Nutritional Quality, Functional Properties and Sensory Acceptability of an Orange - fleshed Sweet Potato - based Complementary Food

The study focuses on the development of a complementary food (CF) with the orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) to help address the public health problem of vitamin A deficiency among infants. Experimental research design was used for the study. Fifty six infants aged between 6 and 24 months were purposively sampled, together with their mothers, to evaluate three complementary food (CF) products and a control, code-named GAD, PEA, SAB and KAN respectively. The CF products were formulated from orange fleshed sweet potato, anchovies, onion and tomatoes; and the nutrients and functional properties were determined.  A questionnaire and an interview guide were used to collect data to assess the sensory attributes and overall acceptability of the formulated CF products. The results showed that the three complementary foods were nutrient dense, with the moisture content being highest in PEA and lowest in GAD.  GAD, PEA and SAB were all high in protein and fibre but low in fat and carbohydrate. KAN (control) was the most acceptable with respect to all the sensory attributes of a complementary food, although its overall acceptability was not significantly different from that of the other three CF products - GAD, PEA and SAB

Mothers' and Grandmothers' misconceptions and socio-cultural factors as barriers to exclusive breastfeeding: A qualitative study involving Health Workers in two rural districts of Ghana.

BackgroundEducation on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practices is usually given in the form of health talks by health workers (HWs). The need for HWs to be well-informed about cultural practices and misconceptions that act as barriers to EBF has been documented in literature. This information can guide HWs in developing interventions such as health talks which are culturally sensitive. However, this has not been explored from the perspectives of HWs in Ghana. In this paper, we report mothers' and grandmothers' misconceptions and cultural practices that are barriers to EBF in two rural districts in Ghana from the perspectives of Community Health Workers and Community Health Volunteers.MethodsWe used qualitative data collected in the Kwahu Afram Plains South and North Districts of Ghana through nine focus group discussions (FGDs) among HWs and followed the data saturation principle. All FGDs were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and translated from local dialects to English. The emerging themes were used in writing a narrative account, guided by the principles of the thematic analysis.ResultsOur main findings included mothers' and grandmothers' perceptions that HWs themselves do not practice EBF. Mothers had the perception that grandmothers did not practice EBF but their children grew well, and gestures of babies suggested their readiness to start eating. Misconceptions revealed included beliefs that breastmilk is watery in nature and does not satisfy infants. Another misconception was that babies gain weight faster when not exclusively breastfed but fed on infant formulas. A custom of giving corn flour mixed with water or light porridge during the first few days after birth to welcome newborns was also reported.ConclusionsThe reports of the HWs revealed that several socio-cultural factors and misconceptions of mothers and grandmothers negatively influence EBF practices of mothers. Findings from this study highlight the need for HWs to provide culturally appropriate counselling services on breastfeeding not only to mothers but also to grandmothers and fathers in order to promote EBF and reap its benefits

MOBILE PHONES FACILITATION OF HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION INITIATIVES: HEALTH STUDENTS INITIAL PERSPECTIVES

Students are regarded as frequent users of mobile phones which has proven to be a convenient and acceptable method to promote healthy lifestyle. Students usually engage in relatively high levels of risky behavior and make unhealthy lifestyle choices, a study that investigates how health students access health information is necessary. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional study which was undertaken among third-year nursing students from three nurses training institutions in Ghana. A total of 270 students participated in the study. Most of the respondents who were currently subscribers of the health messages reported that they usually received health information on reproductive health issues, nutrition, and practicing safe sex. Most of the health students revealed that they needed more information on safe sex, diet, managing weight, and stress management. The results also show that health students are likely to remember and share short messages with friends. The findings serve as an ‘eye-opener’ for health educators and mobile service providers concerning factors that should be taken into consideration when framing health text messages that will attract health students

Human Milk for Vulnerable Infants: Breastfeeding and Milk Sharing Practice among Ghanaian Women

Human milk has the best impact on childhood survival. In Ghana, it is estimated that 43% of women exclusively breastfeed for 0–5 months and only 42% of breastfeeding mothers continue through 20–23 months. Although the Ghanaian government has implemented policies to facilitate exclusive breastfeeding, substantial gaps to achieve optimal newborn health and wellbeing remain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate breastfeeding prevalence and human milk sharing practices among Ghanaian women. Qualitative responses were received from Ghanaian females (n = 1050). In our sample, 81% indicated they breastfed their children and 8% reported ever sharing breastmilk with another mother. Reasons for sharing milk included (i) insufficient breastmilk production of the recipient mother, and (ii) mother’s unavailability prompting women to offer their milk to a crying baby. About 60% of our sample reported that they were not concerned about sharing their milk. Findings present a strong indicator for milk donation towards the establishment of a human milk bank in Ghana. Health promotion efforts should aim at increasing education about the risks involved in milk sharing as well as the benefits of human milk donation through formal and safer channels such as a Human Milk Bank

Linking Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms with Diet Quality of University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Kundu S, Rejwana N, Al Banna MH, et al. Linking Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms with Diet Quality of University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic in India. Healthcare. 2022;10(10): 1848.This study examines the association of depressive and anxiety symptoms with diet quality among university students while controlling for different demographic and other health and lifestyle factors. This cross-sectional study was carried out between April 2021 and June 2021 among a total of 440 (unweighted) university students. Diet quality was assessed using a 10-item mini-dietary assessment index tool. The depressive and anxiety symptoms of participants were measured using the validated Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression and mediation analyses were performed. In this study, 61.1% (95% CI: 56.6% to 65.7%) of university students’ diet quality was good during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a post-graduate student, an urban resident, having no depressive (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.20 to 3.84) and anxiety symptoms (AOR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.07 to 3.59), no changes or improvement in appetite, and no changes in sleep duration were significantly associated with good diet quality among our study participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 had a significant effect on the diet quality of university students. Future public health policies need to be focused on improving the mental health and well-being of students particularly during pandemic situations to enhance their diet quality

Soypeptide supplementation attenuates weight loss and improves quality of life among brain cancer patients in a pilot study

Abstract Inability to meet nutrition needs resulting from multiple diseases‐related, and individual factors contribute significantly to malnutrition and poor disease outcome among cancer patients. Strategies capable of delivering metabolically efficient nutrients with less digestive and metabolic stress without adding bulk to the diet of patients may be suitable for dealing with cancer‐related malnutrition and quality of life (QoL). We sought to test the hypothesis that peptide supplementation could attenuate weight loss and improve QoL among brain cancer patients compared to conventionally treated controls. In a non‐blind pilot study, brain cancer patients received 9 g soybean peptide supplementation twice per day (peptide group, n = 9) and compared with conventional treatment (control group, n = 10) over two chemotherapy cycles of 42 days. Compared to the controls, soypeptide supplementation attenuated weight loss with 5.4% increase in weight. Moreover, QoL, assessed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ‐C30, revealed that physical (8.1 ± 15.6, p < .047) and emotional (7.5 ± 3.5, p < .033) functioning as well as summary scores (7.1 ± 2.4, p < .048) improved, whereas others remain stable. Molecular docking simulation suggested that the peptides could induce body weight through the inhibition of angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) upon digestion. Daily soypeptide supplementation could enhance weight gain and improve QoL among brain cancer patients possibly by inhibiting ACE activity. However, a follow‐up study with a larger sample size in a double‐blind randomized trial is required to validate these preliminary findings

Nutritional Value of Dry Fish in Bangladesh and Its Potential Contribution to Addressing Malnutrition: A Narrative Review

Banna MHA, Al Zaber A, Rahman N, et al. Nutritional Value of Dry Fish in Bangladesh and Its Potential Contribution to Addressing Malnutrition: A Narrative Review. Fishes. 2022;7(5):1-18.Understanding the linkage between the nutrient composition of foods and individuals’ recommended nutrient intake is important to address malnutrition. Despite it being a traditional and popular food item in Bangladesh, the nutrient composition of dry fish has not been reviewed yet. This study used a narrative review to assess the nutrient composition of dry fish and estimated its potential contribution to addressing some common nutritional deficiencies among children and pregnant and lactating women in Bangladesh. Records were collected from different databases, including the Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Banglajol, and ResearchGate. Data were extracted from 48 articles containing 1128 entries regarding nutrient composition. Most of the nutrient analyses estimated the proximate composition, whereas vitamin, mineral, amino acid, and fatty acid compositions were scarce in the literature. We found that dry fish has high protein and mineral content and could contribute highly to meeting the recommended nutrient intake of protein, iron, zinc, and calcium for children and pregnant and lactating women. The summarized nutrient composition data could be useful for further research to observe how dry fish could be best utilized to address malnutrition in Bangladesh. This narrative review recommends that further nutrient analysis, with emphasis on vitamin, mineral, and fatty acid compositions