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The Bacon Chow Study: Effects of Maternal Nutritional Supplementation on Infant Mental and Motor Development

Over the past 15 years, four large-scale experimental nutritional supplementation studies have been conducted in Guatemala, Bogota, New York City, and Taiwan (1-3). Each of these studies included some control over dietary intake, longitudinal evaluations, and measurements of the effects of maternal supplementation on the behavioural development of infants and children. However, the results of the Taiwan study have not been available because of the death in 1973 of the principal investigator, Dr. Bacon Chow of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. In 1967 Dr. Chow initiated a study in Taiwan to determine whether a protein and calorie supplement to mothers during pregnancy and lactation would have a beneficial effect on the growth and development of their infants. Because experiments with rats indicated that protein deficits in the maternal diet during pregnancy and lactation had the greatest negative effects on physical and behavioural development, the primary aim was to study supplementation of the diets of mothers who had a marginal protein intake rather than of obviously undernourished mothers (4). A rural population in Taiwan with low protein intake but no frank malnutrition was chosen, and the study was conducted over a 6 1/2-year period, from 1967 to 1973. Associates of Dr. Chow have published preliminary findings (5, 61. Further analyses of dietary and supplement intake, birth weight, growth, and behavioural development have been completed since Dr. Ernesto Pollitt received a copy of the data tapes in 1978 (7-11). A summary of the results of an analysis of the effects of maternal supplementation on the mental and motor development of the Taiwan infants at eight months of age is presented here. METHODS