Oxidative Stress and Its Relationship With Market Integration and Pathogen Exposure Among Indigenous Shuar Children of Amazonian Ecuador.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Oxidative stress (OS) plays a key role in human aging and lifelong health. Problematically, little attention has been given to OS during childhood or outside of wealthy, industrialized populations. This limits understanding of the lifestyle and environmental factors that may drive global variation in childhood OS. Here, we present multifaceted urinary OS data from Indigenous Shuar children of Amazonian Ecuador to examine how children's OS is influenced by: (1) broad differences in market integration (MI; rural vs. peri-urban living); (2) household-level predictors of pathogen exposure; and (3) physiological measures of pathogen burden (immune activity) and adversity (cortisol).

Methods

Anthropometrics, household questionnaire data, and biospecimens (urine and fing

SUBMITTER: Samsonov A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12837346 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature