See corresponding editorial on page 1375. Postinfancy growth, schooling, and cognitive achievement:

Background: Early life growth failure and resulting cognitive def-icits are often assumed to be very difficult to reverse after infancy. Objective: We used data from Young Lives, which is an observa-tional cohort of 8062 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, to determine whether changes in growth after infancy are associated with schooling and cognitive achievement at age 8 y. Design: We represented the growth by height-for-age z score at 1 y [HAZ(1)] and height-for-age z score at 8 y that was not predicted by the HAZ(1). We also characterized growth as recovered (stunted at age 1 y and not at age 8 y), faltered (not stunted at age 1 y and stunted at age 8 y), persistently stunted (stunted at ages 1 and 8 y), or never stunted (not stunted at ages 1 and 8 y). Outcome measures were assessed at age 8 y. Results: The HAZ(1) was inversely associated with overage for grade and positively associated with mathematics achievement, read-ing comprehension, and receptive vocabulary. Unpredicted growth from 1 to 8 y of age was also inversely associated with overage for grade (OR range across countries: 0.80–0.84) and positively associ-ated with mathematics achievement (effect-size range: 0.05–0.10), reading comprehension (0.02–0.10), and receptive vocabulary (0.04–0.08). Children who recovered in linear growth had better out-comes than did children who were persistently stunted but were not generally different from children who experienced growth faltering. Conclusions: Improvements in child growth after early faltering might have significant benefits on schooling and cognitive achieve-ment. Hence, although early interventions remain critical, interven-tions to improve the nutrition of preprimary and early primary school–age children also merit consideration. Am J Clin Nutr 2013;98:1555–63