Nutritional evaluation of lowering consumption of meat and meat products in the Nordic context

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommended in 2007 that consumer intake of red meat is minimized and processed meat eliminated. The recommendation was based on a systematic review of the available literature on the association between meat consumption and cancer. The recommendation to individuals was to ingest less than 500 grams of red meat per weeks, and very little - if anything - processed meats. In a new study, National Food Institute has assessed the nutritional consequences from living the recommendations of the WCRF, in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The current consumption of meat in the Nordic countries is not far from the level WCRF has proposed on an individual level. The study also shows that it will have no significant nutritional consequences to reduce the intake of meat to the recommended, neither when it comes to red meat nor processed meat

Cohort profile: the Norwegian Registry of Persons Assessed for Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog) - a national research and quality registry with a biomaterial collection

Purpose: The Norwegian Registry of Persons Assessed for Cognitive Symptoms (NorCog) was established to harmonise and improve the quality of diagnostic practice across clinics assessing persons with cognitive symptoms in Norwegian specialist healthcare units and to establish a large research cohort with extensive clinical data. Participants: The registry recruits patients who are referred for assessment of cognitive symptoms and suspected dementia at outpatient clinics in Norwegian specialist healthcare units. In total, 18 120 patients have been included in NorCog during the period of 2009–2021. The average age at inclusion was 73.7 years. About half of the patients (46%) were diagnosed with dementia at the baseline assessment, 35% with mild cognitive impairment and 13% with no or subjective cognitive impairment; 7% received other specified diagnoses such as mood disorders. Findings to date: All patients have a detailed baseline characterisation involving lifestyle and demographic variables; activities of daily living; caregiver situation; medical history; medication; psychiatric, physical and neurological examinations; neurocognitive testing; blood laboratory work-up; and structural or functional brain imaging. Diagnoses are set according to standardised diagnostic criteria. The research biobank stores DNA and blood samples from 4000 patients as well as cerebrospinal fluid from 800 patients. Data from NorCog have been used in a wide range of research projects evaluating and validating dementia-related assessment tools, and identifying patient characteristics, symptoms, functioning and needs, as well as caregiver burden and requirement of available resources. Future plans: The finish date of NorCog was originally in 2029. In 2021, the registry’s legal basis was reformalised and NorCog got approval to collect and keep data for as long as is necessary to achieve the purpose of the registry. In 2022, the registry underwent major changes. Paper-based data collection was replaced with digital registration, and the number of variables collected was reduced. Future plans involve expanding the registry to include patients from primary care centres.publishedVersio

EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA); Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for energy

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) derived dietary reference values for energy, which are provided as average requirements (ARs) of specified age and sex groups. For children and adults, total energy expenditure (TEE) was determined factorially from estimates of resting energy expenditure (REE) plus the energy needed for various levels of physical activity (PAL) associated with sustainable lifestyles in healthy individuals. To account for uncertainties inherent in the prediction of energy expenditure, ranges of the AR for energy were calculated with several equations for predicting REE in children (1-17 years) and adults. For practical reasons, only the REE estimated by the equations of Henry (2005) was used in the setting of the AR and multiplied with PAL values of 1.4, 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0, which approximately reflect low active (sedentary), moderately active, active and very active lifestyles. For estimating REE in adults, body heights measured in representative national surveys in 13 EU Member States and body masses calculated from heights assuming a body mass index of 22 kg/m2 were used. For children, median body masses and heights from the WHO Growth Standards or from harmonised growth curves of children in the EU were used. Energy expenditure for growth was accounted for by a 1 % increase of PAL values for each age group. For infants (7-11 months), the AR was derived from TEE estimated by regression equation based on doubly labelled water (DLW) data, plus the energy needs for growth. For pregnant and lactating women, the additional energy for the deposition of newly formed tissue, and for milk output, was derived from data obtained by the DLW method and from factorial estimates, respectively. The proposed ARs for energy may need to be adapted depending on specific objectives and target populations

Home environmental influences on adolescents' energy balance related behaviours. The HEIA cohort study

The global obesity epidemic represents an enormous potential threat to public health, because overweight and obesity are major risk factors of non-communicable diseases. The prevalence of overweight has furthermore increased among children and adolescents worldwide, and creates a growing health challenge for the next generation as children who are overweight are more likely to become overweight and obese as adults. Dietary, physical activity and sedentary behaviours are energy balance related behaviours (EBRB) that positively or negatively are related to weight status. It is agreed upon that the obesity epidemic is driven by large environmental changes over the past few decades, negatively influencing the EBRB. Social inequalities are furthermore consistently observed in children’s and adolescents’ weight status and health behaviours. Thus, there is a need for research to identify environmental factors influencing children’s and adolescents EBRB across age and within diverse social groups, in order to establish good opportunities of a healthy future. The main aims of this thesis were first to investigate the changes and tracking in children’s dietary behaviours during the transition into adolescence, and possible differences by parental education. Second to examine how the home environment influences young adolescents’ dietary and sedentary behaviours between the ages of 11 and 13 years, including social differences as measured by parental education. Longitudinal data from the Norwegian HEalth In Adolescents (HEIA) cohort study (2007–09) is included. Data was collected through questionnaires among a baseline sample of 975 adolescents at the age of 11 years (T0), and followed up at age 12 (T1) and 13 (T2) years. Furthermore, questionnaires were collected from both mothers (n=738) and fathers (n=630) at T0, and followed up at T2. Dietary intakes of fruits, vegetables, energy dense snacks, sugar sweetened soft drinks and sugar sweetened squash were examined prospectively, as well as screen time behaviours of television and video viewing (TV/DVD), and computer and electronic game use (PC/game). Parental education, parental modelling, parental regulation, availability and accessibility were explored as possible determinants in the home environment. Analyses of tracking was used to investigate changes and stability in dietary behaviours over time, and mediation analyses explored possible influences of the home environment on adolescents’ prospective soft drink intake and screen time. Tracking of the frequency of fruit, vegetable and snack intake, and in the amount of soft drinks and squash consumption was observed among boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 13 years. The intake of soft drinks did furthermore increase significantly during this time period. An inverse association was found between level of parental education and tracking in adolescents’ soft drink and squash consumption, as higher odds of a stable low than a stable high intake of soft drinks and squash was observed among those with a higher level of parental education. A higher level of parental education did furthermore predict a lower intake of soft drinks at the age of 13 years. A higher availability and accessibility of soft drinks at home subsequently predicted an increased intake among adolescents between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Moreover, the relationship of parental education predicting adolescents’ soft drink intake was explained trough the accessibility of soft drinks at home, identified as a mediating factor. In addition, a higher level of parental education predicted less time spent on PC/games among 13 year olds. A positive relationship was observed between parental modelling and adolescents’ TV/DVD time and an inverse relationship between parental regulation and adolescents’ TV/DVD time was subsequently found between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Finally, maternal and paternal modelling of TV/DVD viewing were found to mediate the relationship of parental education predicting adolescents’ TV/DVD time at the age of 13 years. The present study contributes to international research by enhancing the understanding of children’s and adolescents’ dietary and sedentary behaviours in a longitudinal perspective. The findings indicate tracking of dietary behaviours between the ages of 11 and 13 years, and thus emphasize the importance of starting before the age of 11 years to prevent the establishment of unfavourable dietary behaviours later in adolescence. Moreover, the parental role in adolescents’ dietary and screen time behaviours is highlighted through availability and accessibility in the home, parental modelling and regulation by implying that raising awareness of these determinants may result in a healthier lifestyle which further can influence weight status. Finally, the present analyses emphasize differences by parental education in adolescents’ dietary and screen time behaviours which could contribute to social inequalities in health. The accessibility of soft drinks at home and parental modelling of TV/DVD time was identified as important targets in future health education and health promotion programs aiming to reduce social differences in such health behaviours among adolescents

Fast Pressure Control in Managed Pressure Drilling

In drilling operations, it is of great importance to efficiently and safely control the pressure in the well. To avoid possible damage to the reservoir, equipment, personnel and the environment, the pressure in the well bore must be kept within certain limits, determined by the formations around the well. An emerging drilling technique, intended to increase the efficiency and safety of drilling operations, is known as Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD). MPD differs from conventional drilling by closing the mud system with a controlled choke, often in combination with a backpressure pump to ensure circulation through the choke. The controller objective is to automatically adjust the choke to reach the desired downhole pressure. For optimal control of the downhole pressure, a model describing the flows and pressures in the well is necessary. A modal discretization method is considered and implemented in this thesis, resulting in a rational approximation of a two-dimensional distributed parameter model. The discretized model is used to design a LQG controller, for comparison with a PI controller. Both controllers are implemented in MATLAB to perform computer simulations and experiments in lab. Simulations indicated that the transient response of the LQG stabilized at the desired set-point, more efficiently relative to PI controller. This difference was significantly improved when increasing the length of the simulated well. In experiments performed on a tailor made experimental lab located at NTNU, the performance of the two controllers were about equally great. It is discussed whether the lab is inadequate to demonstrate possible improvements due to the introduction of the two-dimensional model

Mat og ernæring til eldre - oppsummering av kunnskap og forskningsresultater

Denne kunnskapsoppsummeringen er gjort på oppdrag fra Helse- og omsorgsdepartementet, og er en del av kunnskapsgrunnlaget for «Leve hele livet – en kvalitetsreform for eldre». Kunnskapsoppsummeringen vil belyse tiltak som kan bedre ernæringspraksis blant hjemmeboende eldre og eldre på sykehjem. Det vil også redegjøres for temaer hvor det er behov for mer forskningsbasert kunnskap. Videre vil denne kunnskapsoppsummeringen gi konkrete anbefalinger til helse- og omsorgstjenesten i Norge på utfordringer knyttet til matinntak, appetitt og måltidsglede, og hvordan man kan jobbe mer strukturert og målrettet med ernæringspraksis i de kommunale helse- og omsorgstjenestene

Does the school food environment influence the dietary behaviours of Norwegian 11-year-olds? The HEIA study

Aims: The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of the school food environment on the dietary behaviours of 11-year-old Norwegian children in elementary schools. Methods: Baseline data from a school-based intervention study: the Health In Adolescents study was used. A total of 1425 11-year-old children from 35 schools from the eastern part of Norway were included. School administrators provided information on the physical, political, and sociocultural school food environment and students reported their intake of fruits, vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), and snacks. Multilevel modelling was used to assess the school-level variance in dietary behaviours and to investigate the association of school food environmental factors with these dietary behaviours. Results: After adjustment for student characteristics, the school level accounted for a small proportion (1.1%–3.0%) of the variance in the dietary behaviours investigated. None of the investigated school food environmental factors were found to be related to the children’s reported intake of fruits, vegetables, snacks or SSB. Conclusions: Most of the variance in the dietary behaviours investigated was at the personal level. Thus in this sample, the investigated school-level factors do not appear to exert a strong influence on the dietary behaviours of children. Longitudinal studies using validated measures of the school food environment are needed