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Many institutions and people have contributed to making possible the research reviewed in this issue of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin. Foremost is the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), which successfully implemented and conducted the two related studies reviewed: the INCAP longitudinal study on the effects of early nutrition supplementation in child growth and development (1969-1977), and the follow-up study (1988-1989). With more than 40 years of experience in conducting field nutrition research, this institution has no match in the developing world.
The people of the four Guatemalan villages included in the research must also be acknowledged. Throughout these many years, they have taken us into their homes, visited our clinics and examination centres, and told us their secrets, which we in research call "data." As we dream of extending the study to the children of the follow-up subjects, we are confident that they will continue to welcome us.
The longitudinal study of 1969-1977 is the work of many outstanding scientists who worked in the mid-sixties, first laying the groundwork and later carrying out the study. Much is owed to the leadership of the two directors of the INCAP Division of Human Development, Dr. Cipriano Canosa (1969-1970) and Robert E. Klein (1970-1977), who guided the study adeptly to its completion.
The US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supported the longitudinal study during its entire existence (Contract No. PH 43-65-640). Through timely monitoring, including periodic site visits, NICHD helped the project to remain scientifically rigorous. Two smaller but important contributions to the financing of the study were a grant from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which supported the collection of birth-weight data in the later stages of the project, and a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to the RAND Corporation and INCAP, which financed the collection of wealth, fertility, and other social data starting in 1974.
The follow-up study was a natural extension of the longitudinal study. Seed money from Stanford University to R. Martorell (from the Alfred Sloan Foundation) made possible the submission of a proposal to the US National Institutes of Health, which was eventually approved and funded (RO1-HD-2240) with R. Martorell as principal investigator. Other support included a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts (No. 99G0070-0001), which funded the analyses of educational data, with E. Politt and R. Martorell as principal investigators, and a grant from the Thrasher Research Fund to J. Rivera, R. Martorell, and J-P. Habicht for a pilot study of the newborns of follow-up females (No. 2805-5).
The present set of articles is an outgrowth of a workshop held at the Rockefeller Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, in July 1990. A second volume of papers stemming from the workshop is being prepared for submission to The Journal of Nutrition. The workshop was cosponsored by the International Dietary Energy Consultancy Group (IDECG) and the Office of Nutrition of USAID, organizations which provided funds for travel and per diem. Funds for preparation of the manuscripts for publication were provided by UNICEF and the World Food Program. We are grateful to all those who have assisted us.
Nevin Scrimshaw was inexhaustible in his support for the Bellagio meeting and for publication of the results. We owe much to him also in his capacity as editor of the Food and Nutrition Bulletin. Sandy Bernard, at Stanford University, and Bonnie Sterling, at Cornell University, provided excellent secretarial support.
Finally, I thank my colleagues, particularly Juan Rivera, Ernesto Pollitt, Jere Haas, and Jean-Pierre Habicht, for the dedication and scientific rigour with which they have applied themselves to the INCAP studies.
Reynaldo Martorell
Ithaca, N.Y., USA
May 1992