Predicting total body water in infants aged 0.5-24 months and the implications for measuring breast milk intake: a secondary analysis of isotope dilution data.

Background: Total body water (TBW) is commonly used to derive estimates of body composition. The deuterium oxide dose-to-mother (DTM) technique for measuring breast milk intake requires an estimate of infant TBW. The DTM calculation employs a prediction equation for estimating infant TBW from body weight (TBW), but the general validity of this equation is unknown.

A scoping review on the use of a participatory approach in interventions to combat overweight and obesity in low socioeconomic status communities.

Purpose: The burden of obesity on individuals and society has received much attention. However, most interventions to combat obesity as well as reviews focus on a (bio)medical approach. Applying an interdisciplinary approach that includes participation of the most heavily burdened low-socioeconomic status (SES) groups, are scarce.

Predictive equation derived from 6,497 doubly labelled water measurements enables the detection of erroneous self-reported energy intake.

Nutritional epidemiology aims to link dietary exposures to chronic disease, but the instruments for evaluating dietary intake are inaccurate. One way to identify unreliable data and the sources of errors is to compare estimated intakes with the total energy expenditure (TEE). In this study, we used the International Atomic Energy Agency Doubly Labeled Water Database to derive a predictive equation for TEE using 6,497 measures of TEE in individuals aged 4 to 96 years.

Greater male variability in daily energy expenditure develops through puberty.

There is considerably greater variation in metabolic rates between men than between women, in terms of basal, activity and total (daily) energy expenditure (EE). One possible explanation is that EE is associated with male sexual characteristics (which are known to vary more than other traits) such as musculature and athletic capacity. Such traits might be predicted to be most prominent during periods of adolescence and young adulthood, when sexual behaviour develops and peaks.

Total daily energy expenditure has declined over the past three decades due to declining basal expenditure, not reduced activity expenditure.

Obesity is caused by a prolonged positive energy balance. Whether reduced energy expenditure stemming from reduced activity levels contributes is debated. Here we show that in both sexes, total energy expenditure (TEE) adjusted for body composition and age declined since the late 1980s, while adjusted activity energy expenditure increased over time.

Spatial mobility patterns and COVID-19 incidence: A regional analysis of the second wave in the Netherlands.

A key policy measure introduced by governments worldwide at the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was to restrict travel, highlighting the importance of people's mobility as one of the key contributors to spreading severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, there was little consistency regarding the geographical scale or the severity of these measures. Little use was made of commuting and travel data to inform decisions on when, where and at what level restrictions should be applied.

How Is Context Addressed in Growth Monitoring? A Comparison of the Tanzanian, Indian, and Dutch Manuals.

Background: To address malnutrition in all its forms, context should be taken into account in growth-monitoring (GM) practices.

Objectives: The aim was to compare GM manuals of countries with different nutrition problems, and to assess how these manuals are adapted to the different biological, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts.

Methods: GM manuals from Tanzania, India, and the Netherlands were compared with each other, and with the materials for the WHO training course on child growth assessment.

Community Participation and Multidimensional Child Growth: Evidence from the Vietnam Young Lives Study.

Background: Community participation has the potential to improve the effects of interventions and reduce inequalities in child growth. Multidimensional indicators capture such effects and inequalities.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to measure the association between multidimensional child growth and community participation in 2 nutrition-sensitive interventions.

The future of human malnutrition: rebalancing agency for better nutritional health.

The major threat to human societies posed by undernutrition has been recognised for millennia. Despite substantial economic development and scientific innovation, however, progress in addressing this global challenge has been inadequate. Paradoxically, the last half-century also saw the rapid emergence of obesity, first in high-income countries but now also in low- and middle-income countries.

Fulfilling food practices: Applying the capability approach to ethnographic research in the Northern Netherlands.

Often, food practices are evaluated in terms of their healthiness or lack thereof, but fulfilling food practices based on other values and influenced by family members' capabilities are overlooked. This study analyses food practices in families with low socio-economic status, and aims to explain how family households come to prioritise one food practice over another. We conducted an ethnographic study using the capability approach as an analytical framework.

Stressors and support system among parents of neonates hospitalised with systemic infections: qualitative study in South India.

Objective: To explore stressors and support system for families with a neonate admitted with a systemic infection.

Design: Qualitative study using in-depth interviews (IDIs), based on principles of grounded theory.

Setting: A busy level III neonatal unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital in coastal Karnataka, India, between May 2018 and January 2019.

"": Maternal Capabilities for Healthy Child Growth in Rural Southeastern Tanzania.

The burden of childhood stunting in Tanzania is persistently high, even in high food-producing regions. This calls for a paradigm shift in Child Growth Monitoring (CGM) to a multi-dimensional approach that also includes the contextual information of an individual child and her/his caregivers. To contribute to the further development of CGM to reflect local contexts, we engaged the Capability Framework for Child Growth (CFCG) to identify maternal capabilities for ensuring healthy child growth.

Maternal and Child Survival in Haor Region in Bangladesh. An Analysis of Fathers' Capabilities to Save the Future.

Maternal and child survival is a major public health problem in haor areas in Bangladesh. Fathers feel responsible as expressed by their capability "to save the future". Using the Capability Framework for Child Growth, we aimed to identify what contextual factors underlie a father's real opportunities to secure a safe delivery, including social norms and beliefs.

Postpartum sex taboos and child growth in Tanzania: Implications for child care.

The social context and cultural meaning systems shape caregivers' perceptions about child growth and inform their attention to episodes of poor growth. Thus, understanding community members' beliefs about the aetiology of poor child growth is important for effective responses to child malnutrition. We present an analysis of caregivers' narratives on the risks surrounding child growth during postpartum period and highlight how the meanings attached to these risks shape child care practices.

Variation in contraceptive prevalence rates in Tanzania: A multilevel analysis of individual and regional determinants.

Objective: The aim of this study was to answer two key questions: (1) what are the individual and regional determinants of contraceptive use; and (2) what are the effect(s) of individual and regional variables on regional differences in contraceptive use?

Data And Method: Multilevel logistic regression was applied on data from the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS) 2010 that allowed us to investigate simultaneously the individual and the regional determinants of contraceptive use and its regional variation.

Results: There was significant variation in contraceptive use, both between population groups as well as between regions. A higher number of children ever born, urban residence, and a non-manual occupation are characteristics associated with higher odds of a woman using contraceptives.

"We struggle with the earth everyday": parents' perspectives on the capabilities for healthy child growth in haor region of Bangladesh.

Background: Childhood stunting is an important public health problem in the haor region of Bangladesh. Haor areas are located in the north-eastern part of the country and are vulnerable to seasonal flooding. The key objective of this study is to identify the capabilities of the parents and their children that shape multidimensional child growth outcomes in the haor region in the first thousand days of life.

Towards a Multi-Dimensional Index of Child Growth to Combat the Double Burden of Malnutrition.

There is growing awareness in the field of public health that combatting the double burden of malnutrition requires approaches that address its multi-dimensional origin, rather than focusing primarily on the biomedical domain. Current frameworks of malnutrition like the UNICEF conceptual framework, and the Lancet Series 2013 framework have been instrumental in understanding the determinants of malnutrition and developing appropriate interventions. However, these frameworks fail to explicitly address issues of agency, that is, about being able to pursue one's goal.

Barriers and Facilitators of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Renal Transplant Recipients, Family Members and Healthcare Professionals-A Focus Group Study.

Low fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with poor outcomes after renal transplantation. Insufficient fruit and vegetable consumption is reported in the majority of renal transplant recipients (RTR). The aim of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators of fruit and vegetable consumption after renal transplantation and explore if certain barriers and facilitators were transplant-related.

'He usually has what we call normal fevers': Cultural perspectives on healthy child growth in rural Southeastern Tanzania: An ethnographic enquiry.

Introduction: While parents' construction of and actions around child growth are embedded in their cultural framework, the discourse on child growth monitoring (CGM) has been using indicators grounded in the biomedical model. We believe that for CGM to be effective, it should also incorporate other relevant socio-cultural constructs. To contribute to the further development of CGM to ensure that it reflects the local context, we report on the cultural conceptualization of healthy child growth in rural Tanzania.

"A child may be tall but stunted." Meanings attached to childhood height in Tanzania.

Stunting affects large numbers of under-fives in Tanzania. But do caretakers of under-fives recognize height as a marker of child growth? What meanings do they attach to linear growth? An ethnographic study using cultural schemas theory was conducted in a rural community in Southeastern Tanzania to investigate caregivers' conceptualizations of child height in relation to growth and the meanings attached to short stature. Data for the study were collected through 19 focus group discussions, 30 in-depth interviews, and five key informant interviews with caregivers of under-fives, including mothers, fathers, elderly women, and community health workers.

Towards a capability approach to child growth: A theoretical framework.

Child malnutrition is an important cause of under-5 mortality and morbidity around the globe. Despite the partial success of (inter)national efforts to reduce child mortality, under-5 mortality rates continue to be high. The multidimensional approaches of the Sustainable Development Goals may suggest new directions for rethinking strategies for reducing child mortality and malnutrition.

Illness experiences of diabetes in the context of malaria in settings experiencing double burden of disease in southeastern Tanzania.

Background: Tanzania is doubly burdened with both non-communicable and infectious diseases, but information on how Tanzanians experience the co-existence of these conditions is limited. Using Kleinman's eight prompting questions the study synthesizes explanatory models from patients to describe common illness experiences of diabetes in a rural setting where malaria is the predominant health threat.

Methods: We conducted 17 focus group discussions with adult members of the general community, diabetes patients, neighbours and relatives of diabetes patients to gain insight into shared experiences.

Building a framework for theory-based ethnographies for studying intergenerational family food practices.

The growing rates of (childhood) obesity worldwide are a source concern for health professionals, policy-makers, and researchers. The increasing prevalence of associated diseases-such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and psychological problems-shows the impact of obesity on people's health, already from a young age. In turn, these problems have obvious consequences for the health care system, including higher costs.