repercussions such as the increase of morbidity and mortality and the delay in the motor and cognitive development of the child. Furthermore, these repercussions reflect the social conditions of an entire population, as they are extrapolated to adult life and impair the intellectual performance, work capacity, life expectancy and reproductive outcomes of adult individuals, perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of poverty and malnutrition. Childhood is also the period when there is greater vulnerability to the effects of the mental health problems of their caregivers. Studies in developing countries demonstrate the influence of maternal mental health on child growth. In this way, the promotion of maternal mental health and the treatment of maternal mental disorders offer new opportunities to address the problem of stunting. Thus, the present study had as objective to evaluate the association between the presence of short stature in children from three to six years of age and maternal mental disorders, in two different socioeconomic extracts. Two groups of mother-child dyads (three to six years old) were compared: 1) mother-child dyads with short stature and low socioeconomic status (classes D-E) (G1); 2) eutrophic mother- child dyads and better socioeconomic status (classes B-E) (G2). A total of ninety mother- child dyads were surveyed. Maternal mental disorders that showed statistically significant differences between groups in the univariate analysis were depressive episode (p = 0.029), recurrent depressive episode (p = 0.007), panic disorder (p <0.001) and posttraumatic stress disorder ( p <0.001) in mothers. After adjusting the sociodemographic and economic variables calculated by Poisson regression, the major depressive episode (p = 0.007) and panic disorder (p <0.001) remained significant. This study reinforces the need for further longitudinal research so that we can assess the existence of causality between short stature in children and the depressive episode and panic disorder in populations of low- and middle-income countries. It strengthens the importance of maternal mental health for child growth.