Enteric pathogen infections among infants in rural Bangladesh: prevalence, trial impact, and associations with enteric dysfunction and growth.

Background: Repeated enteric infections and chronic enteric dysfunction have been associated with undernutrition in children. Interventions that reduce enteric pathogen exposure in young children could thereby improve growth and developmental outcomes. We assessed enteric pathogen prevalence in Bangladeshi infants, the impact of a combined homestead food production and food hygiene intervention on pathogen infections, and associations between pathogen infections, enteric dysfunction markers, and child growth outcomes. Methods: We analyzed panel data from 231 children born between April and December 2018 within the Food and Agricultural Approaches to Reducing Malnutrition (FAARM) cluster-rand