Universal Salt Iodization (USI) - FTP Directory Listing

www.unsystem.org/scn PROGRAMME NEWS 65To increase production of OFSP and vitamin A intake, the project aimed to simultaneously increase farmers’ access toOFSP vines, increase nutrition knowledge and create demand for OFSP, and ensure sustainability through market development.To assess progress and impact, nine surveys were taken over the two years, gathering data on socioeconomicand demographic characteristics of the households, production and sales of OFSP, nutrition knowledge, and dietaryintake of the children. Blood samples were collected from all study children for bio-chemical analysis.Finally, sweet potato plots were measured annually and prices of major sources of vitamin A were monitored monthly inmarkets. At the end of two years, five of the nine introduced varieties of OFSP were well accepted by farmers in terms oftaste and agronomic performance, and plot size increased over 10-fold in intervention households, from an average of33 m2 to over 350 m2. Caregivers in intervention households attended an average of eight nutrition education sessions;their knowledge of nutrition and vitamin A also increased relative to baseline and relative to caregivers in control areas.Between-group differences in knowledge were also reflected in differences in several child feeding practices. Interventionchildren were ten times more likely than control children to eat OFSP three or more days during the previous week,their vitamin A intakes were much higher than those of control children, with the OFSP providing about 35 percent ofvitamin A intake among intervention children (and 90% for the individual children who ate OFSP on the recall day). Controllingfor confounding factors, mean serum retinol increased in intervention children but did not increase significantly incontrol subjects.This study demonstrates the high potential public health importance of an integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention.Prevalence of low serum retinol concentrations remained the same in control areas and dropped from 60 to 38 percentamong intervention children (controlling for infection). In control areas, the final estimate of prevalence was nearly identicalto baseline despite the fact that all children had access to vitamin A supplements. In this and similar contexts, foodbasedinterventions may be most needed as complements to capsule distribution. For intervention children, the reductionin prevalence was substantial, but the final round prevalence of nearly 40 percent highlights the need for multiplestrategies. This should serve to underscore the relevance and importance of numerous efforts currently underway.Food-based approaches using OFSP clearly have potential to increase young child vitamin A intakes and serum retinolconcentrations in areas where baseline prevalence of deficiency is high and where any type of sweet potato has previouslybeen cultivated.By Jan W. Low, Mary Arimond, Nadia Osman, Benedito Cunguara, Filipe Zano, and David Tschirley. This research was funded by theMicronutrient Initiative, the Rockefeller Foundation, USAID and HarvestPlus. Reference: Low JW, Arimond M, Osman N et al. A Food-Based Approach Introducing Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes Increased Vitamin A Intake and Serum Retinol Concentrations inYoung Children in Mozambique. The Journal of Nutrition, 2007, 137(5): 1320-1327.New GAIN incentives to improve infant and young child nutrition GAINGAIN is launching new Program on Infants & Young Child Nutrition, which goal is to encourage private companies, notfor-profitorganizations and public-private partnerships to improve children’s nutrition by bringing to market low-priced,high quality fortified complementary foods and / or fortified complementary food supplements. The target group is childrenbetween 6-24 months living in low-income families in developing countries.GAIN will offer assistance by way of a mix of grant and loan funds and technical support. Assistance could be sought forone or more of pre-startup activities and subsequently for operational activities. The amount of financing available willdepend on the potential market coverage and impact of project as well as the implementation capacity of the recipient.Funding will be available for up to three years.GAIN is looking to stimulate the production and marketing of foods and supplements suitable for infants and young childrenthat: conform to the highest international nutrition standards; are affordable and accessible to the poorest; promoteand respect the International Code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes; and, will be sustainable from abusiness point of view. More information including criteria and conditions for receiving assistance is available fromwww.gainhealth.org/childnutritionUniversity of Medical Sciences, AhvazDepartment of Nutrition at Jundi-Shapour University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran, has started the largest researchproject in the field of nutritional evaluation and dietary planning in National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) industrieswhich is planned for the first time in this area in Iran. In this study, samples from all operational drilling oil wellsthroughout the country and also oil fields in Persian Gulf are being investigated for workers’ energy expenditures, dietarypatterns, cardiovascular risk factors, blood biochemical indicators, and possible nutritional deficiencies. The literature inthis area is very scarce and the findings could be regarded as a considerable database for future works. Theinvestigators would be appreciated to hear the valuable experiences from all the world in this area.For more information and contact please refer to: Reza Amani (rezaamani@hotmail.com), Associate Professor, Head, Department ofNutrition, Faculty of Paramedicine, Jundi-Shapour University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.back to contents SCN NEWS # 35Iran