Evaluation and prioritisation of actions on food environments to address the double burden of malnutrition in Senegal: perspectives from a national expert panel.

Objective: To evaluate the extent of implementation of public policies aimed at creating healthy eating environments in Senegal compared to international best practice and identity priority actions to address the double burden of malnutrition.

Design: The Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) was used by a local expert panel to assess the level of implementation of forty-three good practice policy and infrastructure support indicators against international best practices using a Likert scale and identify priority actions to address the double burden of malnutrition in Senegal.

Setting: Senegal, West Africa.

Energy intake from human milk covers the requirement of 6-month-old Senegalese exclusively breast-fed infants.

Exclusive breast-feeding until 6 months is advised by the WHO as the best practice to feed infants. Yet, some studies have suggested a gap between energy requirements and the energy provided by human milk for many infants at 6 months. In order to assess the adequacy of WHO recommendations in 6-month-old Senegalese lactating infants, a comprehensive study was designed to measure human milk intake by the dose-to-the mother 2H2O turnover method.

High prevalence of vitamin A deficiency is detected by the modified relative dose-response test in six-month-old Senegalese breast-fed infants.

To alleviate vitamin A (VA) deficiency (VAD) in Senegal, understanding the relationship between VA status of lactating women and their 6-mo-old infants is important. This study measured 6-mo-old infants' VA intake from human milk and assessed the VA status of mothers and infants. A comprehensive study was undertaken in 34 mother-infant pairs.