To investigate nutritional risk across children in their first 2 years at child health care clinics in Jiangsu, China, and to highlight the importance of nutritional risk screening in outpatient ...clinics.
A multi-centre, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among outpatients in child health care clinics. Nutritional risk screening using the STRONGkids tool and anthropometric assessments were performed on children under 2 years old at outpatient initial visits in ten hospitals from March 2021 to March 2022.
There were 11,454 children enrolled. The percentages of children with high, moderate and low nutritional risk were 2.0% (228), 28.2% (3229) and 69.8% (7997), respectively. The occurrence rate of high nutritional risk was higher in female children than in male children (p < 0.05). The incidence of moderate nutritional risk in infants was significantly higher than in children aged ≥12 months (p < 0.01). Children with moderate or high nutritional risk more frequently answered ‘yes’ to the STRONGkids item ‘high risk disease or major surgery planned’. The top three diagnoses related to nutritional risk were prematurity (50.5%), food allergy (14.3%) and recurrent respiratory disease (10.7%). In addition, the incidence of chronic undernutrition in children with moderate (14.0%) or high nutritional risk (36.4%) was significantly higher than acute undernutrition (p < 0.01).
Among children up to 2 years of age seen in child health clinics, nutritional risk associated with prematurity and potential disease requires special attention. Nutritional risk screening should be part of child health care, and STRONGkids is a useful screening tool.
Food insecurity is a threat to children's development and in Australia 13.5% of households experience food insecurity. Universal school food programs, however, are not provided nationally. Teachers ...and not‐for‐profit organisations have instead mobilised to tackle hunger. The strategies used and their effects on students have limited empirical evidence. The aim of this study is to gain perspectives on the causes and consequences of children's food insecurity in schools and describe food security strategies adopted.
One hundred schools in Victoria, which participate in a not‐for‐profit lunch program provided by Eat Up were invited to take part in the study. Fifteen staff (including school principals and welfare officers) from 15 schools were recruited for semi‐structured interviews.
There was evidence that children experience adverse quantity, quality, social and psychological impacts of food insecurity whilst in school settings. Participants described employing multiple strategies including free meals (e.g. lunch, breakfast) and food (e.g. parcels) for food insecure students and their families.
In our sample, multiple strategies were being employed by schools to reduce food insecurity, but there remains unmet need for additional wide‐scale initiatives to address this critical issue and its causes and consequences.
Preschool age is a great time to learn a healthy lifestyle, for behavior therapy. Mobile health procedures are inexpensive, reliable, and accessible. This project has two phases. The KidFood mobile ...game and two nutrition knowledge questionnaires were designed during the first phase. In the second phase, a six-month, parallel, blinded, randomized controlled trial will perform on 120 Iranian children aged 5 to 6 years. Before and after nutritional education via KidFood, the dietary habits, the nutritional knowledge of parents and children, and the anthropometric indices of children will be evaluated.
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This study aims to examine repeatability of reduced rank regression (RRR) methods in calculating dietary patterns (DP) and cross-sectional associations with overweight (OW)/obesity across European ...and Australian samples of adolescents. Data from two cross-sectional surveys in Europe (2006/2007 Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence study, including 1954 adolescents, 12-17 years) and Australia (2007 National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey, including 1498 adolescents, 12-16 years) were used. Dietary intake was measured using two non-consecutive, 24-h recalls. RRR was used to identify DP using dietary energy density, fibre density and percentage of energy intake from fat as the intermediate variables. Associations between DP scores and body mass/fat were examined using multivariable linear and logistic regression as appropriate, stratified by sex. The first DP extracted (labelled 'energy dense, high fat, low fibre') explained 47 and 31 % of the response variation in Australian and European adolescents, respectively. It was similar for European and Australian adolescents and characterised by higher consumption of biscuits/cakes, chocolate/confectionery, crisps/savoury snacks, sugar-sweetened beverages, and lower consumption of yogurt, high-fibre bread, vegetables and fresh fruit. DP scores were inversely associated with BMI z-scores in Australian adolescent boys and borderline inverse in European adolescent boys (so as with %BF). Similarly, a lower likelihood for OW in boys was observed with higher DP scores in both surveys. No such relationships were observed in adolescent girls. In conclusion, the DP identified in this cross-country study was comparable for European and Australian adolescents, demonstrating robustness of the RRR method in calculating DP among populations. However, longitudinal designs are more relevant when studying diet-obesity associations, to prevent reverse causality.
Adequate nutrition is one of the most important factors for influencing growth and development of children. Providing adequate amounts of minerals is extremely important in the developmental age, ...especially in periods of intensive growth. Calcium and vitamin D deficiency may have a negative impact on the health of children, both in the short and long term.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the content of calcium and vitamin D in the meals of preschoolers and to compare the obtained results to Polish dietary reference values for children aged 4-6 years.
The study was conducted in 40 randomly selected kindergartens in some Silesian cities and were concerning 1,746 children. 10-day-menus and preschool inventory reports describing the amount of food used for meal preparation were obtained from every kindergarten. 10-day-menus were analysed in terms of calcium and vitamin D content with the use of the Dieta 5 software. The obtained results were developed in Microsoft Excel 2016.
The analysis of 10-days menus showed significant deficiencies in both calcium and vitamin D intake in the assessed food rations. The mean calcium level was 416.0 mg while vitamin D was 1.47 μg. The content of calcium and vitamin D in the examined 10-days menus did not meet the dietary reference values.
The necessity to modify menus in terms of increasing the consumption of the analysed nutrients was demonstrated, as well as the need to implement nutritional education for preschool staff and parents was suggested.
Abstract
Participation in the subsidized School Breakfast Program has traditionally been unsatisfactory. Universally free breakfast service in the classroom has boosted participation, but is not ...financially feasible for many schools. Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent participation under the standard cafeteria setting is hampered due to insufficient time to eat. This study separately identifies time and location effects using a unique, individual-level panel data set of elementary school students under three experimental treatments: original setup in the cafeteria, original setup plus ten minutes of mandatory presence in the cafeteria, and in-classroom service. We find that the extra time plus the fixed location effect in the cafeteria increases average daily participation by approximately 20%, while the transition to classroom implementation adds another 35%–45% for the typical student. We also collect detailed data on nutritional intake, and find that, in total, neither treatment has a significant effect on consumption compared to the baseline.
Distribution system will affect the labor incentive that has been heatedly discussed by recent literatures. Using a unique micro dataset, this paper demonstrates that the equalitarian distribution ...system is one of the reasons for the insufficient labor incentive during the Chinese Collective Agriculture period. Specifically speaking, in the distribution of basic rations, the proportion for children (aged 1–3 and 4–7 years) was often beyond their nutrition demand, resulting the dissatisfaction of other families with more laborers and less children, thus these households will reduce their labor supply gradually. At the same time, the existence of outstanding accounts makes it a failure to use work points to buy distributions, which is the mechanism of the distribution system and insufficient labor incentive. All the results have been accepted by the robustness tests. The study will help to understand the distribution system and labor incentive, as well as the failure of the Chinese collective agriculture.
Many countries implement micronutrient powder (MNP) programmes to improve the nutritional status of young children. Little is known about the predictors of MNP coverage for different delivery models. ...We describe MNP coverage of an infant and young child feeding and MNP intervention for children aged 6–23 months comparing two delivery models piloted in rural Nepal: distributing MNPs either by female community health volunteers (FCHVs) or at health facilities (HFs). Cross‐sectional household cluster surveys were conducted in four pilot districts among mothers of children 6–23 months after starting MNP distribution. FCHVs in each cluster were also surveyed. We used logistic regression to describe predictors of initial coverage (obtaining a batch of 60 MNP sachets) at 3 months and repeat coverage (≥2 times coverage among eligible children) at 15 months after project launch. At 15 months, initial and repeat coverage were higher in the FCHV model, although no differences were observed at 3 months. Attending an FCHV‐led mothers' group meeting where MNP was discussed increased odds of any coverage in both models at 3 months and of repeat coverage in the HF model at 15 months. Perceiving ≥1 positive effects in the child increased odds of repeat coverage in both delivery models. A greater portion of FCHV volunteers from the FCHV model vs. the HF model reported increased burden at 3 and 15 months (not statistically significant). Designing MNP programmes that maximise coverage without overburdening the system can be challenging and more than one delivery model may be needed.
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