Digital remote assessment of speech acoustics in cognitively unimpaired adults: feasibility, reliability and associations with amyloid pathology.

Background: Digital speech assessment has potential relevance in the earliest, preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We evaluated the feasibility, test-retest reliability, and association with AD-related amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology of speech acoustics measured over multiple assessments in a remote setting.

Methods: Fifty cognitively unimpaired adults (Age 68 ± 6.

In-depth assessment of snacking behaviour in unmarried adolescent girls 16-19 years of age living in urban centres of Java, Indonesia.

Adolescence is a critical period characterized by physical, social, and developmental changes that impact on health and eating behaviour. Indonesia is experiencing dramatic economic and infrastructural changes, causing greater access to the global food industry and media. This transition is influencing food intake trends, leading to new nutritional challenges in adolescent girls.

Harnessing private sector expertise to improve complementary feeding within a regulatory framework: Where is the evidence?

Global recognition that the complex and multicausal problems of malnutrition require all players to collaborate and to invest towards the same objective has led to increased private sector engagement as exemplified through the Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network and mechanisms for blended financing and matched funding, such as the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact. The careful steps made over the past 5 to 10 years have however not taken away or reduced the hesitation and scepticism of the public sector actors towards commercial or even social businesses. Evidence of impact or even a positive contribution of a private sector approach to intermediate nutrition outcomes is still lacking.

Coverage of Nutrition Interventions Intended for Infants and Young Children Varies Greatly across Programs: Results from Coverage Surveys in 5 Countries.

The efficacy of a number of interventions that include fortified complementary foods (FCFs) or other products to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is well established. Programs that provide such products free or at a subsidized price are implemented in many countries around the world. Demonstrating the impact at scale of these programs has been challenging, and rigorous information on coverage and utilization is lacking.

Complementary Feeding Diets Made of Local Foods Can Be Optimized, but Additional Interventions Will Be Needed to Meet Iron and Zinc Requirements in 6- to 23-Month-Old Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Background: The question whether diets composed of local foods can meet recommended nutrient intakes in children aged 6 to 23 months living in low- and middle-income countries is contested.

Objective: To review evidence of studies evaluating whether (1) macro- and micronutrient requirements of children aged 6 to 23 months from low- and middle-income countries are met by the consumption of locally available foods ("observed intake") and (2) nutrient requirements can be met when the use of local foods is optimized, using modeling techniques ("modeled intake").

Methods: Twenty-three articles were included after conducting a systematic literature search.

Can gossip change nutrition behaviour? Results of a mass media and community-based intervention trial in East Java, Indonesia.

Objective: It is unclear how best to go about improving child feeding practices. We studied the effect of a novel behaviour change intervention, Gerakan Rumpi Sehat (the Healthy Gossip Movement), on infant and young child feeding practices in peri-urban Indonesia.

Methods: The pilot intervention was designed based on the principles of a new behaviour change theory, Behaviour Centred Design (BCD).

Perspectives and reflections on the practice of behaviour change communication for infant and young child feeding.

Behaviour change communication (BCC) is a critical component of infant and young child feeding (IYCF) interventions. In this study we asked BCC practitioners working in low- and middle-income countries to participate in an examination of BCC practice. We focus here on results of their personal reflections related to larger issues of practice.

The scope and practice of behaviour change communication to improve infant and young child feeding in low- and middle-income countries: results of a practitioner study in international development organizations.

We describe features of the landscape of behaviour change communication (BCC) practice devoted to infant and young child feeding (IYCF) in low- and middle-income countries by practitioners in international development organizations. We used an iterative, snowball sampling procedure to identify participants, and the self-administered questionnaire contained pre-coded questions and open-ended questions, relying primarily on content analysis to derive generalizations. Highlights of findings include (i) IYCF-specific BCC is usually delivered within the context of other public health messages and programmes; (ii) technical assistance with programme development and implementation are primary activities, and evaluation-related work is also common; and (iii) formative research and evaluation is universal, but process evaluation is not.

Identifying determinants of effective complementary feeding behaviour change interventions in developing countries.

As stunting moves to the forefront of the global agenda, there is substantial evidence that behaviour change interventions (BCI) can improve infant feeding practices and growth. However, this evidence has not been translated into improved outcomes on a national level because we do not know enough about what makes these interventions work, for whom, when, why, at what cost and for how long. Our objective was to examine the design and implementation of complementary feeding BCI, from the peer-reviewed literature, to identify generalisable key determinants.

Behaviour change for better health: nutrition, hygiene and sustainability.

As the global population grows there is a clear challenge to address the needs of consumers, without depleting natural resources and whilst helping to improve nutrition and hygiene to reduce the growth of noncommunicable diseases. For fast-moving consumer goods companies, like Unilever, this challenge provides a clear opportunity to reshape its business to a model that decouples growth from a negative impact on natural resources and health. However, this change in the business model also requires a change in consumer behaviour.

Impact of AIDS on rural livelihoods in Benue State, Nigeria.

This study addresses the socio-economic impact of AIDS on rural livelihoods in Benue State, Nigeria, where HIV prevalence is 9.3% but the number of AIDS cases is still relatively low. About 6% of the study households had experienced illness and death classified as AIDS, and reported high costs in terms of expenditures and time spent on care, funerals and mourning.

[Favourable results of a rehabilitation programme with cognitive behavioural therapy and graded physical activity in patients with the chronic-fatigue syndrome].

Objective: To determine whether a specific course of interdisciplinary rehabilitation might lead to clinically significant changes in fatigue, experienced disability and physical function in patients with the chronic-fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Design: Prospective and uncontrolled.

Method: 'Het Roessingh', a rehabilitation centre in Enschede, the Netherlands, has developed an interdisciplinary clinical rehabilitation programme for patients with CFS in cooperation with the 'Nijmeegs Kenniscentrum Chronische Vermoeidheid' [Chronic-Fatigue Knowledge Centre] in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Anthropometric measurements and body silhouette of women: validity and perception.

Objective: To examine the validity of self-reported values for current anthropometric measurements and factors related to misreporting.

Design: E3N, a prospective cohort study of cancer risk factors, conducted in France and part of the European Prospective Investigation on Cancer. E3N comprises 100,000 women, born between 1925 and 1950, followed with self-administered questionnaires sent every 18 to 24 months starting in 1990.

Do eating habits differ according to alcohol consumption? Results of a study of the French cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (E3N-EPIC).

Background: The potential of dietary habits to confound the association between alcohol consumption and health needs further study.

Objective: We examined whether eating habits differed according to alcohol consumption in a large cohort of French women.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study of the French cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (E3N-EPIC).

Standardization of the 24-hour diet recall calibration method used in the european prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC): general concepts and preliminary results.

Objectives: Despite increasing interest in the concept of calibration in dietary surveys, there is still little experience in the use and standardization of a common reference dietary method, especially in international studies. In this paper, we present the general theoretical framework and the approaches developed to standardize the computer-assisted 24 h diet recall method (EPIC-SOFT) used to collect about 37 000 24-h dietary recall measurements (24-HDR) from the 10 countries participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). In addition, an analysis of variance was performed to examine the level of standardization of EPIC-SOFT across the 90 interviewers involved in the study.

Structure of the standardized computerized 24-h diet recall interview used as reference method in the 22 centers participating in the EPIC project. European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

A computerized 24-h diet recall interview program (EPIC-SOFT) was developed for use in a large European multi-center study, namely the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). This program, which was adapted for each participating country and translated into nine languages, was developed to standardize interviews between the 22 EPIC centers. Common rules were pre-entered into the system to describe, quantify and probe approximately 1500-2200 foods and 150-350 recipes.

E3N, a French cohort study on cancer risk factors. E3N Group. Etude Epidémiologique auprès de femmes de l'Education Nationale.

This paper describes the design of E3N, a prospective cohort study conducted in France on risk factors for female cancers. The cohort comprises 100,000 women, aged 40-65 years at baseline in 1990. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires every 18 months.

Relative validity and reproducibility of a French dietary history questionnaire.

Background: A self-administered dietary history questionnaire, especially developed for use in a large French prospective cohort study, was tested for accuracy of food intake measurement by comparing it to the average of 9-12 24-hour recalls. This questionnaire was structured according to the French meal pattern. An important feature of the questionnaire was the separation into a quantification part and qualification part.

The significance of socio-economic characteristics for adult seasonal body-weight fluctuations: a study in north-western Benin.

Large variations in seasonal body-weight fluctuations have been described for individuals from different households living and working under comparable circumstances. In the present study the relationship between socio-economic household characteristics and seasonal body-weight fluctuations of individual members of rural Beninese households were studied. No significant correlation was found for body-weight fluctuation between the two study years, nor for body-weight fluctuation of men and women belonging to the same household.