Global Alliance for Chronic Disease researchers' statement on multimorbidity

Comment -No Abstract available

Labelling compliance and species identification of herring products sold at large scale retail level within the Italian market

The present study aimed at verifying labelling compliance to the current EU legislation, as well as the products' identity against substitution incidents, of processed herring currently available on the Italian market. Totally, one hundred and twenty-two herring samples including whole smoked exemplars, smoked fillets, pickled and canned products were collected. The labels were analyzed against the requirements of Regulation No.1169/2011 and No. 1379/2013 and the product identity was verified by the use of a full and a mini-DNA barcoding protocol. Shortcomings and labelling issue included the absence of a clear allergens highlight in 9.8% of the products analyzed, the incomplete mention to the catching area and the lack of fishing gear declaration in 40% and 33% of the products falling within the scope of Regulation No. 1379/2013. The COI barcodes selected in the study allowed the univocal species identification of all the products which were confirmed belonging to the species Clupea harengus. The substantial labelling compliance and the absence of mislabelling incidents confirmed a high level of food business operators training and control along the herring supply chain and a strong will to protect and enhance the consumers’ informed choice

International Waist Circumference Percentile Cutoffs for Central Obesity in Children and Adolescents Aged 6 to 18 Years.

No universal waist circumference (WC) percentile cutoffs used have been proposed for screening central obesity in children and adolescents. To develop international WC percentile cutoffs for children and adolescents with normal weight based on data from 8 countries in different global regions and to examine the relation with cardiovascular risk. We used pooled data on WC in 113,453 children and adolescents (males 50.2%) aged 4 to 20 years from 8 countries in different regions (Bulgaria, China, Iran, Korea, Malaysia, Poland, Seychelles, and Switzerland). We calculated WC percentile cutoffs in samples including or excluding children with obesity, overweight, or underweight. WC percentiles were generated using the general additive model for location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS). We also estimated the predictive power of the WC 90th percentile cutoffs to predict cardiovascular risk using receiver operator characteristics curve analysis based on data from 3 countries that had available data (China, Iran, and Korea). We also examined which WC percentiles linked with WC cutoffs for central obesity in adults (at age of 18 years). WC measured based on recommendation by the World Health Organization. We validated the performance of the age- and sex-specific 90th percentile WC cutoffs calculated in children and adolescents (6-18 years of age) with normal weight (excluding youth with obesity, overweight, or underweight) by linking the percentile with cardiovascular risk (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.69 for boys; 0.63 for girls). In addition, WC percentile among normal weight children linked relatively well with established WC cutoffs for central obesity in adults (eg, AUC in US adolescents: 0.71 for boys; 0.68 for girls). The international WC cutoffs developed in this study could be useful to screen central obesity in children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years and allow direct comparison of WC distributions between populations and over time