Sub-optimal neurodevelopment and adverse child mental health outcomes are important health challenges in India. A team science approach is critical to meet this challenge since
knowledge, resources and skill sharing across domains of nutrition, psychosocial and environmental exposure assessments, and the assessment of the resulting child outcomes is essential to informing an integrated framework.
Aims and Objectives
The aim is to evaluate the independent, cumulative and interaction effects of nutritional, psychosocial and environmental determinants of neurodevelopment and child mental health in diverse settings of North and south India covering urban and rural locations, and to identify the processes by which these determinants are influenced by socioeconomic disparities.
The specific study objectives are:
- To determine the independent, cumulative and interaction effects of nutritional, psychosocial, and environmental pollutants on concurrent and prospective measures of neurodevelopment and child mental health across the Pregnancy-9-year life course in two diverse birth cohorts in India.
- To identify processes through which these determinants interact with specific axes of social inequalities, namely socioeconomic position, gender, social class, health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and other vulnerabilities at the individual, household and neighbourhood levels, to result in differential outcomes.
Funding Agency: Team Science Grant, Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance.