The contributions of civil society to food security in the context of COVID-19: a qualitative exploration in Uruguay.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore and analyse the actions implemented by civil society to contribute to food security in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak in Uruguay, a high-income country in South America.

Design: An exploratory systematic approach was used to identify the contributions of civil society to food security through reports in news websites and Facebook posts. Data were analysed based on content analysis following a deductive-inductive approach.

Listening to the voices of adolescents for the design of strategies to promote healthy eating: an exploratory study in a Latin American country.

Objective: To explore adolescents' views about the foods they consume and to identify their ideas about strategies to encourage healthier eating habits.

Design: Individual questionnaires based on open-ended questions and group discussions (6-8 participants) were used to address the objectives. Data were analysed using content analysis based on deductive-inductive coding.

The social representations of complementary feeding.

The social representations of complementary feeding are expected to shape parents' decisions and to provide justification or legitimization for their practices. The aims of the present work were: i) to explore the social representations of complementary feeding in parents and health professionals, ii) to evaluate if the onset of complementary feeding modify social representations in parents, and iii) to compare the representations of parents and pediatricians. Three groups of participants were considered: 170 parents of children who had not started complementary feeding (1-4 months old), 170 parents of children who had started complementary feeding (7-10 months old) and 212 pediatricians.

Communication Campaigns to Support the Use of Nutritional Warnings: Different Messages for Different People?

Communication campaigns are expected to contribute to increase the efficacy of nutritional warnings. In this context, the aims of the present work were (a) to evaluate how citizens perceive different types of messages for a communication campaign and (b) to determine if personal characteristics such as gender, age, and educational level, as well socioeconomic and nutritional status, moderate how citizens perceive such campaign messages. A series of graphic pieces were designed for each of the following three types of messages: promotion of informed food choices; raising awareness of the negative health consequences of excessive consumption of sugar, fat, and sodium; and promotion of healthy food choices.

Ultrasound patterns of different dermal filler materials used in aesthetics.

Background Hyaluronic acid (HA) injection procedures has experienced an unprecedented increase. Aims To assess and determine, by using ultrasound examinations, the patterns corresponding to different dermal fillers. Patients/Methods Observational and retrospective bicenter study conducted on patients who underwent previous aesthetic treatments with dermal fillers.

COVID-washing of ultra-processed products: the content of digital marketing on Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uruguay.

Objective: To explore the use of references to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the marketing strategies used on Facebook to promote ultra-processed products.

Design: A search for Facebook accounts of ultra-processed products was performed using a master list of products commercialised in two online supermarkets in Uruguay. For each of the identified Facebook accounts, all the content posted from the confirmation of the first cases of COVID-19 in Uruguay, on 14 March 2020, until 1 July 2020 was recorded.

Are the recommendations of paediatricians about complementary feeding aligned with current guidelines in Uruguay?

Objective: To explore Uruguayan paediatricians' personal recommendations about complementary feeding and to assess if they are aligned with current guidelines and scientific evidence.

Design: A questionnaire composed of open-ended questions was used to explore foods recommended to start complementary feeding, foods regarded as the most important during the first meals, recommendations for delayed introduction of foods and foods that should be avoided. Reasons underlying the recommendations were also explored.

The experience of social distancing for families with children and adolescents during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Uruguay: Difficulties and opportunities.

The social distancing measures implemented to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic worldwide have created a series of emotional and economic challenges. The aim of the present work was to explore the experiences of families with children and adolescents during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Uruguay. An online study was conducted in March 2020 with 1725 parents with children under 18 years old.

Ultrasound measures of abdominal fat layers correlate with metabolic syndrome features in patients with obesity.

Objective: Abdominal fat ultrasound (US) is a simple clinical tool that may allow measures of fat depots not visible using common dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) or computerized tomography (CT) imaging. The aim of this study was to validate the technique, give measures of and , , and (retroperitoneal) fat and correlate them with MS markers.

Methods: Sequential US measures of these five abdominal fat layers were done at 397 adults.

Excessive Maternal Weight and Diabetes Are Risk Factors for Macrosomia: A Cross-Sectional Study of 42,663 Pregnancies in Uruguay.

Objective: To evaluate the risk of macrosomia in newborns from women with gestational diabetes, pregestational diabetes, overweight, and obesity in Uruguay in 2012, as well as its association with prolonged pregnancy, maternal age, multiparity, and excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG).

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of 42,663 pregnant women. The risk of macrosomia was studied using logistic regression.

The idealisation of bottle feeding: content analysis of feeding bottles and teats packages in Uruguay.

Objective: The information displayed on the packages of feeding bottles and teats commercialised in Montevideo (Uruguay) was analysed using content analysis with the goal of identifying key marketing practices that may discourage breast-feeding.

Design: The study was conducted as part of the periodic assessment performed by the Uruguayan government to monitor the marketing of breast milk substitutes. All the feeding bottles and teats sold in forty-four retail outlets selling breast milk substitutes were purchased.

Relative validity of FFQ to assess food items, energy, macronutrient and micronutrient intake in children and adolescents: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

FFQ are one of the most widely used tools of research into nutritional epidemiology, and many studies have been conducted in several countries using this dietary assessment method. The present study aimed to evaluate the relative validity of FFQ, in comparison with other methods, in assessing dietary intake of children and adolescents, through a systematic review. Four electronic databases (Embase, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) found sixty-seven articles, which met the inclusion criteria (healthy children and adolescents from 3 to 18 years of age; journal articles written in English, Spanish and Portuguese between 1988 and March 2019; results showing the comparison between the FFQ with other methods of assessment of dietary intake).

Immediate effects of the implementation of nutritional warnings in Uruguay: awareness, self-reported use and increased understanding.

Objective: To assess the effects of nutritional warnings during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry in Uruguay in terms of citizen awareness, self-reported use and ability to understand nutritional information.

Design: The present work encompassed two online studies, conducted before (Study 1) and during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry (Study 2). An after-only design was used to assess awareness of the policy, exposure to nutritional warnings on food packages and self-reported use of warnings for making purchase decisions in Study 2.

Uruguayan Citizens' Perception of Messages to Promote Healthy Eating Through the Use of Nutritional Warnings.

Objective: To explore the specific type of messages people consider most appropriate for a mass communication campaign aimed to promote healthy eating in the context of the implementation of nutritional warnings.

Design: Online study including multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

Setting: Uruguay, 1 of the Latin American countries with the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity.

[Food industry arguments against front-of-package nutrition labels in UruguayArgumentos da indústria alimentícia contra a rotulagem frontal de advertência nutricional no Uruguai].

Objective: To identify the food industry's arguments against front-of-package nutrition labels in Uruguay.

Methods: Content analysis and inductive coding were applied to the comments made by the food industry during the public consultation on the draft decree regulating the inclusion of front-of-package nutrition labels (warnings) in Uruguay.

Results: Most of the comments expressed concern about the high prevalence of obesity and noncommunicable diseases in the country and emphasized a commitment to implementing actions to help combat these health problems.

Social representations of breastfeeding and infant formula: An exploratory study with mothers and health professionals to inform policy making.

Although several efforts to promote breastfeeding have been implemented worldwide, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life remains low. One of the factors responsible for this trend is the widespread sales and marketing of breast-milk substitutes. In this context, the present work aimed at exploring mothers and health professionals' social representations of breastfeeding and infant formula.

How Can We Motivate People to Use Nutritional Warnings in Decision Making? Citizen Co-Created Insights for the Development of Communication Campaigns.

Nutritional warnings are intended to enable citizens to make informed choice by clearly identifying food products with excessive content of nutrients associated with noncommunicable diseases. The efficacy of this public policy is expected to improve if accompanied by communication campaigns that raise awareness of the existence of nutritional warnings, as well as encourage citizens to take them into account in decision making. Because ordinary citizens have been shown to generate significantly more creative and valuable ideas than advanced users and professional developers, the aim of the present work was to obtain qualitative, citizen co-created insights for the design of a communication campaign.

A citizen perspective on nutritional warnings as front-of-pack labels: insights for the design of accompanying policy measures.

Objective: Nutritional warnings have recently been suggested as a simplified front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme to facilitate citizens' ability to identify unhealthful products and discourage their consumption. However, citizens' perspective on this policy is still under-researched. The objective of the present work was to study how citizens perceive nutritional warnings and to evaluate public support of this policy, with the goal of deriving recommendations for the design of policy measures accompanying the introduction of nutritional warnings.

Development of a Food Frequency Questionnaire for Assessing Dietary Intake in Children and Adolescents in South America.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the development of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary intake in South American children and adolescents.

Methods: A total of 345 children (aged 3-10 years) and 357 adolescents (aged 11-17 years) were included for analysis. The FFQ was designed to be self-administered and to assess dietary intake over the past 3 months.

Consumer accounts of favourable dietary behaviour change and comparison with official dietary guidelines.

Objective: The current study aimed to assess Uruguayan consumers' accounts of their own need to change their dietary patterns, their intended changes and the barriers related to doing so, and to compare the intentions and barriers with the recommendations of the national dietary guidelines.

Design: An online survey with 2381 Uruguayan employed adults, aged between 18 and 65 years, 65 % females, was conducted. Participants had to answer two open-ended questions related to changes they could make in the foods they eat and/or the way in which they eat to improve the quality of their diet and the reasons why they had not implemented those changes yet.

Trends in early growth indices in the first 24 months of life in Uruguay over the past decade.

Early growth is an important indicator of health and wellbeing of children and a good predictor of adult health. The objective of this study was to examine trends and determinants of overweight and stunting among infants aged 0 to 23 month(s) over the past decade (1999-2011) in Uruguay. Data were used from four large representative samples of 11,056 infants aged 0-23 month(s), who attended public and private health services in 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, using a similar methodology.

[Relationship between fetus growth and maternal anthropometrics in Uruguay].

Background: There are no data available about the combined influence of the pregestational body mass index (PG-BMI) and the gestational weight gain (GWG) on the birth-weight (<3000 g, ≥4000 g) in Uruguay.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of different categories of PG-BMI and GWG and then find out combined and independent risk at birth: <3000 g or intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and ≥ 4000 g (macrosomia) on a nationwide sample of mothers and newborns.

Methods: Cohort study with prospective data from 23,832 pregnant women, with classification of the pregestational nutrition status according to the US PG-BMI pattern.

Stunting, overweight and child development impairment go hand in hand as key problems of early infancy: Uruguayan case.

Background: Stunting, overweight and child development impairment are key problems affecting early infancy and have short and long-term consequences on academic performance, social competence and adult health. The aim of this paper is to identify linkages and factors that may simultaneously contribute to these problems.

Study Design: A cross sectional study.