Symposium on nutrition and cognition: towards research and application for different life stages. (Congress)

Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition211104-12

The Role of Micronutrients in Ageing Asia:What Can Be Implemented with the Existing Insights

Life expectancy as a measure of population health does not reflect years of healthy life. The average life expectancy in the Asia-Pacific region has more than doubled since 1900 and is now above 70 years. In the Asia-Pacific region, the proportion of aged people in the population is expected to double between 2017 and 2050. Increased life expectancy leads to an increase in non-communicable diseases, which consequently affects quality of life. Suboptimal nutritional status is a contributing factor to the prevalence and severity of non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular, cognitive, musculoskeletal, immune, metabolic and ophthalmological functions. We have reviewed the published literature on nutrition and healthy ageing as it applies to the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on vitamins, minerals/trace elements and omega-3 fatty acids. Optimal nutritional status needs to start before a senior age is reached and before the consequences of the disease process are irreversible. Based on the nutritional status and health issues in the senior age in the region, micronutrients of particular importance are vitamins A, D, E, C, B-12, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids. The present paper substantiates the creation of micronutrient guidelines and proposes actions to support the achievement of optimal nutritional status as contribution to healthy ageing for Asia-Pacific populations

Nutrient Composition of Selected Cooked and Processed Snack Foods

Nutrient composition of 27 cooked snack foods and 19 processed snacks was determined. The cooked foods were mostly cereal based, made from wheat flour, rice or rice flour, and almost all of them were traditional Malaysian kuih or dishes. The processed snacks studied were chocolate, cereal, tuber, fish and prawn products. The levels of 19 nutrients were tabulated, expressed as per 100 g edible portion. Selected nutrients in each serving or packet of the foods were also presented. The paper is intended as a contribution to the knowledge on nutrient composition of local snack foods, for which information is still greatly lacking. The number of foods studied is only a fraction of the total number available. More work in this area will have to be carried out, to meet the increasing demand for such data

Socio-economic determinants of nutritional status of children in rural Peninsular Malaysia

The data presented is part of the findings from a four-year collaborative research project between Universiti Putra Malaysia, the Institute for Medical Research and the Ministry of Health Malaysia. The project assessed the nutritional status of the major functional groups in Peninsular Malaysia. Mukim Sayong and Pulau Kemiri in the District of Kuala Kangsar, Perak were two of the subdistricts selected to represent small rubber holdings in Peninsular Malaysia. This paper attempts to analyse the socio-economic profile of the households and the nutritional status of children below 9 years of age. A total of 307 households were studied. Approximately 63% of the households were involved in rubber activities and the majority of them were hired tappers. The average monthly income of the households was RM467 and the income ranged between RM30 to RM2120. Based on the per capita poverty line income of RM84.38, it was found that 14.1% of the households earned less than RM42.19, which can be considered as hard-core poor, while 32.7% were poor (monthly per capita income between RM42.19 and RM84.38). Slightly more than half (52.7%) earned income above the poverty line. The average family size was 4.5, ranging from 1 through to 16. The majority of the heads of households (56.6%) had between 3 and 6 years of education, and 14.5% did not receive any formal education. The prevalence of stunting among children 0-5 years of age was 26%, while 31.5% were underweight and 3.8% wasted. Among children aged between 5 and 9 years, almost the same pattern of nutritional status was noted. The overall percentages of stunting, underweight and wasting among these children were 29.2%, 26.1% and 0.62%, respectively. Analysis on nutritional status according to income level showed a noticeable difference in the prevalence of malnutrition in children above and below the poverty line income. The Student's t-test indicated significant differences in weight-for-age and weight-for-height between the two poverty line income for children below 5 years of age. Pearson's correlation coefficient showed a significant correlation between height-for-age with household size (r = -0.26, P < 0.05), and monthly per capita income with weight-for-height (r = 0.25, P < 0.05). There was a highly significant correlation between acreage of land cultivated and weight-for-height (r = 0.42, P < 0.01), and weight-for-age (r = 0.25, P < 0.05). The findings indicated the influence of socio-economic factors on the nutritional status of children

Iron status and dietary iron intake of adolescents from a rural community in Sabah, Malaysia

Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency in the world affecting the general health and wellbeing of millions. In Malaysia, moderately high prevalences of anaemia have been reported amongst infants, young children and women of childbearing age. Data is scant for the adolescents. This study was undertaken to assess the iron status and dietary intake of 165 adolescents, comprising 74 male and 91 female subjects, aged 12 to 19 years, from the rural communities in Tuaran District of Sabah, Malaysia. Convenience sampling was used for the selection of study subjects. Multiple iron status indicators namely, serum ferritin (SF), transferrin saturation (TS), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and haemoglobin (Hb) were determined for the study. The mean age of the subjects was 15.2 ± 2.1 years. While the majority of the subjects (77.6%) had normal body mass index (BMI) values, 17.6% were underweight and 4.8% overweight. About 35% to 40% of the subjects showed deficient values for haematocrit, serum ferritin, serum iron, mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and transferrin saturation (TS), and 20% were anaemic (Hb &lt;12 g/L). Using the multiple criteria of iron status indicators, the prevalence of iron depletion, iron deficiency and IDA in the male and female adolescents were 5.4% vs. 6.6%, 18.9% vs. 26.4% and 5.4% vs. 26.4%, respectively. Iron deficiency anaemia (85.0%) contributed largely to the prevalence of anaemia. The dietary iron intake of the adolescents was unsatisfactory, with approximately 98% of subjects failing to meet the Malaysian RDA level. Almost all the female subjects (91%) had dietary iron intake below two-thirds of the RDA level compared with a much smaller proportion for the male adolescents (68%). The prevalence of IDA in the present study population, especially in the female adolescents, appears to be a significant public health problem. Priority should therefore be given to the eradication of iron deficiency in adolescents from low-income areas by dietary modification and micronutrient supplementation amongst female adolescents

Malaysian Healthy Diet Online Survey (MHDOS): Study rationale and methodology

Introduction: Access to accurate and timely dietary information is of paramount importance in evaluating and developing well-targeted public health nutrition interventions. However, nationwide nutrition surveys are conducted infrequently because they are very costly to design, conduct and analyse. Dietary assessment tools, which are quick and cost- effective, are needed for population research and regular monitoring of Malaysians’ dietary habits. This paper describes the rationale and methodology of the Malaysian Healthy Diet Online Survey (MHDOS) project, which aims to bridge this knowledge gap on dietary intake of Malaysian adults. The main objective of the two-year project is to develop MHDOS as a valid tool to measure compliance with the Malaysian Dietary Guidelines 2020. Methods: The MHDOS project has three study phases, namely (i) adaptation of an online survey and established diet quality scoring system for Malaysia, (ii) usability, validity and reliability testing of the online survey; and (iii) online survey administration in a nationwide study. The survey will be administered to approximately 10,000 Malaysian adults aged 18-59 years. Discussion: MHDOS consists of 38 questions that measures the quantity, quality and variety of foods consumed. Individuals will receive a diet quality score that reflects their overall compliance with the Malaysian Dietary Guidelines and feedback on how to improve their scores. The findings of the online survey, which serve to complement information between larger surveys, will be useful to measure compliance of Malaysians to national dietary guidelines and inform public health interventions

Simultaneous determination of retinol and α α-tocopherol by high pressure liquid chromatography in micro-volumes of serum

ABSTRACT The lack of biochemical data to indicate the prevalence of marginal vitamin A deficiency (VAD) in the country is largely because of the difficulty of obtaining enough serum for analysis, especially from malnourished children. Efforts were therefore made to establish a high-pressure liquid chromatography system (HPLC) for the determination of retinol in micro-volumes of serum. Since our previous studies showed that tocopherol could be simultaneously determined in the same system, studies have been carried out for the determination of both vitamins using retinol acetate and -tocopherol acetate as internal standards. Trials were carried out to determine the most suitable sample treatment procedures and chromatographic system including composition of the mobile phase for handling 20 µl of serum. The HPLC system proposed enables successful separation and quantitation of retinol and α-tocopherol and their respective internal standards, retinol acetate and -tocopherol in less than 14 minutes. Reproducibility studies carried out with pooled sera showed a within day and between day variation of less than 8% and 13% respectively for retinol, whilst variations for α-tocopherol were higher, ranging from 8-16%. The proposed method is currently being applied to the determination of retinol and α-tocopherol in a group of malnourished children under six years of age

Development of a HPLC method for the simultaneous determination of several B-vitamins and ascorbic acid

ABSTRACT In cognizance of the difficulties involved in the colorimetric and titrimetric methods for the determination of individual vitamins, this laboratory has been carrying out a series of studies into the use of HPLC for improved analysis of these nutrients. Preliminary studies have been carried out for the determination of four B-vitamins. The present paper reports on further improvements made to enable the simultaneous determination of eight vitamins i.e. B 1 , B 2 , B 6 , B 12 , C, niacin, niacinamide and folic acid. Trials were carried out to determine the most suitable chromatographic system include changing the proportion of methanol in the mobile phase, the use of different ion-pairing reagents and other additives such as triethylamine and ammonia. Three sets of HPLC mobile phase systems are proposed to enable successful separation of all eight vitamins in less than 20 minutes, varying slightly with the type of ion-pairing reagent and mobile phase additive. This laboratory is currently carrying out trials to determine if the developed methods could be used for the determination of pharmaceutical products and food samples

Overview of country nutritional status

The country has undergone tremendous socio-economic development since it gained Independence. Health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, and infant, toddler and maternal mortality rates have been improving steadily. Food Balance Sheet data also indicate increases in per capita availability of protein and calorie. These data show that the nutritional status of Malaysians have been improving over the years. However, due to the problem of inequity, such national data do not reflect the existence of considerable variations in the nutritional status of different communities in various parts of the country. Indeed, recent studies have indicated that considerable amount of mild to moderate malnutrition occurs in various poverty rural and urban communities, although severe protein-energy malnutrition is not frequently reported. Mejor nutritional deficiency problems encountered by various segments of the population will be highlighted