Gender inequalities in diet quality and their socioeconomic patterning in a nutrition transition context in the Middle East and North Africa: a cross-sectional study in Tunisia.

Background: In a context of nutrition transition and major shifts in lifestyle and diet, the Middle East and North Africa features a marked gender excess adiposity gap detrimental to women. In this setting, where gender issues are especially acute, we investigated gender differences in dietary intake with a focus on diet quality, and how the differences varied with the area of residence and socio-demographic characteristics.

Methods: The study was conducted in 2009-2010 in the Greater Tunis region (Tunisia), as a case study of an advanced nutrition transition context in the region.

Intra-household double burden of malnutrition in a North African nutrition transition context: magnitude and associated factors of child anaemia with mother excess adiposity.

Objective: In the Middle East and North Africa region, the nutrition transition has resulted in drastic increases in excess adiposity, particularly among women, while some types of undernutrition remain prevalent, especially among pre-school children. We assessed the magnitude, nature and associated factors of the within-household co-occurrence of anaemia in children and excess adiposity in mothers.

Design: Cross-sectional survey using stratified two-stage random cluster sampling to survey households with women aged 20-49 years.