Childhood obesity has unhealthy consequences, both in the short and long terms. Recently, a worrying increase in overweight and obesity in Sub-Saharan African children was reported. This study aims to determine the prevalence of obesity/overweight in public and private schools in children aged 6-9 years in the city of Douala, and identify the risk factors associated with obesity and comorbidities in this population. Parental health status; children's birth weight, breastfeeding duration, physical activity and settles way of life data were collected using a questionnaire, and correlated to obesity and related comorbidities indexes: waist circumference (WC), Waist to Height Ratio (WtHR) and body mass index (BMI). Obesity (9%) and overweight (6.1%) were found in children, mostly in private than in public schools (13.82% versus 4.4% and 10.53% versus 1.9%; P<0.0001 respectively). Parents overweight and diabetes histories, birth weight (˃4 kg), breastfeeding duration (≤6 months), having less than 6 breakfasts a week, watching television more than 2hr/day, sleeping less than 10h/day and physical inactivity at school and home were significantly associated with obesity and related comorbidities in children (p<0.05 respectively). Overweight and obesity are a reality in these children, especially in those going to the private schools. Most of the factors associated are related to parents' and children's health history, but also to children's lifestyles that can be changed at home and at school.
Our previous studies on the mushrooms showed that a mixture of three varieties of oyster mushrooms had better therapeutic properties than when the mushrooms were studied separately. To overcome the problem of diabetes, it was question here after studying the toxicity of mixtures of extracts (formulations) of 3 varieties of oyster mushrooms, to study the antihyperglycemic and hypoglycemic activity in the short term (over 2 hours of time) of these extracts. After formulating the mushrooms and obtaining the raw extracts, we proceeded to an acute toxicity of these extracts followed by the evaluation of antihyperglycemic and hypoglycemic tests on albino rats of the wistar type. In terms of results, we obtained 4 formulations namely F1, F2, F3 and F4. It appears in terms of toxicity that no signs of intoxication were observed. As for the antihyperglycemic test, 30min after ingestion of the extracts and glucose, all the groups of extracts exhibited had a lower blood glucose level than the positive control with the best extract best extract to limit the increase in postprandial blood glucose being the aqueous extract of formulation 3 (F3aq) with a slight increase in blood glucose of 0.3 g/l against an increase of 0.62g/l in the positive control. As for the hypoglycemic test, 120min after ingestion of glucose and extracts, the extracts showed a good ability to lower blood glucose compared to the positive control, the best extracts being the hydroethanolic extracts of formulations 1 and 3 (F1heth and F3heth) with respectively a decrease in blood glucose of 0.23g/l and 0.22g/l against 0.07g/l in the positive control. It can thus be concluded that formulated mushroom extracts do not show signs of toxicity and that the consumption of a mixture of oyster mushrooms could help in the fight against diabetes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.