7 research outputs found
Tools to improve planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of complementary feeding programmes
Measuring multiple facets of malnutrition simultaneously: the missing link in setting nutrition targets and policymaking
Poverty and childhood undernutrition in developing countries : a multi-national cohort study
The importance of reducing childhood undernutrition has been enshrined in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. This study explores the relationship between alternative indicators of poverty and childhood undernutrition in developing countries within the context of a multi-national cohort study (Young Lives). Approximately 2000 children in each of four countries – Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam – had their heights measured and were weighed when they were aged between 6 and 17 months (survey one) and again between 4.5 and 5.5 years (survey two). The anthropometric outcomes of stunted, underweight and wasted were calculated using World Health Organization 2006 reference standards. Maximum-likelihood probit estimation was employed to model the relationship within each country and survey between alternative measures of living standards (principally a wealth index developed using principal components analysis) and each anthropometric outcome. An extensive set of covariates was incorporated into the models to remove as much individual heterogeneity as possible. The fully adjusted models revealed a negative and statistically significant coefficient on wealth for all outcomes in all countries, with the exception of the outcome of wasted in India (Andhra Pradesh) and Vietnam (survey one) and the outcome of underweight in Vietnam (surveys one and two). In survey one, the partial effects of wealth on the probabilities of stunting, being underweight and wasting was to reduce them by between 1.4 and 5.1 percentage points, 1.0 and 6.4 percentage points, and 0.3 and 4.5 percentage points, respectively, with each unit (10%) increase in wealth. The partial effects of wealth on the probabilities of anthropometric outcomes were larger in the survey two models. In both surveys, children residing in the lowest wealth quintile households had significantly increased probabilities of being stunted in all four study countries and of being underweight in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh) and Peru in comparison to children residing in the highest wealth quintile households. Random effects probit models confirmed the statistical significance of increased wealth in reducing the probability of being stunted and underweight across all four study countries. We conclude that, although multi-faceted, childhood undernutrition in developing countries is strongly rooted in poverty
Nutritional status among adolescent girls in children's homes: Anthropometry and dietary patterns
The use of genetic engineering to improve the nutritional profile of traditional plant foods
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Recommended from our members
Soil, food security and human health: a review
Direct effects of soil or its constituents on human health are through its ingestion, inhalation or absorption. The
soil contains many infectious organisms that may enter the human body through these pathways, but it also
provides organisms on which our earliest antibiotics are based. Indirect effects of soil arise from the quantity
and quality of food that humans consume. Trace elements can have both beneficial and toxic effects on humans,
especially where the range for optimal intake is narrow. We focus on four trace elements (iodine, iron, selenium
and zinc) whose deficiencies have substantial effects on human health. As the world’s population increases issues
of food security become more pressing, as does the need to sustain soil fertility and minimize its degradation.
Lack of adequate food and food of poor nutritional quality lead to differing degrees of under-nutrition, which in
turn causes ill health. Soil and land are finite resources and agricultural land is under severe competition from
other uses. Relationships between soil and health are often difficult to extricate because of the many confounding
factors present. Nevertheless, recent scientific understanding of soil processes and factors that affect human health
are enabling greater insight into the effects of soil on our health. Multidisciplinary research that includes soil
science, agronomy, agricultural sustainability, toxicology, epidemiology and the medical sciences will facilitate
the discovery of new antibiotics, a greater understanding of how materials added to soil used for food production
affect health and deciphering of the complex relationships between soil and human health