How childhood nutrition affects health, thinking, and life outcomes by middle age
Official title: The impact of early-life nutrition on socioeconomic status, physical health and cognitive function through middle age
Funded at Emory University · NIH-11515104 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project compares people who got extra nutrition as children with those who did not to understand differences in health, thinking, and life outcomes in middle age.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Emory University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Atlanta, United States) |
| Project start | March 15, 2023 |
| Project end | February 29, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $120,000 |
| NIH project number | 3R01AG079990-04S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11515104 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are adults now in their late 40s to mid-60s who were participants in the original Guatemalan nutrition trial or had documented early-life nutrition interventions like it.
✕Less likely to help
Young children, people outside the middle-age range, or those without documented early-life nutrition exposure are unlikely to directly benefit from participating in this specific project.
What this research studies
This project follows people who took part in a nutrition program in Guatemala that began in 1969 and compares those who received supplements as children with those who did not. Researchers will use decades of follow-up data and recent health and cognitive measures collected when participants are 47–64 years old to look at physical health, thinking skills, and socioeconomic outcomes. They will examine both current levels and changes from early adulthood to middle age to see how early nutrition shaped long-term aging. Because the original program randomly assigned supplementation, the results can more clearly link childhood nutrition to later-life outcomes.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could show whether improving childhood nutrition helps reduce age-related declines and inform programs that boost lifelong health and functioning.
How similar studies have gone: Prior research has linked childhood undernutrition to worse schooling, cognition, and earnings in early adulthood, but extending those findings into middle age using experimental long-term data is less common.
Where this research is happening
-
Emory University
Atlanta, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Stein, Aryeh David — Emory University
- Study coordinator: Stein, Aryeh David
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.