Bahir Dar Child Development Study, Ethiopia

More than 170 million children worldwide under 5 years of age fail to meet their developmental potential. Reduced or impaired neurodevelopment in early life can impact lifelong patterns of cognitive and behavioral development, beginning with early and pre-academic skills that are vital to academic success, achievement, and predictive of later income, health access, and socioeconomic standing. Improved early neurodevelopment, on the other hand, can spark an intergenerational cascade of improved family and child health outcomes. Infant and early childhood neurodevelopment can be impacted by a diverse array of environmental factors beginning from the earliest stages of fetal development. Premature birth, low birth weight, poor maternal health, maternal stress, inadequate maternal and infant nutrition, reduced breastfeeding, exposure to disease, environmental neurotoxicants, and environmental adversity can all shape developing brain systems and impact emerging brain cognitive and behavioral functions. However, there is a gap in our understanding of neurodevelopmental patterns in children across LMIC settings where many neurodevelopmentally impactful adversities are magnified. Increased knowledge of risk and protective factors associated with neurodevelopmental characteristics in children can support the identification of the global and regional factors that drive poor neurodevelopmental outcomes in children and help to inform interventions to improve child outcomes. The Bahir Dar Child Development (BCD) study will characterize patterns of neurodevelopment in a community sample of children in Bahir Dar, Amhara, Ethiopia using a cross-sectional design covering children aged 6 - 60 months. Neuroimaging data collected using a low-field portable MRI scanner will be coupled with neurocognitive assessments and a broad assessment of child and family medical history, nutritional status, socioeconomic standing, and other social determinants of health. These data will be harmonized and integrated with similar data collected from other regions and countries to provide a global map of development and identify important targetable factors that will improve neurodevelopmental outcomes.