[Diet and Nutrition in the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD)]

Need for Advocacy Around Eating Right: A Call for Reducing the Burden of Malnutrition-A Pilot Study

Background

Adequate nutrition status is imperative for overall health and well-being, although numerous challenges impede its attainment. Various sociodemographic determinants significantly influence an individual's nutrition status, particularly those of women.

Methods

In this pilot study, the dietary patterns of 105 women were collected using the modified version of the FIGO nutrition checklist, along with their sociodemographic details to determine the enablers and barriers to their right nutrition. The women's dietary patterns were categorized into optimum or suboptimum diets on the basis of their frequency of consumption of each food group. Descriptive analyses of checklist data were performed using STATA version 15.1.

Results

The findings of the dietary data analysis reveal that financial constraints are not the primary barriers to achieving adequate nutrition for most of these women. Despite investing significantly in their food consumption, nearly half of the study population has a suboptimal diet with low consumption of protein-rich foods and green leafy vegetables.

Conclusion

We assert that proper advocacy for optimal nutrition and a shift toward healthier food choices is crucial in tackling the growing burden of malnutrition. Empowering them with the right information to 'Eat Right' is needed even across the educated and affording population.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13224-023-01910-4.

Health Economic Evaluation of a Controlled Lifestyle Intervention: The Healthy Lifestyle Community Program (Cohort 2; HLCP-2)

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are associated with high costs for healthcare systems. We evaluated changes in total costs, comprising direct and indirect costs, due to a 24-month non-randomized, controlled lifestyle intervention trial with six measurement time points aiming to improve the risk profile for NCDs. Overall, 187 individuals from the general population aged ≥18 years were assigned to either the intervention group (IG; n = 112), receiving a 10-week intensive lifestyle intervention focusing on a healthy, plant-based diet; physical activity; stress management; and community support, followed by a 22-month follow-up phase including monthly seminars, or a control group (CG; n = 75) without intervention. The complete data sets of 118 participants (IG: n = 79; CG: n = 39) were analyzed. At baseline, total costs per person amounted to 67.80 ± 69.17 EUR in the IG and 48.73 ± 54.41 EUR in the CG per week. The reduction in total costs was significantly greater in the IG compared to the CG after 10 weeks (p = 0.012) and 6 months (p = 0.004), whereas direct costs differed significantly after 10 weeks (p = 0.017), 6 months (p = 0.041) and 12 months (p = 0.012) between the groups. The HLCP-2 was able to reduce health-related economic costs, primarily due to the reduction in direct costs.

Retinal Microvasculature and Neural Changes and Dietary Patterns in an Older Population in Southern Italy

BACKGROUND

Like other parts of the body, the retina and its neurovascular system are also affected by age-related changes. The rising age of populations worldwide makes it important to study the pathologies related to age and their potential risk factors, such as diet and eating habits. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive power of food groups versus retinal features among noninstitutionalized older adults from Southern Italy using a machine learning approach.

METHODS

We recruited 530 subjects, with a mean age of 74 years, who were drawn from the large population of the Salus in Apulia Study. In the present cross-sectional study, eating habits were assessed with a validated food frequency questionnaire. For the visual assessment, a complete ophthalmic examination and optical coherence tomography-angiography analyses were performed.

RESULTS

The analyses identified 13 out of the 28 food groups as predictors of all our retinal variables: grains, legumes, olives-vegetable oil, fruiting vegetables, other vegetables, fruits, sweets, fish, dairy, low-fat dairy, red meat, white meat, and processed meat.

CONCLUSIONS

Eating habits and food consumption may be important risk factors for age-related retinal changes. A diet that provides the optimal intake of specific nutrients with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory powers, including carotenoids and omega-3 fatty acids, could have beneficial effects.