Effect of Adding Milk to a Micronutrient-Fortified High-Energy Biscuit School Feeding Programme in Yemen: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Two billion children globally are estimated to live in conflict-affected areas. School feeding programs (SFPs) are a widely implemented safety net that supports children during and after conflict.

Objectives: We evaluated the effectiveness of providing milk alongside a high-energy biscuit (HEB) SFP in Yemen on children's and caregivers' outcomes.

Development and Validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for Children 24 to 59 Months of Age.

Objectives: To develop the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for children aged 24-59 months and evaluate its performance in predicting outcomes related to nutrient adequacy and diet-related noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk.

Background: The GDQS is a food-based metric developed and validated for capturing diets' contributions to nutrient adequacy and NCD risk among adult men and nonpregnant and nonlactating women aged ≥15 years globally. Despite the importance of ensuring healthy diets in preschool children and the need for systematic monitoring, no food-based metrics exist that holistically measure diet quality among children aged 24-59 months in diverse populations.

Development and Validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for Children 5 to 9 Years of Age.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to develop and validate a Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) for children aged 5-9 years adapted from the existing GDQS developed for adults.

Background: Diet quality is important for nutrient adequacy and risk of nutrition-related chronic disease. A diet quality metric for global use with children is needed.

Validation of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) Among Children 10 to 14 Years of Age.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the performance of the Global Diet Quality Score (GDQS) in predicting nutrient intake and health outcomes among children aged 10-14 years old in Mexico, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. For comparison, we evaluated other dietary metrics (Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women [MDD-W], the Global Dietary Recommendations score [GDR], and the Healthy Eating Index-2020 [HEI-2020]).

Background: Given the magnitude of the health burden associated with all forms of malnutrition, monitoring dietary quality is fundamental to improving global health.

A Large-Scale Nutrition- and Gender-Sensitive Poultry Market-Based Program Did Not Improve Maternal and Child Diets in Rural Burkina Faso: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Livestock production interventions can improve consumption of animal-source foods and diet diversity, which may lead to improved micronutrient adequacy.

Objectives: We assessed the effectiveness on maternal and child dietary outcomes of "Soutenir l'Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l'Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l'Économie Rurale" (SELEVER), a livestock intervention designed to improve diets in rural Burkina Faso through training and market facilitation to improve poultry production; females' empowerment activities; and nutrition and hygiene behavior change communication.

Methods: For a nonblinded cluster-randomized controlled trial, we randomly assigned 30 communes to SELEVER and 30 communes to control, of which 15 communes served as control for a narrow sample.

Dietary intake and micronutrient adequacy among adults engaged in agriculture in rural Sri Lanka: findings from a cross-sectional baseline survey.

Objective: To characterise food group consumption, assess the contribution of food groups to energy and micronutrient intake, and estimate usual nutrient intake among adults in rural Sri Lanka.

Design: A baseline survey (December 2020-February 2021) was conducted as part of an agriculture-based, nutrition-sensitive resilience program evaluation. Dietary intake was assessed using telephone-based 24-h recalls ( 1283), with repeat recalls from 769 participants.

The Minimum Dietary Diversity For Women Indicator Can Be Extended To Children And Adolescents aged 4-15 Years As A Proxy Population Indicator For Good Micronutrient Adequacy Of Diets In Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Background: The response to the global call for more data on children's and adolescents' diets and nutrition is limited by the lack of straightforward practical indicators to track their diet quality. On the basis of a food group score compiled from 10 food groups (FGS-10), the minimum dietary diversity for women, calculated as FGS-10 ≥ 5, is a validated proxy population indicator for better micronutrient intake adequacy for adult women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Objectives: This study aims to validate FGS-10 and its related cutoffs against micronutrient intake adequacy in 4-15-y-old children/adolescents in LMICs.

The Costs of a Multisectoral Nutrition Program Implemented Through a Poultry Value Chain Platform in Burkina Faso.

Undernutrition in women and young children in Burkina Faso is a critical problem. Egg consumption is low despite many households raising poultry. The Soutenir l'Exploitation Familiale pour Lancer l'Élevage des Volailles et Valoriser l'Économie Rurale (SELEVER) project, an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention, promoted egg consumption and sales to investigate the impact of poultry production on child nutrition.

Diets, Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Nutritional Status Among Children, Adolescents and Adults in the Philippines: A Scoping Review.

Suboptimal diets contribute to the risk of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases across the life course. Globally, intakes of fruit and vegetables (F&V) fall below recommendations, including in the Philippines. To promote F&V intakes, understanding the extent of inadequate intakes across population groups and key drivers of dietary patterns is needed.

Computer vision-assisted dietary assessment through mobile phones in female youth in urban Ghana: validity against weighed records and comparison with 24-h recalls.

Background: Gaps persist in the data on diets and on the validity of dietary assessment methods in youth in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to costs constraints. Although computer vision-assisted dietary assessment tools have been proposed, limited evidence exists on their validity in LMICs.

Objectives: This study aimed to validate FRANI (Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights), a mobile phone application with computer vision-assisted dietary assessment, against weighed records (WRs) and compare with 24-h recalls (24HR), in female youth in Ghana.

School feeding for improving child nutrition in conflict-affected settings: Feasibility and cost efficiency of alternative models in Yemen.

School feeding programs can support children's nutrition, health, and education in emergencies. This study assessed the feasibility, trade-offs, cost efficiency, and perceived benefits of school feeding modalities operating in urban Yemen. It draws on primary data from a qualitative evaluation with 21 school feeding implementers and 88 beneficiaries conducted in Feb-Mar 2023, and secondary data from a desk review of published and program literature on school feeding operations.

Understanding modifiable caregiver factors contributing to child development among young children in rural Malawi.

This study examined modifiable caregiver factors influencing child development in Malawi using baseline data from 1,021 mothers and their children <2 years of age participating in a cluster-randomized controlled trial implemented in rural Malawi (2022-2025). We fit an evidence-based theoretical model using structural equation modelling examining four caregiver factors: (1) diet diversity (sum of food groups consumed in the past 24 h), (2) empowerment (assessed using the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index), (3) mental health (assessed using the Self-Reported Questionnaire, SRQ-20), and (4) stimulation (number of stimulation activities the mother engaged in the past 3 days). Child development was assessed using the Malawi Development Assessment Tool (norm-referenced aggregate Z-score).

Corrigendum to 'Defining a Dichotomous Indicator for Population-Level Assessment of Dietary Diversity Among Pregnant Adolescent Girls and Women:…' [Curr. Dev. Nutr. 8 (2024) 102053].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.cdnut.

Feasibility of Using an Artificial Intelligence-based Telephone Application for Dietary Assessment and Nudging to Improve the Quality of Food Choices of Female Adolescents in Vietnam: Evidence from a Randomized Pilot Study.

Background: Adolescent nutrition has faced a policy neglect, partly owing to the gaps in dietary intake data for this age group. The Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI) is a smartphone application validated for dietary assessment and to influence users toward healthy food choices.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the feasibility (adherence, acceptability, and usability) of FRANI and its effects on food choices and diet quality in female adolescents in Vietnam.

Women's empowerment, production choices, and crop diversity in Burkina Faso, India, Malawi, and Tanzania: a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data.

Background: Bolstering farm-level crop diversity is one strategy to strengthen food system resilience and achieve global food security. Women who live in rural areas play an essential role in food production; therefore, we aimed to assess the associations between women's empowerment and crop diversity.

Methods: In this secondary analysis of cross-sectional data, we used data from four cluster-randomised controlled trials done in Burkina Faso, India, Malawi, and Tanzania.

Can a gender-sensitive integrated poultry value chain and nutrition intervention increase women's empowerment among the rural poor in Burkina Faso?

Understanding the types of food systems interventions that foster women's empowerment and the types of women that are able to benefit from different interventions is important for development policy. SELEVER was a gender- and nutrition-sensitive poultry production intervention implemented in western Burkina Faso from 2017 to 2020 that aimed to empower women. We evaluated SELEVER using a mixed-methods cluster-randomized controlled trial, which included survey data from 1763 households at baseline and endline and a sub-sample for two interim lean season surveys.

Validation of Mobile Artificial Intelligence Technology-Assisted Dietary Assessment Tool Against Weighed Records and 24-Hour Recall in Adolescent Females in Ghana.

Background: Important gaps exist in the dietary intake of adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), partly due to expensive assessment methods and inaccuracy in portion-size estimation. Dietary assessment tools leveraging mobile technologies exist but only a few have been validated in LMICs.

Objective: We validated Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI), a mobile artificial intelligence (AI) dietary assessment application in adolescent females aged 12-18 y (n = 36) in Ghana, against weighed records (WR), and multipass 24-hour recalls (24HR).

Effects of an integrated poultry value chain, nutrition, gender and WASH intervention (SELEVER) on hygiene and child morbidity and anthropometry in Burkina Faso: A secondary outcome analysis of a cluster randomised trial.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programmes have the potential to improve child nutrition outcomes, but livestock intensification may pose risks related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions. We assessed the impact of SELEVER, a nutrition- and gender-sensitive poultry intervention, with and without added WASH focus, on hygiene practices, morbidity and anthropometric indices of nutrition in children aged 2-4 years in Burkina Faso. A 3-year cluster randomised controlled trial was implemented in 120 villages in 60 communes (districts) supported by the SELEVER project.

Women's empowerment, maternal depression, and stress: Evidence from rural Burkina Faso.

Objective: Though there is a wide array of evidence that women's empowerment is associated with more positive health and nutritional outcomes for women and children, evidence around the relationship with mental health or subjective well-being remains relatively limited. The objective of this paper is to explore this relationship in longitudinal data from rural Burkina Faso.

Methods: We analyze the association between empowerment measured using the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), and two additional outcomes of interest: stress (measured using the SRQ-20) and maternal depression (measured using the Edinburgh scale for post-partum depression).

Measuring adherence, acceptability and likability of an artificial-intelligence-based, gamified phone application to improve the quality of dietary choices of adolescents in Ghana and Vietnam: Protocol of a randomized controlled pilot test.

Unhealthy diets are a critical global concern while dietary measure methods are time consuming and expensive. There is limited evidence that phone-based interventions can improve nutrition data collection and dietary quality, especially for adolescents in developing countries. We developed an artificial-intelligence-based phone application called to address these problems.

The economic costs of a multisectoral nutrition programme implemented through a credit platform in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh struggles with undernutrition in women and young children. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programmes can help address rural undernutrition. However, questions remain on the costs of multisectoral programmes.

Relative validity of a mobile AI-technology-assisted dietary assessment in adolescent females in Vietnam.

Background: There is a gap in data on dietary intake of adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Traditional methods for dietary assessment are resource intensive and lack accuracy with regard to portion-size estimation. Technology-assisted dietary assessment tools have been proposed but few have been validated for feasibility of use in LMICs.

Exploring an Artificial Intelligence-Based, Gamified Phone App Prototype to Track and Improve Food Choices of Adolescent Girls in Vietnam: Acceptability, Usability, and Likeability Study.

Background: Adolescents' consumption of healthy foods is suboptimal in low- and middle-income countries. Adolescents' fondness for games and social media and the increasing access to smartphones make apps suitable for collecting dietary data and influencing their food choices. Little is known about how adolescents use phones to track and shape their food choices.

Social assistance programme impacts on women's and children's diets and nutritional status.

Investments in social assistance programmes (SAPs) have accelerated alongside interest in using SAPs to improve health and nutrition outcomes. However, evidence of how design features within and across programme types influence the effectiveness of SAPs for improving diet and nutrition outcomes among women and children is limited. To address this, we reviewed evaluations of cash, in-kind and voucher programmes conducted between 2010 and 2020 among women and children, and examined associations between design features (targeting, including household and individual transfers, fortified foods and behaviour change communication) and positive impacts on diet (diet diversity, micronutrient intake) and nutrition (anthropometric indicators, haemoglobin, anaemia) outcomes.