scholarly journals Unequal coverage of nutrition and health interventions for women and children in seven countries

2022 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Phuong Hong Nguyen ◽  
Nishmeet Singh ◽  
Samuel Scott ◽  
Sumanta Neupane ◽  
Manita Jangid ◽  
...  
BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. e028775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne Marie Thysen ◽  
Manuel Fernandes ◽  
Christine Stabell Benn ◽  
Peter Aaby ◽  
Ane Bærent Fisker

PurposeBandim Health Project (BHP) monitors health and survival of women and children in a nationally representative rural Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in Guinea-Bissau. The HDSS was set up in 1989–1990 to collect data on health interventions and child mortality.ParticipantsThe HDSS covers 182 randomly selected clusters across the whole country. The cohort is open, and women and children enter the cohort, when they move into the selected clusters, and leave the cohort, when they move out or die, or when children reach 5 years of age. Data are collected through biannual or more frequent household visits. At all village visits, information on pregnancies, vital status, vaccination status, arm circumference, use of bed nets and other basic information is collected for women and children. Today, more than 25 000 women and 23 000 children below the age of 5 years are under surveillance.Findings to dateResearch from the BHP has given rise to the hypothesis that vaccines, in addition to their targeted effects, have important non-specific effects altering the susceptibility to other infections. Initially, it was observed that mortality among children vaccinated with the live BCG or measles vaccines was much lower than the mortality among unvaccinated children, a difference, which could not be explained by prevention of tuberculosis and measles infections. In contrast, mortality tended to be higher for children who had received the non-live Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis vaccine compared with children who had not received this vaccine. Since the effect differed for the different vaccines, no bias explained the contrasting findings.Future plansNew health interventions are introduced with little assessment of real-life effects. Through the HDSS, we can describe both the implementation of interventions (eg, the vaccination programme) and their effects. Furthermore, the intensive follow-up allows the implementation of randomised trials testing potential better vaccination programmes.


1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
F.S. Solon ◽  
R. Florentino ◽  
J.C. Arnold ◽  
R.W. Engel ◽  
D.B. Aguillon ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Malathi Somaiah ◽  
V. Vijayalakshmi

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a comprehensive package of services for early childhood care and development, targeted to the poorest areas of the country. The government of India launched the most important, multi-faceted ICDS scheme in 1975 with the main aim of providing integrated pre-school education and nutrition for children (infants up to six years of age), nutrition and health education for women in the age group of 15-45 years. Through this scheme, women and children living below the poverty line scattered in various parts of the country were to be integrated through a common program aiming towards improved nutrition and health.


2015 ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Nazmul Hassan ◽  
Taniza Hossain

The present study attempts to identify the nutrition profile of the destitute women and children living in a rehabilitation center, Shishu Polli Plus (SPP), Gazipur. The vision of SPP is to serve underprivileged orphan children and destitute women and rehabilitate them by providing education and skill training. Information on anthropometric data, dietary intake, prevalence of morbidity and health and nutrition knowledge of SPP beneficiaries were collected by visiting the rehabilitation center. Dietary intake was calculated using dietary weighing of 7 consecutive days. Mean energy intake of SPP inmates was 1759 Kcal (86% of RDA). Mean intake of other nutrients were- protein 43 g, fat 33g, CHO 325g, calcium 307mg, iron 17mg, vitamin A 4120 IU, thiamine l.21mg, riboflavin 0.59mg and vitamin C 61 mg. They fulfilled the RDA for protein (96%), vitamin A (240%), and thiamine (ll8%). They were deficient in calcium (61% of RDA), iron (77% of RDA), riboflavin (48% of RDA) and vitamin C (130% of RDA; without considering cooking loss). Anthropometric assessments of the inmates indicated the presence of double burden of malnutrition at SPP. The great majority of the children (specially under-5) were undernourished; while at the same time about 9% of all adult women were found obese (BMI >25). Overall one in five children in SPP was found to be stunted. The situation however changes dramatically with age. A higher prevalence of stunting was reported with the lower age group of children. According to the weight for age and weight for height classification of nutritional status, about 30 per cent of all children residing at SPP were underweight and one quarter of all SPP children were, wasted. SPP environmental hygiene was much appreciated and the personal hygiene of SPP was far better than those of their counterparts in rural areas. The morbidity reporting was very few except for skin diseases. But SPP inmates' knowledge on nutrition and health was very poor. The study findings are encouraging in that the dietary intakes, anthropometry and the knowledge base (nutrition and health) of the SPP beneficiaries are comparable to those of their counterparts in the rural Bangladesh. This implies that without SPP interventions and attention the real life situation for these inmates would have been different. SPP has been trying very hard to bring meaningful changes in the life and living of these destitute.


2010 ◽  
Vol 80 (45) ◽  
pp. 279-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hurrell

Febrile malaria and asymptomatic malaria parasitemia substantially decrease iron absorption in single-meal, stable isotope studies in women and children, but to date there is no evidence of decreased efficacy of iron-fortified foods in malaria-endemic regions. Without inadequate malarial surveillance or health care, giving iron supplements to children in areas of high transmission could increase morbidity and mortality. The most likely explanation is the appearance of non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) in the plasma. NTBI forms when the rate of iron influx into the plasma exceeds the rate of iron binding to transferrin. Two studies in women have reported substantially increased NTBI with the ingestion of iron supplements. Our studies confirm this, but found no significant increase in NTBI on consumption of iron-fortified food. It seems likely that the malarial parasite in hepatocytes can utilize NTBI, but it cannot do so in infected erythrocytes. NTBI however may increase the sequestration of parasite-infected erythrocytes in capillaries. Bacteremia is common in children with severe malaria and sequestration in villi capillaries could lead to a breaching of the intestinal barrier, allowing the passage of pathogenic bacteria into the systemic circulation. This is especially important as frequent high iron doses increase the number of pathogens in the intestine at the expense of the barrier bacteria.


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