Reducing Dietary Sodium The Case for Caution

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Tall claims : mortality selection and the height of children

Data from three rounds of nationally representative health surveys in India are used to assess the impact of selective mortality on children’s anthropometrics. The nutritional status of the child population was simulated under the counterfactual scenario that all children who died in the first three years of life were alive at the time of measurement. The simulations demonstrate that the difference in anthropometrics due to selective mortality would be large only if there were very large differences in anthropometrics between the children who died and those who survived. Differences of this size are not substantiated by the research on the degree of association between mortality and malnutrition. The study shows that although mortality risk is higher among malnourished children, selective mortality has only a minor impact on the measured nutritional status of children or on that status distinguished by gender.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Youth and Governance,Adolescent Health,Early Child and Children's Health

Debate: Does it matter how you lower blood pressure?

Whether it matters how pressure is lowered has been debated since antihypertensive drugs proved to prevent cardiovascular events. However, in clinical trials, while the stroke benefit predicted by a given difference in blood pressure was achieved, the results for myocardial infarction were roughly half that expected. This suggested that adverse drug effects of diuretics and β-blockers might have detracted from their hypotensive effects. Trials with newer antihypertensive classes have revealed superior effects on outcomes associated with converting enzyme inhibitor use, and that α-blockers are less cardioprotective than diuretics. These studies establish that simple blood pressure reduction is an inadequate guide to therapy. The challenge now will be to determine the optimal therapy for each hypertensive patient

Helping women respond to the global food price crisis:

"The current food price crisis has received widespread attention, but discussions to date have largely overlooked the gender dimensions of the crisis. More than 15 years of rigorous research on gender and intrahousehold resource allocation suggest not only that men and women will be affected differently by the global food crisis, but also that, as both consumers and producers, they will have different stocks of resources with which to respond to rising prices. Although the current situation calls for an urgent national and international response, urgency is not an excuse for misguided policies that fail to address the gender implications of the crisis. Instead, decisionmakers should take this opportunity to incorporate what is known about women's roles in agricultural production and household welfare, and the specific challenges they face, both to craft more effective policy responses and to enable women to respond better to the current challenges and opportunities." from Author's textFood prices, Women, Gender, Social protection, Female farmers,

A Midterm Evaluation of the Conservation & Sustainable Development Program

This report contains the findings and recommendations of the CSD Mid-Term Evaluation, following the successful completion of the Evaluation in late 2015.Our approach and methodology followed the plan we submitted to the Foundation dated May 8, 2015. All of our evaluation objectives and plans have been met.We conducted field work and carried out extensive interviews in CSD's priority regions of the Andes and the Great Lakes of East and Central Africa, and expanded the work conducted earlier in 2015 by a separate evaluation of the Greater Mekong region. We conducted desk reviews and interviews for CSD's Coastal and Marine, and Global portfolios. Our work also included discussions with Foundation Board members Jack Fuller and Paul Klingenstein, and with President Julia Stasch