It is commonly assumed in public health practice that households in developing country settings are relatively homogeneous with respect to nutritional status. To the extent that this assumption is valid, nutritional assessments of mothers or individual children would provide an effective screening mechanism for household-level maternal-child nutritional risk. However, there has been no confirma...

The aim of this study was to assess spatial co-occurrence of acute respiratory infections (ARI), diarrhoea and stunting among children of the age between 6 and 59 months in Somalia. Data were obtained from routine biannual nutrition surveys conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization 2007-2010. A Bayesian hierarchical geostatistical shared component model was fitted to the residual spati...

To elucidate the way to prevent lifestyle-related diseases, such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, in Asian countries, a comparative study between Mongoloids was conducted at Palau, in Oceania, the Republic of China, Thailand, Mongolia and Japan, from 1998 to October 2002. The survey comprised a social survey, nutrition survey, physical and medical examinations, biomedical analyses, urinal...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the correspondence of diet and lifestyle to the Mediterranean model in two groups of Italian and Spanish university students. DESIGN A cross-sectional nutritional survey to determine BMI, dietary habits (FFQ), energy daily expenditure and lifestyle (SenseWear Armband; BodyMedia Inc.), and to define the Mediterranean diet quality index (MDQI) in the different student grou...

BACKGROUND Evidence on whether healthy diets are more expensive than current diets is mixed due to lack of robust methodology. The aim of this study was to develop a novel methodology to model the cost differential between healthy and current diets and apply it in New Zealand. METHODS Prices of common foods were collected from 15 supermarkets, 15 fruit/vegetable stores and from the Food Price...

OBJECTIVES To stress the importance of social and environment (nutritional) factors in determining the growth spurt during puberty and the risk of excessive adiposity, two contrasting adolescent populations, one from a rural area of Senegal (West Africa) and the other from Martinique (French West Indies), were compared. DESIGN Cross-cultural comparison of contrasting populations. Adolescents ...

OBJECTIVE To compare infant and young child feeding practices in children aged 0-23 months across nine East and Southeast Asian countries. DESIGN Secondary analyses of cross-sectional data from available Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS; Indonesia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Vietnam), Multiple Indicator Country Surveys (Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Myanmar) an...

OBJECTIVE (i) To determine the Na content of commonly consumed fast foods in New Zealand and (ii) to estimate Na intake from savoury fast foods for the New Zealand adult population. DESIGN Commonly consumed fast foods were identified from the 2008/09 New Zealand Adult Nutrition Survey. Na values from all savoury fast foods from chain restaurants (n 471) were obtained from nutrition informatio...

In 2011-2012 approximately 26% of Australian children aged between 5-17 years were reported to be overweight or obese. Furthermore, the increase in prevalence of overweight and obesity among US children parallels reported increases in energy intake and portion sizes of common foods, leading to the recognition that availability of larger portion sizes contributes to the rise in overweight and ob...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological and experimental studies have suggested that high levels of dietary iron and hemeiron can lead to myocardial injury. Lean meat, a primary source of iron and hemeiron, is promoted because it is lower in fat and cholesterol. Does lean meat put us at risk for myocardial infarction, and should we reconsider its promotion? METHODS We analyzed the importance of dietary ir...