Introduction. Malnutrition is one of the most important causes for improper physical and mental development of children. Childhood obesity is a worldwide public health problem. The increasing prevalence of childhood obesity has become a growing matter of public health concern worldwide. The aim of the current study was to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and obesity in children under 5 years old in Salmas district. Methods. The current study is a cross-sectional study conducted on 902 of children under 5 years old to assess the nutritional status in Salmas district and performed from 16 until 30 October, 2011, with the cooperation of the Office of Community Nutrition Improvement and the United Nations Children's Fund. ENA (Emergency Nutrition Assessment) and Spss software were used for data analysis. Results. 49.6% of children were boys and 50.4% were girls. The prevalence of malnutrition based on underweight, stunting, and wasting was estimated to be 2.3%, 7.3%, and 1.4% among children, respectively. Stunting was more common in rural areas and this difference was significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion. In this area stunting, overweight and obesity were the most important priorities that health officials must pay more attention to. ENA software has a special ability to determine the samples and clusters and is a simple, rapid, and accurate method, especially in epidemiological studies in the country, and can be a convenient tool and its use is suggested for the same studies.

Objective:To evaluate the implementation of the national health promotion programme (through nutritional education and Fe supplementation) among female high-school students in Iran and to assess the application of the crosswise model (CM) for evaluating the programme’s implementation.Design:Two cross-sectional surveys in female high-school students, one using the direct questioning (DQ) method and the other using the CM, were conducted. Two survey questionnaires used to collect the data contained questions about three aspects of the programme: delivering the Fe supplements, consuming them and holding nutritional training sessions.Setting:Female high schools, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran.Participants:A sample of 2180 students, of whom 1740 were surveyed by the CM and 440 were interviewed by DQ.Results:The CM resulted in estimates that were consistently lower than the estimates of the DQ. The proportion of students in the DQ and CM who reported receiving the pills weekly and on a regular basis was 73·2 and 22·5 %, respectively. About 43 and 31 % of students in the DQ and CM surveys reported consuming all pills delivered to them. In the DQ method, only 12 % of students who reported the number of pills consumed had taken the complete dose (sixteen pills).Conclusions:Implementation of the Fe supplementation programme in female high schools was poor and insufficient, so that it seems unsuccessful in reducing Fe-deficiency anaemia in adolescent girls. The CM might be considered for evaluating the health programme’s implementation at high schools.

BackgroundVitamin D has a multitude of functional properties and acts like a hormone in the body. Its effect on the lipid profile is one of the proposed mechanisms for its relationship with many disorders during its deficiency. But, this relationship is still conflicting and debatable, so this study was conducted to determine the association between serum level of vitamin D and lipid profiles, including serum concentrations of cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), HDL, and LDL in healthy subjects.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 541 volunteers with age of 5–60 years from normal and healthy subjects were selected via random sampling. Demographics and history of daily or weekly sunlight exposures were recorded. Measuring vitamin D was done in two consecutive seasons: winter and summer. Ten milliliters of peripheral venous blood sample was withdrawn after an overnight fasting. Serum levels of 25(OH) D (25, hydroxy vitamin D3) were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the Confirmatory test was done by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).ResultsMean age in the total mixed population was 30.83 ± 14.02 years. Subjects were 50.5% male and 49.5% female. Mean 25(OH) D in the total population for winter and summer were 45.8 ± 24.26 ng/ml and 55.24 ± 37.47 ng/ml respectively. In the total population, 38.08% were vitamin D deficient. Comparing serum lipid levels in the summer and winter showed a significant difference for cholesterol, LDL, and HDL, but no significant effect was found for TG. Analysis for the comparison of lipid profiles between the two genders in winter showed that there were significant differences in all lipid profiles except for LDL, while such analysis for summer revealed significant difference just for TG. In multivariate analysis, there was a significant mean difference only for LDL in subgroups with vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency. There was no correlation between Vitamin D and lipid profiles.ConclusionsVitamin D is different between the two seasons regardless of gender variations. Its status showed some significant relationship with some lipid profiles (cholesterol, LDL, and HDL) during the two seasons. There were different results among winter and summer based on the gender.

Key words:Food intake. Plate waste. Hospitalized patients. Iran. Palabras clave:Ingesta. Desperdicio. Hospitalización. Irán. ResumenIntroducción: la desnutrición hospitalaria constituye a la vez un problema y un reto. Una cantidad grande de desperdicio en el menú hospitalario se correlaciona con mayor incidencia de complicaciones asociadas a la desnutrición. Se evalúa en este trabajo la asociación entre la cantidad de comida desechada, el consumo real y la satisfacción de los pacientes con la prevalencia de desnutrición y de riesgo nutricional en tres hospitales iraníes. Métodos: se evaluó una muestra de 120 pacientes, de 18 a 65 años, ingresados a lo largo de 12 meses en tres hospitales universitarios de distinto nivel. Se recogieron datos de la historia dietética, las medidas antropométricas, el índice de masa corporal y el grado de satisfacción de los pacientes con el menú servido. Se pesó el desperdicio de las bandejas de alimentación y la ingesta diaria de cada paciente. El riesgo nutricional se evaluó mediante la herramienta NRS-2000, estimando el riesgo cuando la puntuación era ≥ 3. Resultados: se incluyeron 120 pacientes no críticos, con una duración media de hospitalización de 8,9 ± 3,5 días. El 40,8% (49) eran varones. Los requerimientos energéticos medios eran 2.030,3 ± 409,03 kcal/día y los proteicos de 76,13 ± 15,33 g/día. La ingesta media fue de 1.326 ± 681,44 kcal/día y la proteica de 66,81 ± 31,66 g/día. Se desperdició en la comida y en la cena una media del 37,7 ± 29,88 y 30,4 ± 23,61 respectivamente. Solo un 25% de los pacientes estaban satisfechos con la dieta. Un 12,5% de los pacientes tenían un IMC < 20 y un 14,2% una pérdida no intencionada de peso > 10%. La prevalencia de riesgo nutricional era del 30% al ingreso y del 33,3% al alta. Conclusión: el desperdicio de la comida en el hospital y la desnutrición hospitalaria tienen una alta prevalencia en la muestra estudiada, que se acompañaban de un mayor riesgo nutricional. Las administraciones públicas deberían abordar este problema y desarrollar estrategias de prevención adecuadas. AbstractBackground: Hospital malnutrition is a worldwide dilemma and challenge. High levels of plate waste contribute to malnutrition-related complications in hospital. We investigated the association between the levels of plate waste, food intake and patient satisfaction with nutritional risk and malnutrition prevalence in three hospital settings. Methods: The sample population of 120 patients, aged 18-65 year, admitted consecutively over a 12 month period to 3 different educational university hospitals was included. For all the patients, diet history, anthropometric measurements, body mass index and patient satisfaction with the hospital food service was evaluated. Weight plate waste for all daily meals was done and actual intakes computed individually for each day. Nutrition risk screening (NRS)-2002 (≥ 3) tool was used for estimating the nutritionally at-risk population. Results: From one hundred twenty non-critically ill patients with a mean 8.9 ± 3.5 day len...

Background: Depression is one of the most common mental disorders. This study aimed to determine the association between dietary patterns and major depression in adult females. Study design: A case-control study. Methods: This study was conducted on adult females suffering from major depression within the age range from 19 to 65 years. The total participants of this study included 170 cases and 340 controls. Dietary intakes were collected using a 168-item validated semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire. Household food security was measured using a locally adapted Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. Moreover, the depression status of the adult females was assessed through a validated "Beck" questionnaire. Logistic regression was utilized to assess the association between dietary pattern scores and depression. Results: The mean ±SD ages of the participants were 36.97 ±11.28 and 36.07 ±10.58 years in the case and control groups, respectively (P=0.374), and five major dietary patterns were extracted in this study. The odds ratio (OR) in the last adjusted model was (OR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.81); therefore, the "Healthy pattern" was significantly inversely associated with the odds of depression. Adherence to the "Western pattern" significantly increased depression by 29% (OR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.59). Furthermore, the "Traditional pattern" was positively associated with depression (OR: 1.16; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.43). There was no significant association between "Sugar and fast food" and "red meat and oils" dietary pattern and depression. Conclusions: Healthy dietary pattern reduces the risk of depression in adult females; however, the western and traditional dietary patterns increases this risk.