A complementary feeding and play intervention improves the home environment and mental development among toddlers in rural India.

A cluster randomized trial design was used to test the efficacy of a behaviour change communication intervention on the quality of the home environment and infant development at 15 months of age. Children (n = 600) in rural South India were followed from 3 through 15 months of age. The control group (C group) received the standard of care, the complementary feeding group (CF group) received recommendations on complementary foods and the responsive complementary feeding and play group (RCF&P group) received recommendations on complementary foods plus skills on responsive feeding and play.

Adolescent life-event stress in boys is associated with elevated IL-6 and hepcidin but not hypoferremia.

Objective: The link between stress-related increases in inflammatory markers, hepcidin, and iron status are poorly understood, especially in developing countries like India. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between adolescent life-event stress (ALES), inflammatory markers, and its association with hepcidin and biomarkers of iron status among adolescent boys.

Methods: Data pertaining to a subsample of 145 participants from a cross-sectional, school-based study recruiting 370 adolescent boys aged 15-19 years, from 5 schools in Hyderabad, India, were analyzed.

Cluster-randomized trial on complementary and responsive feeding education to caregivers found improved dietary intake, growth and development among rural Indian toddlers.

Inadequate feeding and care may contribute to high rates of stunting and underweight among children in rural families in India. This cluster-randomized trial tested the hypothesis that teaching caregivers appropriate complementary feeding and strategies for how to feed and play responsively through home-visits would increase children's dietary intake, growth and development compared with home-visit-complementary feeding education alone or routine care. Sixty villages in Andhra Pradesh were randomized into three groups of 20 villages with 200 mother-infant dyads in each group.

Using the WHO 2006 child growth standard to assess the growth and nutritional status of rural south Indian infants.

Background: The WHO 2006 child growth standard is advocated in India, although the conformity of the growth of Indian infants to the WHO standard has only been assessed at cross-sectional points.

Aim: To assess the implications of using the WHO standard in rural India and to investigate the factors responsible for any departure from optimal growth, as shown in the WHO standard.

Subjects And Methods: Mixed-effects models were applied to serial weight and length data from 384 rural south Indian infants.

Psychometric validation of a knowledge questionnaire on micronutrients among adolescents and its relationship to micronutrient status of 15-19-year-old adolescent boys, Hyderabad, India.

Objective: To develop a psychometrically valid questionnaire for testing knowledge on micronutrients and to assess the relationship between knowledge and biomarkers of micronutrient status among adolescents.

Design: Cross-sectional, institution-based, validity and reliability study.

Setting: Seven higher secondary schools were covered in the limits of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Hyderabad, India.

Perceived stress, life events & coping among higher secondary students of Hyderabad, India: a pilot study.

Background & Objectives: Psychosocial stressors leading to allostatic load need to be explored further as these have great scope for early intervention. Stress studies done in India are mostly based on sources of stress and objective measures of stress. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to assess stress appraisal among students (16-17 yr) and to identify institution-specific differences (Private vs.

Does maternal autonomy influence feeding practices and infant growth in rural India?

The high prevalence of child under-nutrition remains a profound challenge in the developing world. Maternal autonomy was examined as a determinant of breast feeding and infant growth in children 3-5 months of age. Cross-sectional baseline data on 600 mother-infant pairs were collected in 60 villages in rural Andhra Pradesh, India.

Effect of micronutrient supplement on health and nutritional status of schoolchildren: mental function.

Objective: We evaluated the effect of a micronutrient-fortified beverage on mental function in schoolchildren.

Methods: This double-blind, placebo-controlled, matched-pair, cluster, randomized feeding trial assessed baseline before supplementation and after 14 mo in a cohort of 608 children aged 6 to 15 y who received a micronutrient-fortified beverage or placebo. Children in two classes (clusters) in each of nine grades were assessed for intelligence, attention and concentration, memory, and school achievement.

Effect of micronutrient supplement on health and nutritional status of schoolchildren: study design.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that supplementation with a micronutrient-fortified beverage improves micronutrient status and physical and mental development in apparently healthy schoolchildren.

Methods: The study was carried out in middle-income students in two residential schools that catered to children from a semi-urban population near Hyderabad, India. Included were 869 children who were 6 to 16 y of age in grades 1 to 10.

Behavioral aspects of development of eating behavior and nutrition status.

Studies on the development of eating behavior in rural India indicated that mothers of young children made food choices that fit into their budgets, and were also influenced by new information. Their choices were still immersed in traditional beliefs, some of which had positive effects on nutrition. Specific childrearing behaviors influenced positive deviance in the growth and psychosocial development of infants and preschoolers.