ABSTRACT DIGEST ON MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITION RESEARCH – ISSUE 23

Click here to download the PDF

In this issue of Abstract Digest, we present to you a collection of articles on various aspects of nutrition, including its determinants, tools of measurement, and strategic responses through policy and program. Here are some of the highlights:

Two studies have examined the influences of maternal depression on children’s growth:

• Based on evidence from rural India, Nguyen and colleagues (2018) demonstrated that maternal depressive symptom is significantly associated with both child undernutrition and development delay, calling for practical interventions to address maternal depression to simultaneously target multiple outcomes for both women and children.
• From a birth cohort in India, Babu and colleagues (2018) found an association between antepartum depression and small for gestational age (SGA) babies, thus highlighting the need to explore implementation of screening, diagnostic services and evidence-based antenatal mental health services by modifying the provisions of ongoing national programs.

• Harding and colleagues (2018) explored the factors associated with wasting among children aged 0 to 59 months and found that the underlying determinants of wasting and stunting in South Asia are similar, therefore cost-effective interventions to prevent both stunting and wasting, and to treat severe wasting, need to be scaled up urgently without separating these two manifestations of child undernutrition.

• Using nationally representative data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys in 31 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), Jeong and colleagues (2018) found links between birth registration and children’s early growth and development outcomes, emphasizing that efforts to increase birth registration may be promising for promoting early childhood development in LMICs.

• From a systematic review of cohort studies and a meta-analysis, Khalil and colleagues (2018) demonstrated that there is a causal relation between childhood diarrhoea caused by Cryptosporidium infection and childhood growth, calling for interventions designed to prevent and effectively treat infection in children younger than five years.

• Richter and colleagues (2018) analysed longitudinal data from four birth cohort studies in low- and middle-income countries and found that early child growth faltering is determined by both biological and social factors, underscoring the need for interventions that address both biological and social determinants over the long and short term.

• Using country-level data and an ecological study design, Harding and colleagues (2018) explored the global associations between women’s educational attainment and the micronutrient status of children, women and the general population, drawing policy-relevant connections between formal education, anemia and micronutrient status globally.

• Knowles and colleagues (2018) conducted regression analyses of data from stratified, cluster sample, and household iodine surveys in four countries to identify factors associated with household access to adequately iodised salt and concluded that improving household access to refined iodised salt in sealed packaging would improve iodine intake from household salt.

• Dror and Allen (2018) conducted a review of current knowledge and summarized how nutrient concentrations change through the initiation and progression of lactation, and how modifiable and nonmodifiable factors, including interventions, influence breast milk nutrient concentrations.

• Based on the review of current knowledge on methods used for analyzing water- and fat-soluble vitamins as well as iron, copper, zinc, iodine, and selenium in human milk and their different forms in milk, the tools available for quality control and assurance, and guidance for preanalytical considerations, Hampel and colleagues (2018) have recommended preferred methodologic approaches for analysis of specific milk micronutrients.

• The following three studies have looked at the tools of nutrition related measurements:
  • Grellety and Golden (2018) analysed the statistical distributions of the derived anthropometric parameters from 1843 surveys to assess the scale of malnutrition, conducted by 19 agencies between 1986 and 2015, to determine if the changes in methodology over recent decades have resulted in higher quality surveys.
  • A study by Das and colleagues (2018) looked at the validity of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) as an indicator of low BMI in population screening among adult slum dwellers in eastern India for undernutrition and supported the validity of the WHO-recommended MUAC cut-offs for adults.
  • Taneja and colleagues (2018) assessed the performance of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) as a predictor of mortality in children aged 6–59 months from Delhi, India, one year after their initial MUAC measurements were taken, and concluded that MUAC is a significant predictor of subsequent mortality in under-five children.

• Hambidge and Krebs (2018) reviewed the importance of maternal nutrition and strategies for optimizing maternal nutrition to promote infant development and presented an impelling rationale for improving the maternal and in-utero environment of low resource populations to achieve improved fetal and post-natal growth and development.

• Sharma and colleagues (2018) assessed the effectiveness of community intervention model to improve the maternal healthcare service uptake of young married couples (15-24 years) in rural India.

• In a commentary, following the 30th anniversary of the launch of global Safe Motherhood Initiative, Stanton and colleagues (2018) have highlighted that many countries will need to double, or more than double, their current annual rate of reduction of maternal mortality to ensure sufficient progress toward national targets and the global Sustainable Development Goals.

• A study by Kim and colleagues (2018) estimated the extent to which basic socioeconomic factors contribute to variation in body-mass index (BMI) across populations in 58 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), using data from the cross-sectional Demographic and Health Surveys (2005–16) for 15–49 year old women with complete data for anthropometric measures.

• Caleyachetty and colleagues (2018) quantified the magnitude of the double burden of malnutrition among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the associated macrolevel contextual factors and called for context-sensitive implementation and scale-up of interventions and policies to address the double burden of malnutrition.

• Mozaffarian and colleagues (2018) reviewed the strategies that governments can use to improve nutrition and health, taking a closer look at the barriers and opportunities for healthier eating.

• On the basis of Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews aiming to contextualize the evidence on anaemia, and a trend analysis of existing data from the national surveys, Sinha and colleagues (2018) have presented research priorities in the field of anaemia in India.

Enjoy reading!