Nutrition Labeling in the Food-Away-From-Home Sector: An Economic Assessment

Americans spent about 46 percent of their total food budget on food away from home in 2002, up from 27 percent in 1962. Such foods tend to be less nutritious and higher in calories than foods prepared at home, and some studies have linked eating away from home to overweight and obesity in adults and children. Current nutrition labeling law exempts much of the food-away-from-home sector from mandatory labeling regulations. Because consumers are less likely to be aware of the ingredients and nutrient content of away-from-home food than of foods prepared at home, public health advocates have called for mandatory nutrition labeling for major sources of food away from home, such as fast-food and chain restaurants. This report provides an economic assessment of a food-away-from home nutrition labeling policy, including justifications for policy intervention and potential costs and benefits of the policy.Diet quality, food labeling, government regulation, health, mandatory disclosure, nutrition information, Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, obesity, reformulation Acknowledgments, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Effectiveness of Implementing Occupational Nutrition for Government Agency Employees’ in Jambi City

Fulfillment of nutrition for workers can affect their level of health and work productivity. If nutritional needs are not met, it can have negative impacts on the body, such as work fatigue, decreased productivity, and decreased concentration. Aims of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of work nutrition among government agency employees’ in Jambi City. This research was conducted in Jambi City, especially at the Jambi City Public Works and Spatial Planning Service and the Jambi City Manpower, Cooperatives, and SMEs Service, which took place in April–October 2023 with a sample size of 58 respondents. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test with α = 0.05. There were two intervention groups; the first group underwent intervention by providing occupational nutrition modules and mobile phone intervention, while group 2 was the control group. he results of the analysis showed no difference in diet (p = 0.926) or physical activity (p = 0.243) between intervention group and control group employees’. There were differences in safety behavior (p = 0.037), attitudes (p = 0.018), and motivation related to occupational nutrition (p = <0.001) between intervention group employees’ and control groups of government agency employees’ in Jambi City. In conclusion, the occupational nutrition package was not effective in improving the diet and physical activity of employees’. The work nutrition package is effective in improving knowledge, safety behavior, attitudes, and motivation related to work nutrition among employees’ of government agencies in Jambi City. Keyword : Effectiveness, Government Employees’, Job Nutritio

WA health practitioners and cooking: How well do they mix?

Aim:  The aim of the present study was to assess the views and experiences of WA practitioners on the use of cooking as a public health nutrition intervention. Methods:  A 39-point online questionnaire was constructed using Survey Monkey. The questionnaire was distributed via email distribution lists targeting practitioners working in public health nutrition. Questions were focused around four objectives relating to: the value of cooking skills in public health, practitioner cooking skills and training, practitioner views on cooking as a health intervention and practitioner experiences in conducting cooking demonstrations. Results:  A total of 84 practitioners completed the questionnaire, of which over half (58%) were employed in dietetic specific positions at the time of the survey. There was overwhelming agreement that cooking skills are an important factor in the prevention of nutrition-related disease, and that cooking skill interventions have the potential to change dietary intakes. However, only one quarter of practitioners indicated that cooking skill interventions were a significant part of their current role. Over half (58%) of the practitioners surveyed had either conducted or assisted in a cooking demonstration or cooking class in the last 12 months. Conclusions:  WA practitioners place a high value on the use of cooking as a public health nutrition intervention. Practitioners felt they have good knowledge and skills in cooking but indicated the need to know more about conducting cooking skill interventions. The findings suggest the need to improve outcome evaluation as a component of cooking skill interventions to assess long-term behaviour change

Advancing Dietetic Practice through the Implementation and Integration of Smartphone Apps

As the burden of obesity and its related chronic diseases grows, dietitians have integral roles in providing individualised medical nutrition therapy. Smartphone mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have potential to support and extend reach of dietetic services. This thesis examines how mHealth apps could be implemented and integrated by dietitians to advance nutrition care. Based on a narrative review of current evidence, the novel mobile Nutrition Care Process grid was developed, providing dietitians with best-practice guidance for using mHealth apps across the nutrition care process. Surveying dietitians internationally revealed that 62% used mHealth apps in their practice, although primarily as an information resource and for patient self-monitoring rather than as an integral part of the nutrition care process. Similarly, the public used commercial health and fitness apps, such as MyFitnessPal, to track health behaviours. However, individuals performed suboptimally when using MyFitnessPal to track dietary intake, with the app underestimating mean energy intake by -1863kJ (SD=2952kJ, P=0.0002) compared to 24-hour recalls. Qualitative feedback from dietitians, the public and patients are presented to guide app developers in designing quality mHealth apps. A behavioural analysis was conducted using the COM-B model and intervention recommendations were formulated to facilitate uptake of mHealth apps into dietetic practice. These recommendations were incorporated into a two-phase intervention comprising of an educational and training workshop and a 12-week phase where dietitians used an integrated commercial app platform with their patients. The intervention was found to be feasible to deliver and improved dietitians’ mHealth app self-efficacy. There is translational potential for this intervention to equip the profession with greater capability, opportunity, motivation and self-efficacy to use mHealth apps in dietetic practice and in patient nutrition care

A Comprehensive School-Based Nutrition Intervention to Improve the Implementation of Healthy School Canteen Policy: A Systematic Review

Background: School-based nutrition intervent­ion is recommended as one of the public health strategies in supporting the development of healthy diet behaviour for school-age children. It is in line with Global Action Plan 2013-2020 of World Health Organization (WHO) in preventing and controlling double burden of disease as a consequence of non-communicable disease in the future. This study aims to identify the kind of comprehensive school-based nutrition inter­vention and analyze effectiveness of every study in improving policy implementation of healthy school canteen.Subjects and Method: This systematic review study was conducted from two electronic data­bases, namely Scopus and ProQuest with keywords of "school nutritional policy", "compre­hensive intervention", and "healthy canteen" to search relevant publication in English and have open access published from 2015 to 2020.Results: From total 1.367 of publications, 9 arti­cles meet inclusion criteria. Based on evaluation of those studies with comprehensive or multi-component intervention to healthy school canteen policy, the common elements show that regular monitoring and feedback with executive and community support can show improvement of school adherence to policy implementation.Conclusion: This study found that a compre­hensive school-based nutrition intervention was effective in improving the implementation of healthy school canteen policy.Keywords: nutrition intervention, healthy canteen, policy implementationCorrespondence: Sarah At Tauhidah. Health Policy and Adminis­tration Department, Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Indonesia. F Building 1st Floor, Kampus Baru UI Depok 16424, Indonesia. Email: [email protected] of Health Policy and Management (2021), 06(01): 57-66https://doi.org/10.26911/thejhpm.2021.06.01.06

Effects of an mHealth intervention for community health workers on maternal and child nutrition and health service delivery in India: protocol for a quasi-experimental mixed-methods evaluation.

INTRODUCTION:Millions of children in India still suffer from poor health and under-nutrition, despite substantial improvement over decades of public health programmes. The Anganwadi centres under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) provide a range of health and nutrition services to pregnant women, children <6 years and their mothers. However, major gaps exist in ICDS service delivery. The government is currently strengthening ICDS through an mHealth intervention called Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) installed on smart phones, with accompanying multilevel data dashboards. This system is intended to be a job aid for frontline workers, supervisors and managers, aims to ensure better service delivery and supervision, and enable real-time monitoring and data-based decision-making. However, there is little to no evidence on the effectiveness of such large-scale mHealth interventions integrated with public health programmes in resource-constrained settings on the service delivery and subsequent health and nutrition outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:This study uses a village-matched controlled design with repeated cross-sectional surveys to evaluate whether ICDS-CAS can enable more timely and appropriate services to pregnant women, children <12 months and their mothers, compared with the standard ICDS programme. The study will recruit approximately 1500 Anganwadi workers and 6000+ mother-child dyads from 400+ matched-pair villages in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The primary outcomes are the proportion of beneficiaries receiving (a) adequate number of home visits and (b) appropriate level of counselling by the Anganwadi workers. Secondary outcomes are related to improvements in other ICDS services, and knowledge and practices of the Anganwadi workers and beneficiaries. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:Ethical oversight is provided by the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects at the University of California at Berkeley, and the Suraksha Independent Ethics Committee in India. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and analysis data will be made public. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:ISRCTN83902145

Prevalence of nutrition risk and associated social risk factors in community living older adults in the New Zealand Health, Work and Retirement Study : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Background: The New Zealand population is ageing as a result of declining mortality and birth rates. In order for older adults to remain in optimal health, good nutrition is vital. Previous research indicates approximately 50% of New Zealand’s community living older adult population are at some degree of nutrition risk. Understanding nutrition risk prevalence and factors associated with increased nutrition risk is vital to reduce healthcare spending. This study aims to determine nutrition risk prevalence and associated health and social risk factors amongst community-living older adults across New Zealand. Methods: A total of 3050 community-living older adults were invited to respond to the 2014 Health, Work and Retirement (HWR) postal survey. This included a nutrition risk assessment using the Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition, abbreviated version (SCREENII-AB) as well as demographic, social and health characteristic measures. Social provisions were determined with the 24-item Social Provisions Scale, and Social and Emotional loneliness were assessed with the 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Alcohol intake was determined by using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C), and living standards assessed with the Economic Living Standards Index Short Form (ELSI-SF). Overall, 136 participants did not complete one or more of the SCREENII-AB items, reducing the sample size to 2914. Results: Of the 2914 participants, 37.2% were found to be at nutrition risk. Half (51.2%) of Māori participants were at nutritional risk compared to a 32.7% of non-Māori. Independent risk factors for Māori were being un-partnered (OR 1.87) and rating general health as fair (OR 4.83). Independent risk factors for non-Māori were being un-partnered (OR 1.94), rating general health as good, fair or poor (OR 2.03, 3.18, 4.39), life satisfaction (OR 0.40), as well as increased total health conditions counts (OR 1.11), and emotional loneliness (OR 1.35). Conclusions: These findings suggest that social eating is required to reduce nutrition risk amongst older adults. Those who are un-partnered may benefit from public health intervention promoting social eating. As Māori had a higher prevalence of nutrition risk than non-Māori, culturally appropriate strategies are needed to encourage healthy eating practices

Reflections on a complex intervention targeting healthy eating in young children

In this article, the author offers her experiences of conducting a public health nursing intervention based on the use of the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions. This article provides examples aimed at helping and inspiring others who might be interested in conducting a complex intervention study. The intervention focused on counseling about food and feeding practices provided by public health nurses in a sample of child health centers in Norway 2015–2018. Aspects of food and nutrition are central to public health nurses’ counseling at the child health center, and they experience challenges when counseling on these themes. This article offers an approach to handling the complexity of public health nursing interventions on counseling among families. The topics presented on planning and performing an intervention and the related challenges might have relevance for public health nursing in several countries.publishedVersio

The Economics of Alternative Strategies for the Reduction of Food-borne Diseases in Developing Countries: The Case of Diarrhea in Rwanda

The paper provides a methodology which is suitable for the analysis of the social cost of disease and the benefits and cost of health intervention by integrating public health analysis and economics. The approach developed in the paper is applied to food-borne diarrhea in Rwanda. The results suggest that simple treatments such as Oral Rehydration Therapy have a higher social rate of return than consumer protection via education.public health, consumer protection, social cost, economics of food-borne diseases, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, I12, I18, Q12,

Monitoring Study Participants and Implementation with Phone Calls to Support Hypertension Control during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of a Multicomponent Intervention Trial in Guatemala

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presents a challenge to health care for patients with chronic diseases, especially hypertension, because of the important association and increased risk of these patients with a severe presentation of COVID-19 disease. The Guatemalan Ministry of Health has been implementing a multi-component program aimed at improving hypertension control in rural communities since 2019 as a part of an intervention research cluster randomized trial. When the first cases of COVID-19 were reported (March 13, 2020) in Guatemala, our study paused all study field activities, and began monitoring participants through phone calls. The objective of this paper is to describe the approach used to monitor study participants during the COVID-19 pandemic and compare data obtained during phone calls for intervention and control group participants. Methods: We developed a cross-sectional study within the HyTREC (Hypertension Outcomes for T4 Research within Lower Middle-Income Countries) project ‘Multicomponent Intervention to Improve Hypertension Control in Central America: Guatemala’ in which phone calls were made to participants from both intervention and control groups to monitor measures important to the study: delivery of antihypertensive medications in both groups, receipt of coaching sessions and use of a home blood pressure monitor by intervention group participants, as well as reasons that they were not implemented. Results: Regarding the delivery of antihypertensive drugs by the MoH to participants, those in the intervention group had a higher level of medication delivery (73%) than the control group (51%), p<0.001. Of the total participants in the intervention group, 62% had received at least one health coaching session in the previous three months and 81% used a digital home blood pressure monitor at least twice a week. Intervention activities were lower than expected due to restricted public transportation on top of decreased availability of health providers. Conclusion: In Guatemala, specifically in rural settings, access to antihypertensive medications and health services during pandemic times was impaired and less than expected, even after accounting for the program’s implementation activities and actions.Fil: Hernández Galdamez, Diego. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Mansilla, Kristyne. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Peralta, Ana Lucía. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Rodríguez Szaszdi, Javier. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Ramírez, Juan Manuel. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Roche, Dina. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: Gulayin, Pablo Elías. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria; ArgentinaFil: Ramirez Zea, Manuel. Institute Of Nutrition Of Central America And Panama Guatemala; GuatemalaFil: He, Jiang. Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; Estados UnidosFil: Irazola, Vilma. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Investigaciones en Epidemiología y Salud Pública. Instituto de Efectividad Clínica y Sanitaria. Centro de Investigaciones en Epidemiología y Salud Pública; ArgentinaFil: Fort, Meredith P.. Colorado School of Public Health; Estados Unido