ObjectiveTo describe the prevalence and determinants of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) among healthy children aged between 0 and 18 years living in South-East Asia (SEA).DesignWe systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid EMBASE for observational studies assessing VDD among healthy children in the SEA region as the primary or secondary outcome from database inception to 6 April 2021. PubMed was used for e-pubs and publications not indexed in Medline. Publications that included abstracts in English were included. We performed a systematic review to describe the prevalence of VDD in SEA children.ResultsOur initial search identified 550 publications with an additional 2 publications from manual screening. Of those, 21 studies from 5 different countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia) were summarised and included in forest plots. The prevalence of VDD (<50 nmol/L) ranged from 0.9% to 96.4%, with >50% of newborns having VDD, and severe VDD (<30 nmol/L) ranged from 0% to 55.8%. Female sex and urban living were the most common determinants of VDD.ConclusionsVDD among healthy children living in the SEA region is common. Efforts to detect VDD and the implementation of preventive measures, including education on safe sun exposure and oral vitamin D supplementation or food fortification, should be considered for key target groups, including adolescent females and pregnant and lactating women to improve the vitamin D status of newborns.Protocol registration numberThis study is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020181600).

Background and Aims: Monitoring child growth, including measurement of weight, height or length, and head circumference, plays an important role in detecting a child's growth abnormalities and monitoring a child's nutritional adequacy. This study aimed to measure the completeness of growth chart in maternal and child health handbook (MCHH) and identify cadres' practices on child growth monitoring. Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted in three stunting villages in Lombok Tengah, Indonesia, between June and July 2019. We evaluated 59 cadres and nutritionists using questionnaire and reviewed 205 MCHHs. Results: We found 100% (205 out of 205) of the World Health Organization (WHO) growth charts, including weight for height/length, height/length for age, and head circumference for age graphs in MCHH were not filled. Out of 59 participants, 23.7% (14 people) never participated in height/length measurement, and only 13.6% (8 people) did a head circumference measurement at least once. 94.9% (56 people) never filled or plotted WHO curves in the MCHH with the most reasons are did not know how to fill (64.4%), and 28.8% did not know that the growth chart can be filled and plotted. Implication: Routine child growth monitoring should be done especially for children under two years of age. As child growth and development screening and monitoring are important and could affect children in reaching their potentials, we suggest that government should socialize more about the importance and the urgency about child growth and development awareness to all parents and healthcare practitioners.

Background Indonesia is in the middle of a rapid epidemiological transition with an ageing population and increasing exposure to risk factors for chronic conditions. This study examines the relative impacts of obesity, tobacco consumption, and physical inactivity, on non-communicable diseases multimorbidity, health service use, catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), and loss in employment productivity in Indonesia. Methods Secondary analyses were conducted of cross-sectional data from adults aged ≥ 40 years ( n = 12,081) in the Indonesian Family Life Survey 2014/2015. We used propensity score matching to assess the associations between behavioural risk factors and health service use, CHE, employment productivity, and multimorbidity. Results Being obese, overweight and a former tobacco user was associated with a higher number of chronic conditions and multimorbidity ( p < 0.05). Being a former tobacco user contributed to a higher number of outpatient and inpatient visits as well as CHE incidences and work absenteeism. Physical inactivity relatively increased the number of outpatient visits (30% increase, p < 0.05) and work absenteeism (21% increase, P < 0.06). Although being underweight was associated with an increased outpatient care utilisation (23% increase, p < 0.05), being overweight was negatively associated with CHE incidences (50% decrease, p < 0.05). Conclusion Combined together, obesity, overweight, physical inactivity and tobacco use contributed to an increased number of NCDs as well as medical costs and productivity loss in Indonesia. Interventions addressing physical and behavioural risk factors are likely to have substantial benefits for individuals and the wider society in Indonesia. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-022-08546-6.

BackgroundStunting is one of the major child public health concerns in Indonesia. West Nusa Tenggara (WNT) province, specifically, is still struggling to reduce its stunting prevalence as it is still higher than the average national prevalence, accounted for 31.4% in 2018. Ensuring knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of complementary feeding among parents is relevant to succeeding in the implementation of stunting reduction programs. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of interventions in the form of seminar and workshop on preparing complementary feeding in stunting villages in Central Lombok, Indonesia.MethodsThis is a quasi-experimental community-based study, held in three stunting villages of Central Lombok, WNT, from June until August 2019. Three villages were chosen randomly from ten stunting-villages in Central Lombok District and divided into three groups, i.e., control group, seminar group and seminar and workshop group. We assessed KAP before and after intervention with a four-week interval.ResultsA total of 205 participants were enrolled in this study, consisting of 67, 70, and 68 participants for the control group, the first intervention group, and the second intervention group, respectively. Most participants had poor knowledge (75.1%) of complementary feeding in the baseline assessment. We found an insignificant change in knowledge, but notable alterations in attitudes and practices after intervention. Seminar intervention could increase practice, while complete intervention (seminar and workshop) could increase both practices and attitudes significantly (p = 0.015 dan p = 0.014). We found that complete intervention was more effective in increasing attitudes compared to the control group (p = 0.039). In contrast, practices in both seminar and complete intervention was increased effectively than controls (p = 0.006 vs. p = 0.008), and no differences between seminar and complete intervention group (p = 0.943).ConclusionsComplementary feeding KAP among parents in stunting villages in Central Lombok was inadequate. Our study showed that the combination of seminar and workshop increased parents’ attitudes and practices, while the seminar only increased parents’ practices. We suggest further prospective study to assess how long the effectivity of such interventions could impact and last; and obtain any cultural concerns.Trial registration: 376/UN18.8/ETIK/2018