Children in resource poor settings are at a high risk of inadequate iron and vitamin A intake when diets lack diversity and are dominated by staple foods. Yet comparative information on diet quality among school child...Children in resource poor settings are at a high risk of inadequate iron and vitamin A intake when diets lack diversity and are dominated by staple foods. Yet comparative information on diet quality among school children is scarce. The objective of the study was to assess the potential of simple food group diversity to serve as a proxy indicator of iron and vitamin A status among rural school children in Uganda. A cross sectional correlation model of associations between Food Group Diversity (FGD) and iron and vitamin A status was used. We analyzed 8 schools in Kumi District, Uganda, randomly selected from the 34 schools that participated in the main part of the study. Our sample included primary school children, aged between 9-15 years (n = 172). Food group diversity and food variety (FV) were calculated from both a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and a 24-hour dietary recall. The FGD and FVS were tested against iron (as serum ferritin) and vitamin A (as serum retinol) status. The FGD (based on FFQ data) was 9.6 (±1.9). There was a positive correlation between 24-hour recall and FFQ for consumption of cereals (Corr. Coef = 0.28;p 0.05), which was also the most highly consumed group (98.9% & 86.9% by FFQ and 24-hour recall;respectively). Consistent with other studies, increase in the number of food groups significantly increased serum ferritin and serum retinol measures (p 0.001). Presence of at least one food item in the “roots & tubers”;“cereals”;and “pulses/nuts”, significantly increased serum ferritin and serum retinol concentrations (p 0.01). We speculate that simple food group diversity may reflect intake and serve as a simple indicator of iron and vitamin A status among school children. Strategies aimed at increasing dietary diversity in the community may benefit the families of these children and improve their micronutrient status.展开更多
Neolithic site sections, natural sections and other proxy indicators like paleotrees and peat are collected for further understanding the environmental changes during the past 10,000 years in the Yangtze Delta region....Neolithic site sections, natural sections and other proxy indicators like paleotrees and peat are collected for further understanding the environmental changes during the past 10,000 years in the Yangtze Delta region. The results indicate that cultural interruption in the Yangtze Delta was the result of water expansion induced by climatic changes like more precipitation. For fi＇agile human mitigation to the natural hazards in the Neolithic cultural period, environmental changes usually exerted tremendous influences on human activities, havocking the human civilization, which is meaningful for human mitigation to natural hazards under the present global warming. At the same time, some uncertainties in reconstruction ofoaleo-environmental changes were discussed in the text.展开更多
文摘Children in resource poor settings are at a high risk of inadequate iron and vitamin A intake when diets lack diversity and are dominated by staple foods. Yet comparative information on diet quality among school children is scarce. The objective of the study was to assess the potential of simple food group diversity to serve as a proxy indicator of iron and vitamin A status among rural school children in Uganda. A cross sectional correlation model of associations between Food Group Diversity (FGD) and iron and vitamin A status was used. We analyzed 8 schools in Kumi District, Uganda, randomly selected from the 34 schools that participated in the main part of the study. Our sample included primary school children, aged between 9-15 years (n = 172). Food group diversity and food variety (FV) were calculated from both a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and a 24-hour dietary recall. The FGD and FVS were tested against iron (as serum ferritin) and vitamin A (as serum retinol) status. The FGD (based on FFQ data) was 9.6 (±1.9). There was a positive correlation between 24-hour recall and FFQ for consumption of cereals (Corr. Coef = 0.28;p 0.05), which was also the most highly consumed group (98.9% & 86.9% by FFQ and 24-hour recall;respectively). Consistent with other studies, increase in the number of food groups significantly increased serum ferritin and serum retinol measures (p 0.001). Presence of at least one food item in the “roots & tubers”;“cereals”;and “pulses/nuts”, significantly increased serum ferritin and serum retinol concentrations (p 0.01). We speculate that simple food group diversity may reflect intake and serve as a simple indicator of iron and vitamin A status among school children. Strategies aimed at increasing dietary diversity in the community may benefit the families of these children and improve their micronutrient status.
基金Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.90411015 Foundation of Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, CAS, No.S260018+2 种基金 National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.40271103 Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology from the Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, No. SKLLQG0503 Physical Geography of "985" Item and Foundation of Modern Analyses Center of Nanjing University
文摘Neolithic site sections, natural sections and other proxy indicators like paleotrees and peat are collected for further understanding the environmental changes during the past 10,000 years in the Yangtze Delta region. The results indicate that cultural interruption in the Yangtze Delta was the result of water expansion induced by climatic changes like more precipitation. For fi＇agile human mitigation to the natural hazards in the Neolithic cultural period, environmental changes usually exerted tremendous influences on human activities, havocking the human civilization, which is meaningful for human mitigation to natural hazards under the present global warming. At the same time, some uncertainties in reconstruction ofoaleo-environmental changes were discussed in the text.
