Browsing by Autor "Thomas W. McDade"

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Adult knowledge of wild plants associated with limited delayed health and nutritional benefits for children or adults in the face of external change: A yearly panel (2003−2010) study among Tsimane’, an indigenous Amazonian society in Bolivia
(Elsevier BV, 2024) Ricardo Godoy; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Victòria Reyes-García; Asher Y. Rosinger; Susan Tanner
Assortative mating and offspring well-being: theory and empirical findings from a native Amazonian society in Bolivia
(Elsevier BV, 2008) Ricardo Godoy; Dan T. A. Eisenberg; Victòria Reyes-García; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Susan Tanner
C‐reactive protein (CRP) in high altitude <scp>Bolivian</scp> peri‐urban adolescents varies by adiposity, current illness, height, socioeconomic status, sex, and menarcheal status: The potential benefits and costs of adipose reserves in arduous environments
(Wiley, 2024) Virginia J. Vitzthum; Jonathan Thornburg; Thomas W. McDade; Kathryn Hicks; Aaron A. Miller; Emily M. Chester; Baileigh Goodlett; Esperanza Cáceres; Hilde Spielvogel
Our results are consistent with a tradeoff between investments in growth versus immune functioning, as might be expected in an environment with limited resources and high pathogen exposure (e.g., soil-transmitted helminths, poor sanitation). Thinner Alteños appear to maintain a minimum CRP concentration independent of fat-factor, while fatter (or less-thin) Alteños' CRP rises with fat-factor. Female Alteños appear to be trading off investment in immune response for investment in growth and maturation. Alteños' high rate of stunting and absence of obesity suggests chronic, presumably multifactorial, stress. Adipose stores likely buffer against some of these stressors and, in an environment such as this-in which many lack sufficient nutritious foods, potable water, adequate sewage, and health care-may confer a net lifetime benefit.
Can We Trust an Adult's Estimate of Parental School Attainment? Disentangling Social Desirability Bias and Random Measurement Error
(SAGE Publishing, 2008) Ricardo Godoy; Victòria Reyes-García; Susan Tanner; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Tomás Huanca
Researchers often need to know the parental school attainment of adult subjects. When researchers cannot ask parents about their school attainment, they must ask adult offspring about the school attainment of their parents. We assess the accuracy of answers provided by adults about the school attainment of their parents with data from a native Amazonian society in Bolivia (Tsimane'). Offspring overestimate the school attainment of their parents. They also report inaccurately other human capital attributes of their parents (e.g., writing skills, fluency speaking Spanish, practical indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants). Results mesh with findings from the United States about the lack of reliability of adults' self-reports about parental school attainment and with prior research among the Tsimane' suggesting significant misreporting of other outcomes (e.g., age, income, parental height).
Cultural transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge and skills: an empirical analysis from an Amerindian society
(Elsevier BV, 2009) Victòria Reyes-García; James Broesch; Laura Calvet‐Mir; Nuria Fuentes‐Peláez; Thomas W. McDade; Sorush Parsa; Susan Tanner; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Maria Ruth Martínez-Rodríguez
Do the aged and knowledgeable men enjoy more prestige? A test of predictions from the prestige-bias model of cultural transmission
(Elsevier BV, 2008) Victòria Reyes-García; José Luís Molina; James Broesch; Laura Calvet‐Mir; Tomás Huanca; Judith Saus; Susan Tanner; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade
Does the Future Affect the Present? The Effects of Future Weather on the Current Collection of Planted Crops and Wildlife in a Native Amazonian Society of Bolivia
(Springer Science+Business Media, 2009) Ricardo Godoy; Victòria Reyes-García; Vincent Vadez; Oyunbileg Magvanjav; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Sanjay Kumar; Javed Iqbal; David Wilkie; Susan Tanner
Human's Cognitive Ability to Assess Facial Cues from Photographs: A Study of Sexual Selection in the Bolivian Amazon
(Public Library of Science, 2010) Eduardo A. Undurraga; Dan T. A. Eisenberg; Oyunbileg Magvanjav; Ruoxue Wang; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Victòria Reyes-García; Colleen Nyberg; Susan Tanner; Tomás Huanca
Our results support the existence of a human ability to identify objective traits from facial cues, as suggested by evolutionary theory.
Individual Wealth Rank, Community Wealth Inequality, and Self-Reported Adult Poor Health: A Test of Hypotheses with Panel Data (2002-2006) from Native Amazonians, Bolivia
(Wiley, 2010) Eduardo A. Undurraga; Colleen Nyberg; Dan T. A. Eisenberg; Oyunbileg Magvanjav; Victòria Reyes-García; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Susan Tanner; Vincent Vadez
Growing evidence suggests that economic inequality in a community harms the health of a person. Using panel data from a small-scale, preindustrial rural society, we test whether individual wealth rank and village wealth inequality affects self-reported poor health in a foraging-farming native Amazonian society. A person's wealth rank was negatively but weakly associated with self-reported morbidity. Each step up/year in the village wealth hierarchy reduced total self-reported days ill by 0.4 percent. The Gini coefficient of village wealth inequality bore a positive association with self-reported poor health that was large in size, but not statistically significant. We found small village wealth inequality, and evidence that individual economic rank did not change. The modest effects may have to do with having used subjective rather than objective measures of health, having small village wealth inequality, and with the possibly true modest effect of a person's wealth rank on health in a small-scale, kin-based society. Finally, we also found that an increase in mean individual wealth by village was related to worse self-reported health. As the Tsimane' integrate into the market economy, their possibilities of wealth accumulation rise, which may affect their well-being. Our work contributes to recent efforts in biocultural anthropology to link the study of social inequalities, human biology, and human-environment interactions.
Maintenance versus growth: Investigating the costs of immune activation among children in lowland Bolivia
(Wiley, 2008) Thomas W. McDade; Victòria Reyes-García; Susan Tanner; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard
Immune function is a central component of maintenance effort, and it provides critical protection against the potentially life threatening effects of pathogens. However, immune defenses are energetically expensive, and the resources they consume are not available to support other activities related to growth and/or reproduction. In our study we use a life history theory framework to investigate tradeoffs between maintenance effort and growth among children in a remote area of Amazonian Bolivia. Baseline concentrations of C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured in 309 2- to 10-year olds as an indicator of immune activation, and height was measured at baseline and three months later. Elevated CRP at baseline predicts smaller gains in height over the subsequent three months, with the costs to growth particularly high for 2- to 4-year olds and for those with low energy reserves (in the form of body fat) at the time of immunostimulation. These results provide evidence for a significant tradeoff between investment in immunity and growth in humans, and highlight an important physiological mechanism through which maintenance effort may have lasting effects on child growth and development.
Rain, temperature, and child–adolescent height among Native Amazonians in Bolivia
(Informa, 2008) Ricardo Godoy; Elizabeth Goodman; Victòria Reyes-García; Dan T. A. Eisenberg; William R. Leonard; Tomás Huanca; Thomas W. McDade; Susan Tanner; Naveen Jha; Taps Bolivian Study Team
The height of young females and males is well protected from climate events, but protection works less well for boys ages 2-12.
Short but catching up: Statural growth among native Amazonian Bolivian children
(Wiley, 2009) Ricardo Godoy; Colleen Nyberg; Dan T. A. Eisenberg; Oyunbileg Magvanjav; Eliezer Shinnar; William R. Leonard; Clarence C. Gravlee; Victòria Reyes-García; Thomas W. McDade; Tomás Huanca
The ubiquity and consequences of childhood growth stunting (<-2 SD in height-for-age Z score, HAZ) in rural areas of low-income nations has galvanized research into the reversibility of stunting, but the shortage of panel data has hindered progress. Using panel data from a native Amazonian society of foragers-farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we estimate rates of catch-up growth for stunted children. One hundred forty-six girls and 158 boys 2 < or = age < or = 7 were measured annually during 2002-2006. Annual Delta height in cm and in HAZ were regressed separately against baseline stunting and control variables related to attributes of the child, mother, household, and village. Children stunted at baseline had catch-up growth rates 0.11 SD/year higher than their nonstunted age and sex peers, with a higher rate among children farther from towns. The rate of catch up did not differ by the child's sex. A 10% rise in household income and an additional younger sibling lowered by 0.16 SD/year and 0.53 SD/year the rate of growth. Results were weaker when measuring Delta height in cm rather than in HAZ. Possible reasons for catch-up growth include (a) omitted variable bias, (b) parental reallocation of resources to redress growth faltering, particularly if parents perceive the benefits of redressing growth faltering for child school achievement, and (c) developmental plasticity during this period when growth rates are most rapid and linear growth trajectories have not yet canalized.
Social rank and adult male nutritional status: Evidence of the social gradient in health from a foraging-farming society
(Elsevier BV, 2008) Victòria Reyes-García; Thomas W. McDade; José Luís Molina; William R. Leonard; Susan Tanner; Tomás Huanca; Ricardo Godoy
Socioeconomic impacts on Andean adolescents’ growth
(University of Oxford, 2022) Mecca Burris; Esperanza Cáceres; Emily M. Chester; Kathryn Hicks; Thomas W. McDade; Lynn Sikkink; Hilde Spielvogel; Jonathan Thornburg; Virginia J. Vitzthum
Both peri-urban conditions and temporal trends contributed to gains in Alteños' growth. Rural out-migration can alleviate migrants' poverty, partly because of more diverse economic options in urbanized communities, especially for women. Nonetheless, Alteños averaged below WHO and MESA height and weight medians. Evolved biological adaptations to environmental challenges, and the consequent variability in growth trajectories, favor using multiple growth references. Growth monitoring should be informed by community- and household-level studies to detect and understand local factors causing or alleviating health disparities.
The effect of rainfall during gestation and early childhood on adult height in a foraging and horticultural society of the Bolivian Amazon
(Wiley, 2007) Ricardo Godoy; Susan Tanner; Victòria Reyes-García; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Melanie Vento; James Broesch; Ian Carlos Fitzpatrick; Peter Giovannini; Tomás Huanca
Recent research documents the effects of adverse conditions during gestation and early childhood on growth responses and health throughout life. Most research linking adverse conditions in early life with adult health comes from industrial nations. We know little about the plasticity of growth responses to environmental perturbations early in life among foragers and horticulturalists. Using 2005 data from 211 women and 215 men 20+ years of age from a foraging-horticultural society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane'), we estimate the association between (a) adult height and (b) rainfall amount and variability during three stages in the life cycle: gestation (year 0), birth year (year 1), and years 2-5. We control for confounders such as height of the same-sex parent. Rainfall amount and variability during gestation and birth year bore weak associations with adult height, probably from the protective role of placental physiology and breastfeeding. However, rainfall variability during years 2-5 of life bore a negative association with adult female height. Among women, a 10% increase in the coefficient of variation of rainfall during years 2-5 was associated with 0.7-1.2% lower adult height (1.08-1.93 cm). Environmental perturbations that take place after the cessation of weaning seem to leave the strongest effect on adult height. We advance possible explanations for the absence of effects among males.
The effect of wealth and real income on wildlife consumption among native Amazonians in Bolivia: estimates of annual trends with longitudinal household data (2002–2006)
(Wiley, 2010) Ricardo Godoy; Eduardo A. Undurraga; David Wilkie; Victòria Reyes-García; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Susan Tanner; Vincent Vadez; TAPS Bolivia Study Team
Abstract Over the last decades, native Amazonians have put increasing pressure on animal wildlife owing to growth in demand. Across societies, household monetary income and wealth shape food consumption; hence, so it is natural to ask what effect might these variables have on the demand for wildlife consumption among native Amazonians, particularly as they gain a stronger foothold in the market economy and increasing de jure stewardship over their territories. Prior estimates of the effects of household monetary income and household wealth on wildlife consumption among native Amazonians have relied on cross‐sectional data and produced unclear results. The goal of this research was to improve the precision of previous estimates by drawing on a larger sample and on longitudinal data. The analysis draws on a dataset composed of five consecutive annual surveys (2002–2006, inclusive) from 324 households in a native Amazonian society of foragers and farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane'). Multiple regression analysis is used to estimate the association between wildlife consumption and monetary income and wealth. Wildlife consumption bore a positive association with the level of household wealth and no significant association with household monetary income. Among Tsimane', the main internal threat to wildlife conservation in the short run will likely arise from increases in wealth, probably from the enhanced capacity that selected physical assets (e.g. guns) have in the capture of animal wildlife.
The Pay-Offs to Sociability
(Springer Science+Business Media, 2009) Victòria Reyes-García; Ricardo Godoy; Vincent Vadez; Isabel Ruíz-Mallén; Tomás Huanca; William R. Leonard; Thomas W. McDade; Susan Tanner; Susan Tanner