Maternal income-generating activities, child care, and child nutrition in Mali.

Background: Women in sub-Saharan Africa play a key role in household food security. The income-generating activities of mothers are postulated to be related to the nutritional status of children.

Objective: The objective of the study was to examine whether maternal income-generating activities, maternal food production, and child care were determinants of the nutritional status of children in rural West Africa.

Intermittent iron supplementation regimens are able to maintain safe maternal hemoglobin concentrations during pregnancy in Venezuela.

Daily iron supplementation programs for pregnant women recommend amounts of iron that are considered by some to be excessive, and either lower-dose or less frequent iron supplementation regimens have been proposed. A randomized, placebo-controlled study was performed to assess and compare the relative effectiveness of a weekly (WS) or twice weekly (TW) iron supplementation schedule in maintaining or achieving hemoglobin (Hb) levels at term considered to carry minimal maternal and fetal risk (90-130 g/L). Pregnant women (n = 116) at wk 10-30 of gestation (63 WS and 53 TW) were enrolled in the study (52 in WS and 44 TW completed the study).

[The adaptation and validation of the food security scale in a community of Caracas, Venezuela].

This paper describes the process of modifying and validating a hunger index developed in the United States by Wehler et al (1992). It is part of a research whose main objective is to develop and validate a simple method that measures both quantitative (food sufficiency) and qualitative (female self-perception) dimensions of household food insecurity. In a pilot study, the original instrument was modified from a 2 point 8 item to a 4 point 12 item scale.

Abbreviated measures of food sufficiency validly estimate the food security level of poor households: measuring household food security.

This study was designed to develop an abbreviated method that captures both the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of household food security (HFS). Women in poor and very poor households (n = 238) in a peri-urban barrio in Caracas, Venezuela, provided data on food availability and their perception of food resource constraints and hunger experiences within the home. Socioeconomic data and food-related behavior that may predict HFS levels were gathered.

Serum retinol concentrations in children are affected by food sources of beta-carotene, fat intake, and anthelmintic drug treatment.

The provision of vitamin A in food sources of beta-carotene is an alternative to the distribution of high-dose capsules. To examine factors that may influence the success of food-based programs, a study was carried out in Sumatra, Indonesia, of the effect of food sources of beta-carotene, extra dietary fat, and Ascaris lumbricoides infection on serum retinol concentrations in children. Meals and snacks with various amounts of beta-carotene and fat were fed at midday to children 3-6 y of age for 3 wk.