Abstract

Sub-Saharan African populations are experiencing the fastest rise in the prevalence obesity while the prevalence of stunting in growth has remained persistently high. Longitudinal data play a key role in our understanding of variations in physical growth during the lifecourse and have improved our understanding of the drivers of malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases. However, longitudinal studies remain particularly scarce in Africa.

The Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) cohort study, launched in 1990 in South Africa in Johannesburg in the neighborhoods of the South Western Township (Soweto), has scrutinised the growth and development of 3271 children and their caregivers from the early days of the democratical transition in South Africa to the present days. It is the longest and largest running birth cohort in Africa, providing a unique insight of the potential impact on growth, development, and health on three generations of the unprecedented demographic, nutritional and epidemiologic transitions in South Africa over the last 30 years. This seminar will also cover analytical methods used to analyse growth data from the BT20 + cohort while referencing important and new methods used in nutritional epidemiology, including: growth modelling, linking longitudinal environmental data to longitudinal growth data, and the use of panel data.