32 research outputs found
WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: health-risk behaviours on nutrition and physical activity in 6-9-year-old schoolchildren
Objective: To assess to what extent eight behavioural health risks related to
breakfast and food consumption and five behavioural health risks related to
physical activity, screen time and sleep duration are present among schoolchildren,
and to examine whether health-risk behaviours are associated with obesity.
Design: Cross-sectional design as part of the WHO European Childhood Obesity
Surveillance Initiative (school year 2007/2008). Children’s behavioural data were
reported by their parents and children’s weight and height measured by trained
fieldworkers. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were performed.
Setting: Primary schools in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Portugal and Sweden; paediatric
clinics in the Czech Republic.
Subjects: Nationally representative samples of 6–9-year-olds (n 15 643).
Results: All thirteen risk behaviours differed statistically significantly across
countries. Highest prevalence estimates of risk behaviours were observed in
Bulgaria and lowest in Sweden. Not having breakfast daily and spending screen
time ≥2 h/d were clearly positively associated with obesity. The same was true for
eating ‘foods like pizza, French fries, hamburgers, sausages or meat pies’ >3 d/week
and playing outside <1 h/d. Surprisingly, other individual unhealthy eating or less
favourable physical activity behaviours showed either no or significant negative
associations with obesity. A combination of multiple less favourable physical activity
behaviours showed positive associations with obesity, whereas multiple unhealthy
eating behaviours combined did not lead to higher odds of obesity.
Conclusions: Despite a categorization based on international health recommendations,
individual associations of the thirteen health-risk behaviours with obesity
were not consistent, whereas presence of multiple physical activity-related risk
behaviours was clearly associated with higher odds of obesity
Effect of dietary fat supplementation during late pregnancy and first six months of lactation on maternal and infant vitamin A status in rural Bangladesh
Dietary fat intake is extremely low in most communities with vitamin A
deficiency. However, its role in vitamin A status of pregnant and
lactating women is poorly understood. The aim of the study was to
examine the effect of supplementing women with fat from mid-/late
pregnancy until six months postpartum on their vitamin A status and
that of their infants. Women recruited at 5-7 months of gestation were
supple-mented daily with 20 mL of soybean-oil (n=248) until six months
postpartum or received no supplement (n=251). Dietary fat intake was
assessed by 24-hour dietary recall at enrollment and at 1, 3 and 6
months postpartum. Concentrations of maternal plasma retinol,
\u3b2-carotene, and lutein were measured at enroll-ment and at 1, 3
and 6 months postpartum, and those of infants at six months postpartum.
Concentration of breastmilk retinol was measured at 1, 3 and 6 months
postpartum. The change in concentration of plasma retinol at three
months postpartum compared to pregnancy was significantly higher in the
supple-mented compared to the control women (+0.04 vs -0.07 \u3bcmol/L
respectively; p<0.05). Concentrations of plasma \u3b2-carotene and
lutein declined in both the groups during the postpartum period but the
decline was significantly less in the supplemented than in the control
women at one month \u3b2-carotene -0.07 vs -0.13 \u3bcmol/L,
p<0.05); lutein -0.26 vs -0.49 \u3bcmol/L, p<0.05) and three
months \u3b2-carotene -0.04 vs -0.08 \u3bcmol/L, p<0.05; lutein
-0.31 vs -0.47 \u3bcmol/L, p<0.05). Concentration of breastmilk
retinol was also signifi-cantly greater in the supplemented group at
three months postpartum than in the controls (0.68\ub10.35 vs
0.55\ub10.34 \u3bcmol/L respectively, p<0.03). Concentrations of
infants\u2032 plasma retinol, \u3b2-carotene, and lutein, measured at
six months of age, did not differ between the groups. Fat
supplementation during pregnancy and lactation in women with a very low
intake of dietary fat has beneficial effects on maternal postpartum
vitamin A status
A hyperalgebraic proof of the isomorphism and isogeny theorems for reductive groups
textabstractWe examined whether specific input data and assumptions explain outcome differences in otherwise comparable health impact assessment models. Seven population health models estimating the impact of salt reduction on morbidity and mortality in western populations were compared on four sets of key features, their underlying assumptions and input data. Next, assumptions and input data were varied one by one in a default approach (the DYNAMO-HIA model) to examine how it influences the estimated health impact. Major differences in outcome were related to the size and shape of the dose-response relation between salt and blood pressure and blood pressure and disease. Modifying the effect sizes in the salt to health association resulted in the largest change in health impact estimates (33% lower), whereas other changes had less influence. Differences in health impact assessment model structure and input data may affect the health impact estimate. Therefore, clearly defined assumptions and transparent reporting for different models is crucial. However, the estimated impact of salt reduction was substantial in all of the models used, emphasizing the need for public health actions
WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: body mass index and level of overweight among 6-9-year-old children from school year 2007/2008 to school year 2009/2010.
BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has established the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) to monitor changes in overweight in primary-school children. The aims of this paper are to present the anthropometric results of COSI Round 2 (2009/2010) and to explore changes in body mass index (BMI) and overweight among children within and across nine countries from school years 2007/2008 to 2009/2010. METHODS: Using cross-sectional nationally representative samples of 6-9-year-olds, BMI, anthropometric Z-scores and overweight prevalence were derived from measured weight and height. Significant changes between rounds were assessed using variance and t-tests analyses. RESULTS: At Round 2, the prevalence of overweight (including obesity; WHO definitions) ranged from 18% to 57% among boys and from 18% to 50% among girls; 6 - 31% of boys and 5 - 21% of girls were obese. Southern European countries had the highest overweight prevalence. Between rounds, the absolute change in mean BMI (range: from -0.4 to +0.3) and BMI-for-age Z-scores (range: from -0.21 to +0.14) varied statistically significantly across countries. The highest significant decrease in BMI-for-age Z-scores was found in countries with higher absolute BMI values and the highest significant increase in countries with lower BMI values. The highest significant decrease in overweight prevalence was observed in Italy, Portugal and Slovenia and the highest significant increase in Latvia and Norway. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in BMI and prevalence of overweight over a two-year period varied significantly among European countries. It may be that countries with higher prevalence of overweight in COSI Round 1 have implemented interventions to try to remedy this situation
WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: Impact of Type of Clothing Worn during Anthropometric Measurements and Timing of the Survey on Weight and Body Mass Index Outcome Measures in 6–9-Year-Old Children
Background. The World Health Organization European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) conducted examinations in 6–9-year-old children from 16 countries in the first two rounds of data collection. Allowing participating countries to adhere to their local legal requirements or adapt to other circumstances required developing a flexible protocol for anthropometric procedures. Objectives. (1) Review intercountry variation in types of clothing worn by children during weight and height measurements, clothes weight adjustments applied, timing of the survey, and duration of data collection; (2) assess the impact of the observed variation in these practices on the children’s weight or body mass index (BMI) outcome measures. Results. The relative difference between countries’ unadjusted and clothes-adjusted prevalence estimates for overweight was 0.3–11.5%; this figure was 1.4–33.3% for BMI-for-age Z-score values. Monthly fluctuations in mean BMI-for-age Z-score values did not show a systematic seasonal effect. The majority of the monthly BMI-for-age Z-score values did not differ statistically within a country; only 1–3 monthly values were statistically different within some countries. Conclusions. The findings of the present study suggest that the built-in flexibility in the COSI protocol concerning the data collection practices addressed in the paper can be kept and thus do not necessitate a revision of the COSI protocol.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Effect of dietary fat supplementation during late pregnancy and first six months of lactation on maternal and infant vitamin A status in rural Bangladesh
Dietary fat intake is extremely low in most communities with vitamin A
deficiency. However, its role in vitamin A status of pregnant and
lactating women is poorly understood. The aim of the study was to
examine the effect of supplementing women with fat from mid-/late
pregnancy until six months postpartum on their vitamin A status and
that of their infants. Women recruited at 5-7 months of gestation were
supple-mented daily with 20 mL of soybean-oil (n=248) until six months
postpartum or received no supplement (n=251). Dietary fat intake was
assessed by 24-hour dietary recall at enrollment and at 1, 3 and 6
months postpartum. Concentrations of maternal plasma retinol,
β-carotene, and lutein were measured at enroll-ment and at 1, 3
and 6 months postpartum, and those of infants at six months postpartum.
Concentration of breastmilk retinol was measured at 1, 3 and 6 months
postpartum. The change in concentration of plasma retinol at three
months postpartum compared to pregnancy was significantly higher in the
supple-mented compared to the control women (+0.04 vs -0.07 μmol/L
respectively; p<0.05). Concentrations of plasma β-carotene and
lutein declined in both the groups during the postpartum period but the
decline was significantly less in the supplemented than in the control
women at one month β-carotene -0.07 vs -0.13 μmol/L,
p<0.05); lutein -0.26 vs -0.49 μmol/L, p<0.05) and three
months β-carotene -0.04 vs -0.08 μmol/L, p<0.05; lutein
-0.31 vs -0.47 μmol/L, p<0.05). Concentration of breastmilk
retinol was also signifi-cantly greater in the supplemented group at
three months postpartum than in the controls (0.68±0.35 vs
0.55±0.34 μmol/L respectively, p<0.03). Concentrations of
infants′ plasma retinol, β-carotene, and lutein, measured at
six months of age, did not differ between the groups. Fat
supplementation during pregnancy and lactation in women with a very low
intake of dietary fat has beneficial effects on maternal postpartum
vitamin A status