Dietary Knowledge and Practices among Non-Medical Staff at Babcock University in Ogun State, Nigeria

Objective: Good nutrition is important in promoting health and is dependent on the quality of food eaten. Little has been researched on the dietary practices among the workforce in Nigeria. This study aimed at assessing the dietary knowledge, practices, and factors influencing dietary practices and work productivity among the non-medical staff of Universities. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional survey of 398 non-medical staff of Babcock University who were selected using the multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 21) to compute frequency distributions, means, and standard deviations. Nutritional knowledge, dietary practices, and barriers to work productivity were assessed. Inferential statistical analysis was conducted using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results: The mean age among respondents was 38.68±11.04, with the majority being female 54.6%. of the respondents (61.1%) of Yoruba origin, about three percentiles (66%) were members of staff while (34%) were faculty members. The computed level of knowledge and dietary-based practices scores were (2.57±0.61) and (3.64±1.44) respectively, indicating poor knowledge and dietary practices, while the barriers that influence work productivity among workers (11.34±5.286) were high at 87.2%. No significant association was found between nutritional knowledge and dietary practices of staff and faculty (p=.154), but a significant association was found between dietary practices and work productivity of staff and faculty (p=.019) Conclusion: Health education and promotion of good nutrition should be incorporated in the workplace, interventions that will improve work productivity among workers are also encouraged. This will culminate in a well-fed and healthy workforce.

Relationship Between Dietary Knowledge, Socioeconomic Status, and Stroke Among Adults Involved in the 2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey

Stroke is a public health threat that requires urgent attention in China. Nutrients have individual significant impacts on the prevalence of stroke. However, little research has been conducted on the impact of dietary knowledge on stroke and whether the impact is potentially heterogeneous under the effect of socioeconomic status. This study used the 2015 Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey to explore the impact of dietary knowledge and socioeconomic factors on populations suffering from stroke. Results indicated that risk of stroke decreased significantly with increasing dietary knowledge score. Additionally, the impact of dietary knowledge scores on the prevalence of stroke has obvious heterogeneity. First, dietary knowledge scores significantly influenced low-income groups and individuals with low educational levels. Second, the risk of stroke in females is more affected by dietary knowledge. Third, for people living in different areas, dietary knowledge determines whether rural populations suffer from stroke.

Learning of food preferences: mechanisms and implications for obesity & metabolic diseases

Omnivores, including rodents and humans, compose their diets from a wide variety of potential foods. Beyond the guidance of a few basic orosensory biases such as attraction to sweet and avoidance of bitter, they have limited innate dietary knowledge and must learn to prefer foods based on their flavors and postoral effects. This review focuses on postoral nutrient sensing and signaling as an essential part of the reward system that shapes preferences for the associated flavors of foods. We discuss the extensive array of sensors in the gastrointestinal system and the vagal pathways conveying information about ingested nutrients to the brain. Earlier studies of vagal contributions were limited by nonselective methods that could not easily distinguish the contributions of subsets of vagal afferents. Recent advances in technique have generated substantial new details on sugar- and fat-responsive signaling pathways. We explain methods for conditioning flavor preferences and their use in evaluating gut–brain communication. The SGLT1 intestinal sugar sensor is important in sugar conditioning; the critical sensors for fat are less certain, though GPR40 and 120 fatty acid sensors have been implicated. Ongoing work points to particular vagal pathways to brain reward areas. An implication for obesity treatment is that bariatric surgery may alter vagal function.

The Effect of an Educational Program on Fatigue Level Among Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Background: Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that affect all aspects of the patients’ life causing multiple progressive symptoms; most common fatigue which leads to dependency of patients on their family for carrying out their daily routine activities. Aim: The present study aims at evaluating the effect of an educational program on fatigue level among multiple sclerosis patients. Design: A quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest was used. Setting: the study was conducted in multiple sclerosis outpatient clinic in El-Kasr El-Eini University Hospital. Sample: A convenient sample of (250) multiple sclerosis patients. Tools: Two tools were used: first tool was Structured MS patient dietary knowledge questionnaire, second tool was The Arabic Version of Modified Fatigue Impact Scale. Results: Showed a highly statistical negative correlation between dietary knowledge and cognitive, psychosocial fatigue among MS patients in pre, post and 3 months after implementation of the program. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that MS patients' dietary knowledge improved after application of the educational program as well as there was a decline in MS patients' fatigue level with statically significance differences between pre, post and 3 months after application of the program. Recommendation: Dissemination of dietary knowledge program among other multiple sclerosis patients. Keywords: Multiple sclerosis patients, dietary knowledge, fatigue

Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mengenai Kepatuhan Diet dan Pengobatan Hipertensi

Hypertension is a non-communicable disease with an increasing incidence, especially in the elderly. One of the reasons is that many sufferers do not routinely even take medication after experiencing hypertension. In addition to medication, dietary factors can also increase the risk of an increase in blood pressure. Community service is expected to be able to help health problems independently. Community empowerment is carried out by introducing regional conditions, introspective surveys, deliberation, participatory planning, implementation of activities, and sustainability development. The implementation is carried out by providing health education about hypertension diet and medication adherence by using poster media entitled “CAT HITAM” during a pandemic, before and after the activity, pretest-posttest is carried out to determine dietary knowledge and medication adherence for hypertension sufferers, Health Education regarding activities that can be done, recommended food consumption, and medication adherence that hypertension sufferers must adhere to during a pandemic. The pretest-posttest results showed differences in knowledge of diet and medication before and after health education with a p-value <0.05. Dietary problems from the results of community assessments are mostly about the limits of salt consumption for hypertension and treatment. Most of the respondents said they stopped treatment because they felt they had no complaints. It needs cooperation from various parties to continuously motivate the elderly to follow the rules of diet and treatment of hypertension.

The Impacts of Urbanization and Dietary Knowledge on Seaweed Consumption in China

Edible seaweed, a nutrient-rich and sustainable food, has a long dietary history in China. To get a better understanding of the seaweed consumption of consumers in China, this study investigates the quantity and trend of seaweed consumption of Chinese residents and employs a Tobit model to examine the effects of urbanization and dietary knowledge on seaweed consumption among residents. The results show an increasing trend of household seaweed consumption in China, including both seaweeds consumed at home (SAH) and seaweeds consumed away from home (SAFH). Households in urban areas consumed more seaweeds on average than those in rural areas. Urbanization promotes total household seaweed consumption, including SAH and SAFH, whilst dietary knowledge has a significantly positive impact on total household seaweed consumption and SAH. The findings supplement empirical evidence on the seaweed consumption behavior of Chinese residents and have important policy implications for further promoting Chinese seaweeds consumption in the context of urbanization and increasing dietary knowledge.