Journal of Food Security

Early Life Exposure to Mycotoxins and Child Linear Growth in Nepal: Methods and Design of a Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Publication Type

Abstract

A growing body of mainly cross-sectional evidence suggests an association between mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxin exposure, and poor linear growth in children. We describe the design and methods of a rigorous longitudinal birth cohort study aimed to deepen our understanding of this hypothesized relationship and to validate dried blood spots as a less invasive, low-cost collection method for venous blood samples. The AflaCohort study was conducted in Banke district of Nepal from 2015 to 2019.