METHODS: NPC patients were recruited in this cross-sectional study, and they were divided into well-nourished and malnourished groups according to the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM). Potential risk factors were initially screened using univariate analysis (p
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: NPC patients will be required to complete a risk factor questionnaire after obtaining their informed consent. The risk factor questionnaire will be used to collect potential risk factors for malnutrition. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses will be used to identify risk factors for malnutrition. A new nutritional assessment tool will be developed based on risk factors. The new tool's performance will be assessed by calibration and discrimination. The bootstrapping will be used for internal validation of the new tool. In addition, external validation will be performed by recruiting NPC patients from another hospital.
DISCUSSION: If the new tool is validated to be effective, it will potentially save medical staff time in assessing malnutrition and improve their work efficiency. Additionally, it may reduce the incidence of malnutrition and its adverse consequences.
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY: The study will comprehensively analyze demographic data, disease status, physical examination, and blood sampling to identify risk factors for malnutrition. Furthermore, the new tool will be systematically evaluated, and validated to determine their effectiveness. However, the restricted geographical range may limit the generalizability of the results to other ethnicities. Additionally, the study does not analyze subjective indicators such as psychology.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The ethical approval was granted by the Ethical Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (NO. 2022-KT-GUI WEI-005) and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University (NO. 2022-KY-0752).
CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR2300071550.
Methods: Towards Useful Aging (TUA) is a three-year longitudinal study conducted at baseline (2013-2014) and at follow-up (2015-2017) surveys. The number of participants dropped from 2322 during baseline study to 1787 and 1560 during the 18th and 36th month follow-up, respectively. Data on socio-demography, use of dietary supplement, biochemical indices, anthropometry, cognitive function, physical fitness and depressive symptoms were obtained. Longitudinal associations were done using the linear mixed model analysis among 1285 subjects with complete data.
Results: The most common vitamin and mineral supplementations consumed were multivitamin, B-complex, and calcium. Meanwhile, the herbal supplements consumed by participants were Eurycoma longifolia, Morinda citrifolia and Orthosiphon aristatus. Longitudinal analysis adjusted for multiple covariates showed improvement in both supplement users and non-users for global cognitive function, working memory, visual memory, 2-minute step test, chair stand test, chair sit and reach and time up and go test, waist circumference and hip circumference in both the supplement users and non-users.
Conclusion: Our findings indicated that dietary supplement intake is not associated with cognitive function, physical fitness, nutritional status, depressive symptoms or biochemical indices since improvement in the parameters was observed among both supplement users and non-users.
OBJECTIVE: Use dietary diversity data to explore consumption patterns of fish and high-quality food items within the household and examine factors associated with delayed introduction of fish to infants and young children.
METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of 496 households with children <36 months participating in the Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition project in Bangladesh. Data collected included household characteristics, women's dietary diversity score, and minimum dietary diversity score along with data on Infant and Young Child Feeding practices.
RESULTS: Most children (63.4%) met the threshold for minimum dietary diversity. Despite having received extensive nutrition education related to including fish in complementary foods, only half of the caretakers introduced fish at 6 months and the mean age of introduction of small fish was 8.7 months. Meat and fish were not common in infant diets but increased with child age. Concerns about bones were a major barrier to incorporating fish into infant diets.
CONCLUSION: Given its nutrient profile and widespread availability in certain contexts, fish could be an underutilized opportunity to improve nutrition and health outcomes of infants and young children. Further research, including utilizing food processing technologies, is needed to develop appropriate responses to overcome these barriers.
METHODS/DESIGN: This quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the SNP between intervention and comparison groups before and after the SNP, and after a 3-month follow-up. The SNP consisted of two main components, whereby three nutrition education sessions were implemented by trained teachers using three standardised modules, and healthy school food environment was implemented by the canteen food handlers with the provision of healthy menu to children during school recess times. Children from intervention group participated in the SNP, in addition to the standard Physical and Health Curriculum. The comparison group attended only the standardised Physical and Health Curriculum and the school canteen food handlers were reminded to follow the standard canteen guidelines from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The assessment parameters in evaluating the effectiveness of the programme were knowledge, attitude and practice on nutrition, eating behaviours, physical activity, body composition, psychological distress, cognitive performance and health-related quality of life. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up.
DISCUSSION: It was hypothesised that the SNP would be effective in promoting healthy lifestyle among school children, and further contributes in preventing malnutrition problem, enhancing cognitive performance and improving health-related quality of life among school children. Findings of the present study can be expanded to other schools in future on ways to improve nutrition education and healthy school food environment.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN Clinical Trial Registration UMIN000032914 (Date of registration: 7th June 2018, retrospectively registered).
PROTOCOL VERSION: 16th September 2019 & Version 4.