Susmita Ghosh

Suboptimal diets contribute to child malnutrition globally. The Engaging Fathers for Effective Child Nutrition and Development in Tanzania (EFFECTS) study developed interventions that engaged fathers and delivered bundled nutrition and parenting content and tested their individual and combined effects on child dietary diversity and upstream parental behaviors. In a cluster‐randomized controlled trial in Mara, Tanzania, 80 villages were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1:1) to standard care, a nutrition intervention engaging either mothers or both parents, or a bundled nutrition and parenting intervention engaging either mothers or both parents. Eligible households ( n = 960) had a child under 18 months at enrollment (October 2018–May 2019). Community health workers (CHWs) delivered gender‐transformative social and behavior change interventions through parental peer group sessions before March 2020 and subsequently through home visits. The primary outcome, child dietary diversity, and secondary outcomes on child feeding practices, morbidity, growth, and parental behaviors were assessed prior to, during, and after intervention. Intention‐to‐treat analyses used generalized linear mixed models. Engaging fathers while providing bundled content increased children's dietary diversity by 0.60 food groups/day (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.18–1.02) and 0.96 food groups/week (CI: 0.51–1.41) more than standard care. Significant interaction between father engagement and bundled content was detected for children's consumption of dairy ( p = 0.04). Positive intervention effects were detected on several maternal and paternal behaviors related to household food access via home production or local food markets, complementary feeding, and hygiene practices. Gender‐transformative interventions, delivered by CHWs engaging both parents with bundled nutrition and parenting content, can synergistically improve children's diets. Trial registration: ACTRN1261900070419

This study examines the association of depressive and anxiety symptoms with diet quality among university students while controlling for different demographic and other health and lifestyle factors. This cross-sectional study was carried out between April 2021 and June 2021 among a total of 440 (unweighted) university students. Diet quality was assessed using a 10-item mini-dietary assessment index tool. The depressive and anxiety symptoms of participants were measured using the validated Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression and mediation analyses were performed. In this study, 61.1% (95% CI: 56.6% to 65.7%) of university students’ diet quality was good during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a post-graduate student, an urban resident, having no depressive (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.20 to 3.84) and anxiety symptoms (AOR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.07 to 3.59), no changes or improvement in appetite, and no changes in sleep duration were significantly associated with good diet quality among our study participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 had a significant effect on the diet quality of university students. Future public health policies need to be focused on improving the mental health and well-being of students particularly during pandemic situations to enhance their diet quality.

Milk is an ideal food for all age groups. The current study was carried out to identify the microorganisms to assess the raw milk quality and the antibiotic resistance of those identified micro-organisms. Five raw milk samples along with two high treatment (UHT) milk samples from different locations of Noakhali district of Bangladesh were analysed. Bacterial isolation was performed by Nutrient Agar (NA) and MacConkey (MCA), Eiosin Methylene Blue (EMB) and Genital menital salt agar (GMSA). The isolates were then identified by Kliger’s Iron Agar (KIA) test, Motility Indole Urease (MIU) test, Catalase and Oxidase tests. Antibiotics resistance tests were done for 13 different antibiotics. Among all these samples, Maijdee Bazar (S4) contained the highest load as 1.87×106 and the UHT samples contained no bacterial contamination. E. coli covered 47.05% whereas Listeria, Bacillus and Yersinia were in the same percentage as 5.88% among all isolates. Salmonella and Staphylococcus were 23.53% and 11.76%, respectively. Listeria and Salmonella were resistant to five different antibiotics by 46.15% and 38.46% of multiple antibiotic resistance index (MRI), correspondingly. However, E. coli and Yersinia were resistant to three antibiotics namely, Rifampcin (RIF), Cefotaxime (CTX), Amoxycillin (AMX) by about 23% as MRI percentage. Bacillus and Staphylococcus both were resistant to Cefepime (CPM) by 7.69% of MRI. Hence, it can be concluded that Rifampcin and Cefepime were most common antibiotics which were resisted by most of the isolates. Therefore, hygiene aspect of these milk sources needs to be taken into consideration with high priority. Also, the antibiotics which are resisted by different organisms will be detrimental for public health aspects.

The demand for various unconventional food to reduce the complications in both communicable and non-communicable diseases is increasing day by day. The aim of this review was to observe the efficacy of Aloe vera in hyperglycemia and in hyperlipidemia in vivo (both animals and humans). The studies of different authors were searched by using many scientific search engines such as Pub Med, Google Scholar, Science Direct, the database of Open Access Journals. There are 25 animal studies and 10 human studies are included in this review. By analyzing data, data were extracted from selected articles that showed the effects of different form of Aloe vera on diabetes and hyperlipidemia after the consumption. The result of this review contains different doses and forms of Aloe vera, which were provided to target animals and humans for a different duration to achieve an outcome in those articles. Most of the studies showed a significant result that means Aloe vera has a positive effect on diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Further studies are needed to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms of action of Aloe vera as well as its efficacy and safety in the treatment of various diseases.

Objectives: Adolescence, a crucial period for growth velocity including sexual maturation, is an important period of life and young adolescent girls need to have proper knowledge, positive attitudes and practice of balanced diet to achieve optimum growth and development. Considering its importance this study attempts to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of balanced diets among adolescent schoolgirls in Noakhali district, Bangladesh. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in three secondary schools in Noakhali district, Bangladesh. A multistage sampling techniques was used to select schools and study participants. A total of 485 adolescent school girls participated and a pre-designed, validated and structured questionnaire was used for data collection. In addition to descriptive statistics, chi-square test and logistic regression were employed for analysis. Results: The results from the study revealed that more than half of the students did not have good knowledge about a balanced diet, 42.8% had a positive attitude, whereas the practice of consuming a balanced diet was rather low (only 4.5%). Students studying in government schools had better knowledge and attitudes than non-government school students. Moreover, 41.1% of students were underweight; more than 60% of respondent’s mothers did not have an education higher than secondary school and were mostly unemployed housewives. Parent’s education, mother’s occupation, and types of school have a strong association with KAP; however, father’s education and occupation showed an association of varying degrees. Being knowledgeable was related to positive attitudes, and students with good knowledge had (OR: 1.828; 95% CI: 1.270–2.631) more likely to have positive attitudes towards a balanced diet. Conclusions: Thus, proper knowledge about a balanced diet should be introduced with basic nutritional knowledge to all levels of public education. Interventions and programs can be designed to improve knowledge, attitude, and more specifically the practice at the household level so that adolescent girls can have a proper diet during their sexual maturation phase.

Numerous benefits have been associated with omega-3 fatty acid consumption during pregnancy and the postpartum period, whether it is consumed in the diet with seafood or via supplements such as fish oil. This review primarily aimed to assess the current situation of the impact of omega-3 long-chain Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA) supplementation on the outcomes of pregnancy. The electronic search of Medline, PubMed, Public Library of Science (PLOS) and Google Scholar databases was carried out for papers from 01 February 1995 to 01 March 2017 using keywords such as “pregnancy,” “supplement,” “long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids,” “omega 3 fatty acids,” and “clinical trials.” Out of twenty-six studies, both observational and interventional, fourteen studies found the influence of omega 3 fatty acids during pregnancy or the early postpartum period on the duration of gestation and infant size at birth, preeclampsia, depression, and infant visual function and neurodevelopment have been reported. Omega 3 fatty acid intakes (both in terms of absolute amounts of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and the ratio of these 2 fatty acids) varied widely in these studies, however, and no clear consensus exists regarding the effects of omega 3 fatty acids on any of these outcomes. Because of the potential importance of these fatty acids for pregnant or lactating women, fetus, and newborn infants and the limited data from clinical trials assessing the effect of these fatty acids on pregnancy and infant outcomes, additional research is required to better define optimal intakes of specific omega 3 fatty acids during these critical periods.

The ubiquitous nature of early marriage which practiced across all background and social divides in Bangladesh causing a lot of concerns as according to UNICEF report on