A high percentage of women at 20 to 26 weeks of pregnancy had mild to moderate anemia. Pica, tea consumption, and low intake of eggs and red meat were associated with anemia. Women of childbearing age should be provided nutritional education regarding food sources of iron, especially prior to becoming pregnant, and taught how food choices can either enhance or interfere with iron absorption.

Wellcome Trust.

In households where food insecurity exists, knowledge of care practices may not be sufficient, and interventions such as food subsidies must precede or accompany educational efforts. Further follow-up is required to explore the effect of gender differences on child care.

Objective To assess the effectiveness of a community based lifestyle intervention on blood pressure in children and young adults in a developing country setting.Design Cluster randomised controlled trial.Setting 12 randomly selected geographical census based clusters in Karachi, Pakistan.Participants 4023 people aged 5-39 years.Intervention Three monthly family based home health education delivered by lay health workers.Main outcome measure Change in blood pressure from randomisation to end of follow-up at 2 years.Results Analysed using the intention to treat principle, the change in systolic blood pressure (adjusted for age, sex, and baseline blood pressure) was significant; it increased by 1.5 (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 1.9) mm Hg in the control group and by 0.1 (−0.3 to 0.5) mm Hg in the home health education group (P for difference between groups=0.02). Findings for diastolic blood pressure were similar; the change was 1.5 mm Hg greater in the control group than in the intervention group (P=0.002).Conclusions Simple, family based home health education delivered by trained lay health workers significantly ameliorated the usual increase in blood pressure with age in children and young adults in the general population of Pakistan, a low income developing country. This strategy is potentially feasible for up-scaling within the existing healthcare systems of Indo-Asia.Trial registration Clinical trials NCT00327574.

No abstract

Body fat %, physical inactivity and, possibly, diet quality are important modifiable risk factors for GDM. 2006.

Background: Precise measurements of activity at a population level are important for monitoring trends and evaluating health promotion strategies. Few studies have assessed the measurement of physical activity in developing countries. The aim of this study was to validate the MOSPA (Monica Optional Study of Physical Activity) questionnaire which was developed for the WHO-Monitoring trends and determinants of cardiovasculr disease (MONICA) study sites.

Changes in diet and activity are supposed to be responsible for the increased prevalence of urbanization related diseases. By comparing determinants of food choice among rural and urban south Asians we can assess the impact of urbanization on food selection process and this information can help in planning nutrition education strategies. This study was conducted to compare the determinants of food choice for South Asian children at different levels of urbanization.Among South Asian groups relative impact of m ales on family food choice and that of parents on children's food choice was more pronounced than it was among British Caucasians (BrC) but the influence decreased with urbanization rank (UR). With urbanization children's likeness for fatty snacks increased significantly. Gender bias in food choice was higher among all south Asian groups as compared to BrC but decreased with urbanization rank. Determinants of food selection for children differ with urbanization status. Influences of children's own preferences increase with UR. Influence of male family members on family food choice and gender bias in food preference decreases with UR.