Changes in women's dietary diversity before and during pregnancy in Southern Benin.

Dietary diversity before and during pregnancy is crucial to ensure optimal foetal health and development. We carried out a cohort study of women of reproductive age living in the Sô-Ava and Abomey-Calavi districts (Southern Benin) to investigate women's changes in dietary diversity and identify their determinants both before and during pregnancy. Nonpregnant women were enrolled (n = 1214) and followed up monthly until they became pregnant (n = 316), then every 3 months during pregnancy.

Poor maternal anthropometric status before conception is associated with a deleterious infant growth during the first year of life: a longitudinal preconceptional cohort.

Background: According to the Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases concept, exposures in the preconception period may be critical. For the first time, we evaluated the effect of preconception poor anthropometric status on infant's growth in sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: A mother-child cohort was followed prospectively from preconception to 1 year old in Benin.

Effects of Malaria in the First Trimester of Pregnancy on Poor Maternal and Birth Outcomes in Benin.

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria in the first half of pregnancy is harmful for both the mother and her fetus. However, malaria in the first trimester of pregnancy, when women are usually not protected against malaria, has been little investigated. For the first time, we assessed the effects of malaria in the first trimester on maternal and birth outcomes using a preconceptional study design.

Intra-household double burden of malnutrition in a North African nutrition transition context: magnitude and associated factors of child anaemia with mother excess adiposity.

Objective: In the Middle East and North Africa region, the nutrition transition has resulted in drastic increases in excess adiposity, particularly among women, while some types of undernutrition remain prevalent, especially among pre-school children. We assessed the magnitude, nature and associated factors of the within-household co-occurrence of anaemia in children and excess adiposity in mothers.

Design: Cross-sectional survey using stratified two-stage random cluster sampling to survey households with women aged 20-49 years.

Cohort profile: effect of malaria in early pregnancy on fetal growth in Benin (RECIPAL preconceptional cohort).

Purpose: REtard de Croissance Intra-uterin et PALudisme (RECIPAL) is an original preconceptional cohort designed to assess the consequences of malaria during the first trimester of pregnancy, which is a poorly investigated period in Africa and during which malaria may be detrimental to the fetus.

Participants: For this purpose, a total of 1214 women of reproductive age living in Sô-Ava and Akassato districts (south Benin) were followed up monthly from June 2014 to December 2016 until 411 of them became pregnant. A large range of health determinants was collected both before and during pregnancy from the first weeks of gestation to delivery.

Gender inequalities in excess adiposity and anaemia combine in a large double burden of malnutrition gap detrimental to women in an urban area in North Africa.

Objective: The nutrition transition has exacerbated the gender gap in health in the Middle East and North Africa region as the increase in excess adiposity has been much higher among women than men. This is not exclusive of the persistence of anaemia, generally also more prevalent among women. We assessed the magnitude and sociodemographic factors associated with gender inequality vis-à-vis the double burden of excess adiposity and anaemia.

Abdominal vs. overall obesity among women in a nutrition transition context: geographic and socio-economic patterns of abdominal-only obesity in Tunisia.

Background: Most assessments of the burden of obesity in nutrition transition contexts rely on body mass index (BMI) only, even though abdominal adiposity might be specifically predictive of adverse health outcomes. In Tunisia, a typical country of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where the burden of obesity is especially high among women, we compared female abdominal vs. overall obesity and its geographic and socio-economic cofactors, both at population and within-subject levels.

Socio-economic and behavioural determinants of fruit and vegetable intake in Moroccan women.

Objective: To estimate daily fruit and vegetable intakes and to investigate socio-economic and behavioural differences in fruit and vegetable consumption among urban Moroccan women.

Design: A cross-sectional survey. Fruit and vegetable intake was measured with a single 24 h recall.

A double burden of overall or central adiposity and anemia or iron deficiency is prevalent but with little socioeconomic patterning among Moroccan and Tunisian urban women.

In North Africa, overnutrition has dramatically increased with the nutrition transition while micronutrient deficiencies persist, resulting in clustering of opposite types of malnutrition that can present a unique difficulty for public health interventions. We assessed the magnitude of the double burden of malnutrition among urban Moroccan and Tunisian women, as defined by the coexistence of overall or central adiposity and anemia or iron deficiency (ID), and explored the sociodemographic patterning of individual double burden. In cross-sectional surveys representative of the region around the capital city, we randomly selected 811 and 1689 nonpregnant women aged 20-49 y in Morocco and Tunisia, respectively.

A frequency questionnaire to estimate free-living physical activity among Tunisian preadolescent and adolescent children.

Objective: To develop a child- and adolescent-appropriate physical activity frequency questionnaire (PAFQ) in Tunisia, North Africa.

Design: A PAFQ was developed from a physical activity (PA) inventory that comprised major activity components (at home, preparing meals, school time, transport, non-sport leisure, sports, prayer and sleeping time). Then, type and duration of each activity undertaken during the past week were estimated.

Obesity and association with area of residence, gender and socio-economic factors in Algerian and Tunisian adults.

Introduction: The epidemiological transition has resulted in a major increase in the prevalence of obesity in North Africa. This study investigated differences in obesity and its association with area of residence, gender and socio-economic position among adults in Algeria and Tunisia, two countries with socio-economic and socio-cultural similarities.

Methods: Cross-sectional studies used stratified, three-level, clustered samples of 35-70 year old adults in Algeria, (women n = 2741, men n = 2004) and Tunisia (women n = 2964, men n = 2379).

Assessment of iron deficiency in the context of the obesity epidemic: importance of correcting serum ferritin concentrations for inflammation.

Background: The correction of serum ferritin (SF) concentrations for inflammation because of infectious or parasitic diseases was recently proposed, especially in developing countries, but in many countries, adiposity has become the main cause of inflammation.

Objective: We assessed, overall and by adiposity status, the bias in the estimation of iron deficiency (ID) on the basis of uncorrected SF.

Design: A cross-sectional survey in 2010 in Rabat-Salé, Morocco, used a random sample of 811 women aged 20-49 y.

Validity of impedance-based predictions of total body water as measured by 2H dilution in African HIV/AIDS outpatients.

Measurements of body composition are crucial in identifying HIV-infected patients at risk of malnutrition. No information is available on the validity of indirect body composition methods in African HIV-infected outpatients. Our first aim was to test the validity of fifteen published equations, developed in whites, African-Americans and/or Africans who were or not HIV-infected, for predicting total body water (TBW) from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in HIV-infected patients.

Determinants of persistent underweight among children, aged 6-35 months, after huge economic development and improvements in health services in Oman.

Over the last decades, health indicators have witnessed major improvements in the Sultanate of Oman. This study was aimed at factors associated with underweight among children in four regions of Oman, as, in 1998, underweight was prevalent among 17.9% of children aged less than five years.

Has the first implementation phase of the Community Nutrition Project in urban Senegal had an impact?

Objective: We evaluated the impact of the Community Nutrition Project (CNP) of Senegal, West Africa on the population. In poor urban districts, the CNP provided underweight 6- to 35-mo-old children with growth monitoring/promotion and food supplementation, and education for mothers for a period of 6 mo.

Methods: A before/after intervention and intervention zone (IZ)/control zone (CZ) design was used to assess whether CNP had an impact 18 mo after it began in Diourbel.

Knowledge of dietary and behaviour-related determinants of non-communicable disease in urban Senegalese women.

Objective: To assess knowledge of dietary and behaviour-related determinants of non-communicable disease (NCD) of urban Senegalese women.

Design: A cross-sectional, population study using an interviewer-administered knowledge questionnaire, developed and validated for this study. The questionnaire consisted of 24 items with six scores measuring knowledge of: (1) diet- and behaviour-related causes of NCD; (2) diet quality-NCD relationship; (3) fruit and vegetable link with NCD; (4) health consequences of obesity; (5) causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD); and (6) causes of certain cancers.

Process evaluation of the Senegal-Community Nutrition Project: an adequacy assessment of a large scale urban project.

Objective: Although essential for understanding the reasons for success or failure of large scale nutritional interventions, process evaluation results are rarely reported. Our objective was to assess whether the process output objectives of the Community Nutrition Project (CNP) in Senegal, West Africa, were adequately met.

Methods: An adequacy assessment study based on monitoring data for individuals collected during the CNP was used to assess 'fidelity', 'extent' and 'reach' of participants recruitment and of the services provided.

Body composition predicted from skinfolds in African women: a cross-validation study using air-displacement plethysmography and a black-specific equation.

Skinfold thickness (SF) measurements are commonly used for the indirect assessment of body composition. It is necessary to know how large the bias is when using Caucasian SF-based prediction equations Africans, as no specific equations exist. Our first aim was to test the validity of the equation of Durnin & Womersley for predicting body density from SF in Africans.

Validity of impedance-based equations for the prediction of total body water as measured by deuterium dilution in African women.

Background: Little information is available on the validity of simple and indirect body-composition methods in non-Western populations. Equations for predicting body composition are population-specific, and body composition differs between blacks and whites.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that the validity of equations for predicting total body water (TBW) from bioelectrical impedance analysis measurements is likely to depend on the racial background of the group from which the equations were derived.

[Nutritional transition and non-communicable diet-related chronic diseases in developing countries].

It is increasingly recognized that developing countries are undergoing an epidemiologic transition similar to that which occurred in industrialized countries in previous centuries. While infectious diseases are still the main cause of morbidity and mortality, there is a marked increase in chronic non-communicable diseases, particularly in the most advanced developing countries, and these diseases are expected to take the lead in a decade or two. Most of these diseases, above all coronary heart diseases, stroke and diabetes, are related to diet and lifestyles, for example tobacco and alcohol consumption.

Sensitivity and specificity of the body mass index to assess low percent body fat in African women.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of the body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)) to reflect low percent body fat (%BF) in a population with a rather mild but widespread prevalence of low BMI. A sample of 586 women was studied in the Plateau Koukouya, a rural area of the Republic of Congo, Central Africa. Percent BF was estimated from bioelectrical impedance (BIA).