Measuring and Predicting Intention of Senegalese Mothers to Provide Iron-Rich Foods to their Children

In Senegal, only 43% of children aged 6-23 months are provided with iron-rich foods (IRF). Assessing determinants of mothers’ behaviour is imperative to improve young children nutrition. We developed a validated questionnaire and used it to assess psychosocial factors of mothers' intention to provide IRF to their children aged 6-23 months in the Matam area, Senegal. Using the planned behaviour theory, the first version of a questionnaire was developed and administered to 120 mothers. Exploratory factorial analyses (EFA) were used to generate a shorter and validated final version of the questionnaire, administered to another sample (N=100) of mothers to assess psychosocial factors underlying their intention to provide IRF to children. EFA revealed the importance of perceived benefits mothers have for the health/welfare of their children if providing them IRF, about acting according to expectations of persons in their surroundings and limited access to IRF due to physical/financial constraints. Attitude (β=0.26, p = 0.015) and subjective norm (β = 0.22, p = 0.047) were positively associated with mothers’ intention to provide IRF to their children. Together with sociodemographic variables, they explained 14% of its variance. Our findings revealed that mothers have a strong intention to provide IRF to their children. Although further assessments of this questionnaire are warranted in other contexts, this tool could provide information on potential determinants of mothers’ intention to provide IRF to children

Iron-Rich Foods Intakes among Urban Senegalese Adolescent Girls

Intake of iron-rich foods was investigated in Senegalese adolescent girls. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 136 girls aged 13 to 18, attending two colleges in Dakar. Data on the consumption of iron-rich foods over the previous week were collected through a food frequency questionnaire. Results show that 12% of the girls had consumed dishes made with iron-rich foods 3 times or less in the past seven days, 34%, 4 to 6 times, and 54%, 7 times and above. However, 83% of the girls had anntake of iron-rich foods below the 84 g per day recommended for animal protein sources by the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems. The diet of Senegalese adolescent girls seems conducive to iron deficiency. To define effective interventions to improve the situation, investigating underlying factors to the low consumption of iron-rich foods is warranted

A Path Analysis to Identify Factors Influencing the Provision of Water in Addition to Breast Milk by Mothers of Infants under Six Months of Age in Conakry and Kindia Regions, Republic of Guinea

Water provision to infants under six months of age (IU6M) can hamper exclusive breastfeeding (EBF). Understanding factors and their relationships influencing this practice is needed to tailor EBF promotion programs. Using a validated questionnaire, this study aims to identify pathways in which individual factors and the environment interact to affect the provision of water in addition to breast milk among 300 mothers of IU6M. Our finding shows that 75% of mothers intended to provide water in addition to breast milk to their IU6M and that about 60% reported doing it. Results of the final path show that the subjective norm/SN (β = 0.432, p < 0.001), the attitude (β = 0.349, p < 0.001), and to a lesser extent the perceived control/PC (β = 0.141, p = 0.005) predict the intention of mothers to provide water in addition to breast milk to their IU6M. The environment scores predict the attitude (β = 0.210, p = 0.001) and the SN (β = 0.284, p < 0.001). Having the mother practicing early breastfeeding initiation at birth positively predicted the PC score (β = 0.157, p = 0.017) and predicted an increasing score of SN (β = 0.221, p = 0.003). Even though predicting the final behavior is complex, this research provides directions to nutrition education programs to tailor their content to the context and be more efficient in reducing the proportion of women providing water to their IU6M, hence contributing to the improvement of EBF

Capacity-building for a strong public health nutrition workforce in lowresource countries

Neglected for several decades, nutrition is now firmly on the development agenda. Important landmarks are the initiation of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in 2010; the adoption by the World Health Assembly of the Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition in 2014; and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases for 2013–2020. Public health nutrition has to meet multiple new challenges, including the shift from the millennium development goals to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), together with growing issues such as climate change, globalization, urbanization, socioeconomic disparities, migration and wars.

Contribution des ressources naturelles à la sécurité alimentaire et à l'état nutritionnel d'une population rurale d'une aire protégée du Gabon

Cette étude visait à mieux comprendre la contribution des ressources naturelles à la sécurité alimentaire et à l'état nutritionnel d'une population rurale d'une aire protégée du Gabon. L'état nutritionnel, l'apport alimentaire et l'état de santé des individus ainsi que leur utilisation des ressources naturelles ont été appréciés de même que l'accès aux soins chez les individus plus vulnérables à la dénutrition. Pour chaque ménage, l'accès aux aliments, aux services de santé et à un environnement sain ainsi qu'aux ressources naturelles a été évalué. À chacune des deux principales saisons, les données ont été collectées sur une période de sept jours chez les ménages de quatre villages choisis selon un échantillonnage raisonné. Les résultats révèlent que la dénutrition est présente et ce, surtout chez les enfants de 0-59 mois et chez les personnes âgées. Les ressources naturelles ont une densité nutritive supérieure à celle des autres ressources et elles contribuent de façon importante à la qualité de l'alimentation. Leur utilisation par les individus semble contribuer à l'état nutritionnel des 5-19 ans mais pas chez d'autres groupes, probablement en raison de l'importance des soins chez les 0-23 mois et de l'état de santé chez les 24-59 mois. Chez les adultes, l'indice de masse corporelle n'a peut-être pas permis d'apprécier la pleine valeur des ressources naturelles sur l'état nutritionnel. Les personnes âgées auraient modifié leurs habitudes alimentaires à cause de l'enquête ne permettant pas de conclure à leur sujet. L'utilisation des ressources naturelles par les ménages ne prédisait pas l'état nutritionnel mais était faiblement et positivement corrélée à la sécurité alimentaire des adultes et des femmes. Toutefois, chez les femmes, plus leur ménage était en sécurité alimentaire, moins bon était leur état nutritionnel ce qui soulève d'importantes questions. Les ressources naturelles contribueraient à l'état nutritionnel chez certains groupes mais il est nécessaire d'approfondir l'étude de cette relation afin d'en avoir un meilleur portrait

7. Stratégies d’intervention pour la nutrition

Malgré une amélioration significative de la nutrition des populations au niveau mondial, des efforts supplémentaires doivent être consentis car les coûts humains et économiques de la sur- et de la sous-nutrition ne sont plus tenables. Des investissements efficaces et durables, répondant aux besoins des populations concernées, sont nécessaires de la part de tous les secteurs, pas seulement celui de la santé. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous proposons et réitérons l’importance d’une approche d..

Monitoring public health nutrition capacity development

Introduction The Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (CIP-MIYCN) endorsed by the 65th World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2012 (WHO 2012), includes six global nutrition targets to be achieved by 2025 as well as five actions to support the achievement of the global targets (See Box 1). Action 4 calls upon Member States to identify and map capacity needs, and to include and fund capacity-development in national plans to expand and scale-up nutrition actions. Action 5 calls for a well-defined framework that would allow a harmonized and internationally accepted approach to monitoring progress towards achieving the nutrition targets at both the national and global levels, as well as actions taken to put the MIYCN Plan into practice

Capacity-building for a strong public health nutrition workforce in low-resource countries

CITATION: Delisle, H. et al. 2017. Capacity-building for a strong public health nutrition workforce in low-resource countries. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 95:385-388. doi:10.2471/BLT.16.174912The original publication is available at http://www.who.int/bulletin/en/INTRODUCTION: Neglected for several decades, nutrition is now firmly on the development agenda. Important landmarks are the initiation of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in 2010; the adoption by the World Health Assembly of the Comprehensive Implementation Plan for Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition in 2014; and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases for 2013–2020. Public health nutrition has to meet multiple new challenges, including the shift from the millennium development goals to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), together with growing issues such as climate change, globalization, urbanization, socioeconomic disparities, migration and wars.Publisher's versio