Publications by authors named "Alessandro DeMaio"

Objective: To present an approach to build capacity for the use of systems science to support local communities in municipal public health and well-being planning.

Design: Case study.

Setting: Local government authorities participating in the VicHealth Local Government Partnership in Victoria, Australia.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the top cause of death worldwide, and poor maternal nutrition may contribute to these diseases and their risk factors in adult children.
  • - A review of research from 27 studies across 10 countries found that maternal exposure to famine during pregnancy is associated with negative metabolic outcomes (like blood pressure and glucose levels) in adult offspring, but evidence linking maternal BMI and diet to these outcomes is less clear.
  • - Overall, while some connections between maternal famine exposure and NCD risk in offspring were observed, the findings are inconsistent and warrant further investigation into maternal nutritional impacts during pregnancy.
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Malnutrition has historically been researched and addressed within two distinct silos, focusing either on undernutrition, food insecurity, and micronutrient deficiencies, or on overweight, obesity, and dietary excess. However, through rapid global nutrition transition, an increasing proportion of individuals are exposed to different forms of malnutrition during the life course and have the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) directly. Long-lasting effects of malnutrition in early life can be attributed to interconnected biological pathways, involving imbalance of the gut microbiome, inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and impaired insulin signalling.

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Background: A growing body of evidence suggests the impact of maternal nutrition plays a role in determining offspring's risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including heart disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2DM), cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD). We conducted a systematic review to investigate this relationship.

Methods: We systematically searched CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science Core Collection and Global Health for papers published before May 2016 (PROSPERO: CRD42016039244, CRD42016039247).

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Generating political commitment for ending all forms of malnutrition represents a key challenge for the global nutrition community. Without commitment, the policies, programs, and resources needed to improve nutrition are unlikely to be adopted, effectively implemented, nor sustained. One essential driver of commitment is nutrition actor network (NAN) effectiveness, the web of individuals and organizations operating within a given country who share a common interest in improving nutrition and who act collectively to do so.

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This paper was originally published under a standard licence. This has now been amended to a CC BY licence in the PDF and HTML.

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Children and adolescents with overweight and obesity are a global health concern. This is an integrative overview of six Cochrane systematic reviews, providing an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence examining interventions for the treatment of children and adolescents with overweight or obesity. The data extraction and quality assessments for each review were conducted by one author and checked by a second.

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To update an existing systematic review series of randomized controlled trials (RCT) that include a dietary intervention for the management of overweight or obesity in children or adolescents.Specifically, the review questions are: In randomized controlled trials of interventions which include a dietary intervention for the management of overweight or obesity in children or adolescents.

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Introduction: Generating country-level political commitment will be critical to driving forward action throughout the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025). In this review of the empirical nutrition policy literature, we ask: what factors generate, sustain and constrain political commitment for nutrition, how and under what circumstances? Our aim is to inform strategic 'commitment-building' actions.

Method: We adopted a framework synthesis method and realist review protocol.

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Background: Epilepsy is a major neurological disorder that affects approximately 65 million people worldwide. Globally, the burden of epilepsy is not evenly distributed, with more than 80% of sufferers residing in low- and middle-income countries. This study estimates the burden of epilepsy in mainland China from 1990 to 2015 and explores the variations of burden by age and gender.

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The retail sector is a dynamic and challenging component of contemporary food systems with an important influence on population health and nutrition. Global consensus is clear that policy and environmental changes in retail food environments are essential to promote healthier diets and reduce the burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases. In this article, we explore entrepreneurialism as a form of social change-making within retail food environments, focusing on small food businesses.

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Background: Child and adolescent overweight and obesity has increased globally, and can be associated with significant short- and long-term health consequences. This is an update of a Cochrane review published first in 2003, and updated previously in 2009. However, the update has now been split into six reviews addressing different childhood obesity treatments at different ages.

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