Child Health: A Population Perspective Bold, Nomin; Byambaa, Nyamzaya; Atarsaikhan, Khulan ...
Central Asian journal of medical science,
09/2022, Letnik:
8, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Objectives: Overweight, obesity, and their associated chronic diseases have become prevalent in many developing countries in Asia, defining them as major public health issues. One of the main ...contributors to overweight and obesity is the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). In this article, we reviewed the latest literature examining the benefits of a SSB tax. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted on: (i) policy documents and government reports to examine the current applications of SSB taxation; and (ii) published studies on price elasticity of demand (PED) of SSBs to examine the health and economic benefits of SSB taxation. Results: Articles included in our review have used or estimated negative PED, ranging from -0.63 to -1.3, and have shown an associated decrease in BMI and prevalence of overweight and obesity. Conclusion: Most studies so far have focused on the health and economic impacts of SSB taxation among high- and upper-middle income countries. Further research is needed to understand the impact of SSB taxation on lower-middle and low-income countries, which are facing comparable, if not more serious, obesity and overweight threats.
Objectives: This paper aims to study how consumption of beverages relates to the body weight of children and adolescents in Mongolia. Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted between 2015 and ...2016. A group of 353 relatively healthy children and adolescents aged 6-16 were selected from ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Chi-squared analysis was conducted to evaluate the association of categorical variables with body mass index (BMI) z-score subgroups. T-test or two-way ANOVA was performed to compare means. Beverage consumption was presented as means with standard deviation (SD) among sex and age groups. Results: The data from 347 children and adolescents were analyzed. Boys represented 50.1% (n =174) and the mean age ± SD was 10.0 ±2.9 years. Tea was the main beverage type in all age and sex groups compared to other types of beverages. Girls aged between 10 and 13 years old had the highest consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). And there was a markedly high consumption of SSB among overweight and obese children. Conclusion: Significantly higher consumption of SSB was seen among overweight and obese children. Detailed household and school-based observational and interventional studies should be performed using these findings to help policy makers to make evidence-based decisions about SSB.
Background: Mongolia introduced vaccination against hepatitis B (HepB) in 1991, leading to a significant decline in the number of infections and mortality associated with the liver disease among this ...generation. However, the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and mortality rates among people born before the vaccination program have not declined. Although several studies have been conducted in Mongolia since the introduction of the HepB immunization program, long-term immunity has not been studied at the national level. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of HBV infection in adolescents and young adults who received HepB vaccinations at 0, 2, and 8 months after birth and to assess their post-vaccination immunity against hepatitis B. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2016 and December 2018 and included a sample aged 10 to 27 years in Mongolia who had received HepB vaccination according to the national program. A total of 3591 individuals were randomly selected, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Blood samples were collected, and serum titers of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs), and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) were determined by a two-step sandwich chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay. The age-specific geometric mean of anti-HBs was also estimated. Results: Overall, 98.3% of participants were vaccinated against HepB as infants, according to the interview. The majority had an inadequate anti-HBs titer, while 17.9% had an anti-HBs level of > 10 mIU/mL, of whom 5.7% had immunity induced by HBV infection. Up to 4% of children aged 10 - 19 years and an average of 8% of young adults were serologically positive for HBsAg. The geometric mean anti-HBs titer declined with age, from an average of 40.4 mIU/mL in 10-year-old children to 14.1 IU/mL in 27-year-old adults (P < 0.001). Conclusions: In Mongolia, a small proportion of the population aged 10 - 27 years is immune to HBV, and the geometric mean titer of anti-HBS tended to decrease with age. In order to attain long-term protection against HBV, booster vaccination in adulthood may be necessary.
ABSTRACT
Background
Following the first locally transmitted case in Sukhbaatar soum, Selenge Province, we aimed to investigate the ultimate scale of the epidemic in the scenario of uninterrupted ...transmission.
Methods
This was a prospective case study following the locally modified WHO FFX cases generic protocol. A rapid response team collected data from November 14 to 29, 2020. We created a stochastic process to draw many transmission chains from this greater distribution to better understand and make inferences regarding the outbreak under investigation.
Results
The majority of the cases involved household transmissions (35, 52.2%), work transmissions (20, 29.9%), index (5, 7.5%), same apartment transmissions (2, 3.0%), school transmissions (2, 3.0%), and random contacts between individuals transmissions (1, 1.5%). The posterior means of the basic reproduction number of both the asymptomatic cases R0Asy$$ {R}_0^{Asy} $$ and the presymptomatic cases R0Pre$$ {R}_0^{Pre} $$ (1.35 95% CrI 0.88–1.86 and 1.29 95% CrI 0.67–2.10, respectively) were lower than that of the symptomatic cases (2.00 95% Crl 1.38–2.76).
Conclusion
Our study highlights the heterogeneity of COVID‐19 transmission across different symptom statuses and underscores the importance of early identification and isolation of symptomatic cases in disease control. Our approach, which combines detailed contact tracing data with advanced statistical methods, can be applied to other infectious diseases, facilitating a more nuanced understanding of disease transmission dynamics.
We aimed to estimate the household secondary infection attack rate (hSAR) of SARS‐CoV‐2 in investigations aligned with the WHO Unity Studies Household Transmission Investigations (HHTI) protocol. We ...conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines. We searched Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and medRxiv/bioRxiv for “Unity‐aligned” First Few X cases (FFX) and HHTIs published 1 December 2019 to 26 July 2021. Standardised early results were shared by WHO Unity Studies collaborators (to 1 October 2021). We used a bespoke tool to assess investigation methodological quality. Values for hSAR and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted or calculated from crude data. Heterogeneity was assessed by visually inspecting overlap of CIs on forest plots and quantified in meta‐analyses. Of 9988 records retrieved, 80 articles (64 from databases; 16 provided by Unity Studies collaborators) were retained in the systematic review; 62 were included in the primary meta‐analysis. hSAR point estimates ranged from 2% to 90% (95% prediction interval: 3%–71%; I2 = 99.7%); I2 values remained >99% in subgroup analyses, indicating high, unexplained heterogeneity and leading to a decision not to report pooled hSAR estimates. FFX and HHTI remain critical epidemiological tools for early and ongoing characterisation of novel infectious pathogens. The large, unexplained variance in hSAR estimates emphasises the need to further support standardisation in planning, conduct and analysis, and for clear and comprehensive reporting of FFX and HHTIs in time and place, to guide evidence‐based pandemic preparedness and response efforts for SARS‐CoV‐2, influenza and future novel respiratory viruses.
