Perspective: Food environment research priorities for Africa—Lessons from the Africa Food Environment Research Network

Over the last 2 decades, many African countries have undergone dietary and nutrition transitions fuelled by globalization, rapid urbanization, and development. These changes have altered African food environments and, subsequently, dietary behaviors, including food acquisition and consumption. Dietary patterns associated with the nutrition transition have contributed to Africa's complex burden of malnutrition—obesity and other diet-related noncommunicable diseases (DR-NCDs)—along with persistent food insecurity and undernutrition. Available evidence links unhealthy or obesogenic food environments (including those that market and offer energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages) with suboptimal diets and associated adverse health outcomes. Elsewhere, governments have responded with policies to improve food environments. However, in Africa, the necessary research and policy action have received insufficient attention. Contextual evidence to motivate, enable, and create supportive food environments in Africa for better population health is urgently needed. In November 2020, the Measurement, Evaluation, Accountability, and Leadership Support for Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention Project (MEALS4NCDs) convened the first Africa Food Environment Research Network Meeting (FERN2020). This 3-d virtual meeting brought researchers from around the world to deliberate on future directions and research priorities related to improving food environments and nutrition across the African continent. The stakeholders shared experiences, best practices, challenges, and opportunities for improving the healthfulness of food environments and related policies in low- and middle-income countries. In this article, we summarize the proceedings and research priorities identified in the meeting to advance the food environment research agenda in Africa, and thus contribute to the promotion of healthier food environments to prevent DR-NCDs, and other forms of malnutrition

Bio-Social Predictors of Hypertension Among Premenopausal and Postmenopausal Women

In the present study, the contribution of various biological and lifestyle factors toward progression to hypertension are examined among menopausal and postmenopausal women. A cross-sectional study among 245 women of 20 to 65 years was conducted. Besides blood pressure, fat percentage using bio-electric impedance analyzer and adiposity indices such as body mass index (BMI), waist–hip ratio (WHR), and waist–height ratio (WHtR) were taken. Mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and multinomial logistic were used to analyze the data. Statistically significant differences ( p < .001) for blood pressure among postmenopausal and premenopausal women were found. Among both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, the prehypertensive and hypertensive group showed significant differences with the normotensive women for body weight ( p < .005), regional obesity, and general obesity. Low educational level, working status of women, socioeconomic status, nuclear family setup, postmenopausal status, and obesity were found to be the likely risk factors for prehypertension or hypertension among women

Lifestyle Patterns and Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Rural School Children of Age 6 to 9 Years of District Una, Himachal Pradesh

BACKGROUND: Many studies have reported prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from urban areas as well as of underweight or malnutrition from rural areas. With changing lifestyles everywhere, a need was felt to study the prevalence of overweight and obesity among rural children also. METHODOLOGY: Present cross-sectional study was planned involving 210 school children (103 boys and 107 girls of age 6-9 years) from various private schools of district Una, Himachal Pradesh, India. IOTF (International Obesity Task Force) cutoffs for BMI were used. Information about lifestyle, eating habits, physical activity and socio-economic status was collected through well designed questionnaire, which was filled by the parents of the children. The population studied mostly belonged to lower and upper middle class. SPSS version 17.0 was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Overweight and obesity among children was found to be 14.8%. Time spent in physical activity has reduced greatly; also there was increased sedentary lifestyle among rural children. 93.5% of overweight and obese children were considered fine (according to their weight) by their parents. The children, who did not have their food timely, ate less frequently and ate junk food more than 3-times a week, were found to be more overweight and obese. CONCLUSION: Percentage of overweight and obese children (14.8%) seen in the study has provided evidence that it is not only the urban population or the higher socioeconomic class groups that are affected with the lifestyle related problems but changing lifestyle has affected rural children also