FALL/WINTER 2007
Feed the World
(continued)
What is QPM?  |
Ugali (in the bowl) is made of maize, a staple in the diet of Kenyan children. PhD statistics student Nilupa Gunaratna’s review of Quality Protein Maize — the first review of its kind on crops that have been genetically improved for nutritional quality — showed a positive relationship between QPM consumption and child growth. Photo taken in Kenya by George Owuor, Egerton University, Kenya. |
Gunaratna’s research is the first systematic review of the efficacy and effectiveness of QPM and whether it can have a significant positive impact on public health, particularly in undernourished children in developing countries.
People are investing a lot in QPM varieties and research, but not much has been done in evaluating the impact in communities. “My research was basically to determine whether QPM really works,” Gunaratna says. “It’s a complex problem but an important one.”
Her research compared and analyzed a variety of studies, from the bioavailability of QPM (whether the body will use the nutrient) to its efficacy (effect of QPM in controlled conditions) and effectiveness (effect of QPM under normal conditions). The studies she gathered were completed at different times by different people in different cultures, but they all asked the same question: How does QPM compare to conventional maize?
Gunaratna used meta-analysis, a statistical method to integrate the results of studies addressing the same research question, and found that QPM does, in fact, have a positive effect on child growth. This discovery has vast implications for the future.
Collaborating with CIMMYT More than 840 million people worldwide
suffer from malnutrition. Fifty percent of
all children in the poorest countries are
malnourished, and of those children, 20
percent die by age 5. These statistics
fuel the mission of the International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
(CIMMYT), a non-profit research and
training center committed to improving
lives in developing countries.
Nilupa Gunaratna, a PhD student in statistics at Purdue, collaborated with CIMMYT on her recent research on the effectiveness of Quality Protein Maize (QPM), a type of corn with higher protein quality than conventional corn. She found significant evidence that QPM does increase growth in children from resource-poor communities. |
“There is a growing interest in biofortification (enriching the nutrition contribution of crops), and this study, this methodology, can be applied to those efforts,” she says.
Applied statistics
Gunaratna’s research is just one project of many that demonstrates how statistics can help improve quality of life. George McCabe, professor of statistics and associate dean of academic affairs for the College of Science, for example, contributed to a 1993 report published by the World Health Organization concluding that vitamin A supplements can reduce child mortality in developing countries by 23 percent. As a result of this work, in combination with other research, many developing countries now have major programs to distribute vitamin A to young children.
“There’s a need for basic research and a need for applied research and a whole continuum of pieces that, when put together, do change the world,” says McCabe, who is currently working on the sixth edition of an introductory statistics textbook that includes real-world examples like the one above.
Companies, communities, and governments need the skills of accomplished statisticians, adds Mary Ellen Bock, head of the Department of Statistics. “The role of statisticians has become more critical now that we have massive and complex data,” she says.
The American Statistical Association, of which Bock is currently president, is fronting a strong movement to get statisticians involved in important domestic and international issues. The concept of “pro bono statistics” has emerged from this movement.
“Statisticians are being encouraged to offer their services, in teams, to non-profit groups to help them make informed business decisions,” Bock says, pointing to Purdue’s STATCOM, a volunteer community outreach group that provides professional statistical consulting services free of charge (see “Strong Projections” in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Insights.)
The movement is international as well. Several ASA statisticians have gone to Iraq to study the question of estimated Iraqi war deaths, and others have gone to provide their statistical expertise in helping refine the polling process, furthering democracy in the area.
“The point is to help these national and local organizations learn the importance of taking advantage of their data for the benefit of their mission,” Bock says, “and, in turn, the benefit of the world.” 
For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.
Kristal Arnold is a communications coordinator with Purdue Marketing Communications.
Photos for this story were provided by Nilupa Gunaratna and taken by Hugo De Groote, CIMMYT.