Diagnostic Accuracy of Body Mass Index in Defining Childhood Obesity: Analysis of Cross-Sectional Data from Ghanaian Children.

Background: Screening methods for childhood obesity are based largely on the published body mass index (BMI) criteria. Nonetheless, their accuracy in African children is largely unknown. The diagnostic accuracies of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) BMI-based criteria in defining obesity using deuterium dilution as a criterion method in a sample of Ghanaian children are presented.

Maternal and Infant Lipid-Based Nutritional Supplementation Increases Height of Ghanaian Children at 4-6 Years Only if the Mother Was Not Overweight Before Conception.

Background: Few studies have evaluated the long-term effects of nutritional supplementation during the first 1000 d of life. We previously reported that maternal and child lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) increased child length by 18 mo.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of LNS on later growth and body composition at 4-6 y of age.

Cross-sectional assessment of infants' exposure to toxic metals through breast milk in a prospective cohort study of mining communities in Ghana.

Background: Although breastfeeding of infants is recommended globally, the fact that maternal toxic metal stores are mobilised into breast milk implies infants, whose mothers live and work in mining communities, are at risk of multiple exposure to mining related toxic metals, such as Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As), through breast milk intake, in addition to in utero exposure.

Method: A total of 114 mother-baby pairs, recruited from two community hospitals servicing mining communities in two different regions in Ghana (57 each), were involved in this study. When the babies were 3 months old, the amount of breast milk intake, concentrations of selected toxic metals in the breast milk and therefore the amount of toxic metals exposure through breast milk were determined.