Food purchase diversity is associated with market food diversity and diets of children and their mothers but not fathers in rural Tanzania: Results from the EFFECTS baseline survey.

Rural households in East Africa rely on local markets, but the influence of market food diversity and household food purchase diversity on diets has not been well-characterized. We quantify the associations among market food diversity, household food purchase diversity and dietary diversity of mothers, fathers and children in rural Tanzania. This study uses baseline data from a randomized controlled trial, Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania.

Expanding the food environment framework to include family dynamics: A systematic synthesis of qualitative evidence using HIV as a case study.

Food environment changes in low- and middle-income countries are increasing diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This paper synthesizes the qualitative evidence about how family dynamics shape food choices within the context of HIV (Prospero: CRD42021226283). Guided by structuration theory and food environment framework, we used best-fit framework analysis to develop the Family Dynamics Food Environment Framework (FDF) comprising three interacting dimensions (resources, characteristics, and action orientation).

Demand-driven capacity building for public health nutrition research in Lao PDR.

In Laos, rates of undernutrition, especially among children under 5 years of age, remain high. In response, a large multidisciplinary team embarked on a multi-year project in Laos beginning in 2019 with the purpose of institutional strengthening around public health nutrition research. This paper summarizes the Applied Nutrition Research Capacity Building project's activities, immediate project results, and prospects for sustaining impacts into the future.

Contribution of Food from Market Purchases and Home Production to Child Nutrient Intake: Evidence from the EFFECTS Study Baseline Data.

Background: Child undernutrition is prevalent in Tanzania, and households rely primarily on local markets and home production as food sources. However, little is known about the contribution of food market purchases to nutrient intakes among children consuming complementary foods.

Objectives: To quantify the relationships between diversity of foods purchased and produced by households and adequate child nutrient intake in Mara, Tanzania.

Effects of engaging fathers and bundling parenting and nutrition interventions on early child development and maternal and paternal parenting in Mara, Tanzania: a factorial cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Background: Multicomponent interventions are needed to address the various co-occurring risks that compromise early child nutrition and development. We compared the independent and combined effects of engaging fathers and bundling parenting components into a nutrition intervention on early child development (ECD) and parenting outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a 2×2 factorial cluster-randomized controlled trial across 80 villages in Mara Region, Tanzania, also known as EFFECTS (Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania; ClinicalTrials.

Effects of engaging fathers and bundling nutrition and parenting interventions on household gender equality and women's empowerment in rural Tanzania: Results from EFFECTS, a five-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Advancing gender equality and women's empowerment (GE/WE) may contribute to better child nutrition and development in low-resource settings. However, few empirical studies have generated evidence on GE/WE and examined the potential of engaging men to transform gender norms and power relations in the context of nutrition and parenting programs. We tested the independent and combined effects of engaging couples and bundling nutrition and parenting interventions on GE/WE in Mara, Tanzania.

Exploring drivers of food choice among PLHIV and their families in a peri-urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Background: A nutritious diet is critical to minimizing disease progression of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and maximizing treatment efficacy. In low resource settings, meeting the food preference needs of people living with the HIV (PLHIV) can be achieved with a supportive food environment when HIV status is disclosed. However, less is known about family-level strategies related to building a supportive food environment.

Gender and Age Differences in Meal Structures, Food Away from Home, Chrono-Nutrition, and Nutrition Intakes among Adults and Children in Tanzania Using a Newly Developed Tablet-Based 24-Hour Recall Tool.

Background: In many regions of the world, little is known about meal structures, meal patterns, and nutrient intake because the collection of quantitative dietary intake is expensive and labor-intensive.

Objectives: We describe the development and field feasibility of a tablet-based Tanzania 24-h recall tool (TZ-24hr-DR) and dietary intakes collected from adults and children in rural and urban settings.

Methods: Using the Tanzanian food-composition table, the TZ-24hr-DR tool was developed on an Android platform using the Open Data Kit.

Caregivers Systematically Overestimate Their Child's Height-for-Age Relative to Other Children in Rural Ethiopia.

Background: Stunting affects one-quarter of children <5 y of age, yet little is known about the accuracy of caregivers' perceptions regarding their child's linear growth. Most existing quantitative research on this topic has been conducted in high-income countries and has examined perceptions of children's weight rather than height.

Objectives: In rural Ethiopia where linear growth faltering is highly prevalent, this study aimed to better understand how caregivers perceive their child's growth.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on the Effect of Portion Size and Ingestive Frequency on Energy Intake and Body Weight among Adults in Randomized Controlled Feeding Trials.

Energy intake is the product of portion size (PS)-the energy content of an ingestive event-and ingestive frequency (IF)-the number of ingestive events per unit time. An uncompensated alteration in either PS or IF would result in a change in energy intake and body weight if maintained over time. The objective of this meta-analysis was to assess the independent effects of PS and IF on energy intake and body weight among healthy adults in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

The role of chicken management practices in children's exposure to environmental contamination: a mixed-methods analysis.

Background: Household chicken production presents an opportunity to promote child nutrition, but the benefits might be offset by increased environmental contamination. Using household surveys, direct observations, and in-depth interviews with woman caregivers, we sought to describe the relationship between chicken management practices and household exposure to environmental contamination, and assess barriers to adopting improved husbandry practices.

Methods: First, we analyzed baseline data from 973 households raising chickens in the two interventions arms from the Agriculture-to-Nutrition (ATONU) study in Ethiopia to assess the relationship between animal management practices and environmental exposures.

Soil zinc, serum zinc, and the potential for agronomic biofortification to reduce human zinc deficiency in Ethiopia.

Human zinc deficiency is a global public health problem. Many African soils are zinc deficient (ZnD), indicating fertilizers could increase crop yields and grain Zn levels, thereby increasing Zn in the food supply and alleviating human Zn deficiency. To analyze associations among soil Zn, human Zn deficiency, and child nutritional status, we combined the Ethiopian soil Zn map and the Ethiopian National Micronutrient Survey (ENMS).

Informal food environment is associated with household vegetable purchase patterns and dietary intake in the DECIDE study: Empirical evidence from food vendor mapping in peri-urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

We study the relationship between the food environment (FE) and the food purchase patterns, dietary intakes, and nutritional status of individuals in peri-urban Tanzania. In Africa, the prevailing high density of informal vendors creates challenges to characterizing the FE. We present a protocol and tool developed as part of the Diet, Environment, and Choices of positive living (DECIDE) study to measure characteristics of the FE.

Exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins and linear growth of children in rural Ethiopia: a longitudinal study.

Objective: We hypothesise that exposure to aflatoxins and fumonisins, measured in serum, alters protein synthesis, reducing serum protein and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), increasing inflammation and infection, leading to child's linear growth failure.

Design: Children 6-35 months, stratified by baseline stunting, were subsampled from an intervention trial on quality protein maize consumption and evaluated at two time-points.

Setting: Blood samples and anthropometric data were collected in the pre-harvest (August-September 2015) and post-harvest (February 2016) seasons in rural Ethiopia.

Behavioural insights to support increased consumption of quality protein maize by young children: a cluster randomised trial in Ethiopia.

Introduction: Biofortified crops have tremendous potential to improve child nutrition. We tested whether complementing the distribution of quality protein maize (QPM) with a package of interventions informed by behavioural insights could support greater consumption of QPM by young children and translate into improved growth.

Methods: We conducted a cluster-randomised trial in Oromia, Ethiopia.

Mining maize diversity and improving its nutritional aspects within agro-food systems.

Agro-food systems are undergoing rapid innovation in the world and the system's continuum is promoted at different scales with one of the main outcomes to improve nutrition of consumers. Consumer knowledge through educational outreach is important to food and nutrition security and consumer demands guide breeding efforts. Maize is an important part of food systems.

Men's nutrition knowledge is important for women's and children's nutrition in Ethiopia.

In an effort to address undernutrition among women and children in rural areas of low-income countries, nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) and behaviour change communication (BCC) projects heavily focus on women as an entry point to effect nutritional outcomes. There is limited evidence on the role of men's contribution in improving household diets. In this Agriculture to Nutrition trial (Clinicaltrials.

A Chicken Production Intervention and Additional Nutrition Behavior Change Component Increased Child Growth in Ethiopia: A Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Background: Chicken production in the context of nutrition-sensitive agriculture may benefit child nutrition in low-income settings.

Objectives: This study evaluated effects of 1) a chicken production intervention [African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG)], and 2) the ACGG intervention with nutrition-sensitive behavior change communication (BCC) [ACGG + Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU)], on child nutrition and health outcomes and hypothesized intermediaries.

Methods: Forty ACGG villages received 25 genetically improved chickens and basic husbandry guidance; of these, 20 ACGG + ATONU villages in addition received a nutrition-sensitive behavior change and homegardening intervention; 20 control clusters received no intervention.

Hemoglobin and hepcidin have good validity and utility for diagnosing iron deficiency anemia among pregnant women.

Background/objectives: Screening and diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is cumbersome as it may require testing for hemoglobin, ferritin, and an inflammatory biomarker. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic capacity of hematologic biomarkers to detect IDA among pregnant women in Tanzania.

Subjects/methods: We pooled data from an iron supplementation trial of 1500 iron-replete pregnant woman and a prospective cohort of 600 iron-deficient pregnant women.

Market food diversity mitigates the effect of environment on women's dietary diversity in the Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU) study, Ethiopia.

Objective: In Ethiopia, women's dietary diversity is low, primarily due to poor food availability and access, both at home and market level. The present study aimed to describe market access using a new definition called market food diversity (MFD) and estimate the impact of MFD, crop and livestock diversity on dietary diversity among women enrolled in the Agriculture to Nutrition (ATONU) trial.

Design: Baseline cross-sectional data collected from November 2016 to January 2017 were used for the analysis.

Soil Zinc Is Associated with Serum Zinc But Not with Linear Growth of Children in Ethiopia.

To our knowledge, the relationships among soil zinc, serum zinc and children's linear growth have not been studied geographically or at a national level in any country. We use data from the cross-sectional, nationally representative Ethiopian National Micronutrient Survey (ENMS) ( = 1776), which provided anthropometric and serum zinc ( = 1171) data on children aged 6⁻59 months. Soil zinc levels were extracted for each child from the digital soil map of Ethiopia, developed by the Africa Soil Information Service.

Biofortified Maize Can Improve Quality Protein Intakes among Young Children in Southern Ethiopia.

Quality protein maize (QPM) varieties are biofortified, or nutritionally improved, to have higher lysine and tryptophan levels to increase quality protein intakes particularly among young children. This study assesses adequacy of children's protein intakes in Ethiopia, where QPM is being promoted, accounting for protein quality and seasonal dietary changes, and estimates potential increases in intakes if QPM replaced conventional maize in diets. Diets of randomly sampled children aged 12⁻36 months in rural southern Ethiopia ( = 218) were assessed after harvest during relative food security and 3⁻4 months later during relative food insecurity using 24-h weighed food records.

Harnessing University Strengths in Multisectoral Collaborations for Planetary Health.

Although significant achievements in human health have been made globally, progress has been made possible, in part, through unconstrained use of natural resources. As the health of our planet worsens, human health is also endangered. Scholars and policymakers from diverse disciplines highlighted complex, multisectoral approaches for addressing poor dietary intake, over- and undernutrition, and chronic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa at the Conference held at Harvard University on 6-7 November 2017.

Associations among High-Quality Protein and Energy Intake, Serum Transthyretin, Serum Amino Acids and Linear Growth of Children in Ethiopia.

Limited evidence is available on the associations of high-quality protein and energy intake, serum transthyretin (TTR), serum amino acids and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) with linear growth of young children. Data collected during the baseline of a randomized control trial involving rural Ethiopian children aged 6⁻35 months ( = 873) were analyzed to evaluate the associations among height/length-for-age z-scores, dietary intakes, and these biomarkers (i.e.

Large -scale wheat flour folic acid fortification program increases plasma folate levels among women of reproductive age in urban Tanzania.

There is widespread vitamin and mineral deficiency problem in Tanzania with known deficiencies of at least vitamin A, iron, folate and zinc, resulting in lasting negative consequences especially on maternal health, cognitive development and thus the nation's economic potential. Folate deficiency is associated with significant adverse health effects among women of reproductive age, including a higher risk of neural tube defects. Several countries, including Tanzania, have implemented mandatory fortification of wheat and maize flour but evidence on the effectiveness of these programs in developing countries remains limited.