SEANUTS II Vietnam aims to obtain an in-depth understanding of the nutritional status and nutrient intake of children between 0.5-11.9 years old

Cross-sectional survey

A multistage cluster systematic random sampling method was implemented in different regions in Vietnam: North Mountainous, Central Highlands, Red River Delta, North Central and Coastal Area, Southeast and Mekong River Delta.

4001 children between 6 months and 11.9 years of age

Prevalence of stunting and underweight was higher in rural than in urban children, whereas overweight and obese rates were higher in urban areas. 12.0% of the children had anemia and especially children 0.5-1-year-old were affected (38.6%). Low serum retinol was found in 6.2% of children ≥ 4 years old. Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency was 31.1% while 60.8% had low serum zinc. For nutrient intake, overall, 80.1% of the children did not meet the estimated energy requirements. For calcium intake, ∼60% of the younger children did not meet the RNI while it was 92.6% in children >7 years old. For vitamin D intake, 95.0% of the children did not meet RNI.

SEANUTS II Vietnam indicated that overnutrition was more prevalent than undernutrition in urban areas, while undernutrition was found more in rural areas. The high prevalence of low serum zinc, vitamin D insufficiency and the inadequate intakes of calcium and vitamin D are of concern. Nutrition strategies for Vietnamese children should consider three sides of malnutrition and focus on approaches for the prevention malnutrition.

To assess the effect of different front-of-package (FOPL) schemes on the objective understanding of the nutritional content and intention to purchase products, in Panama.

Single-blinded multi-arm parallel-group randomised controlled trial.

Supermarkets across Panama. Participants were exposed to two-dimensional images of 15 mock-up products presented at random and balanced orders. Participants assigned to the intervention groups were exposed to mock-ups featuring one FOPL scheme: black octagonal warning labels (OWL), traffic-light labelling (TFL), or guideline daily amounts (GDA). Control group was not exposed to any FOPL scheme.

Adult supermarket shoppers (n=1200). Participants were blinded to group assignment.

Similar number of participants were randomised to and analysed in each group: OWL (n=300), TFL (n=300), GDA (n=300), and control (n=300). The odds for choosing to purchase the least harmful or none of the options more often was the highest in the OWL group. Compared to the control group, two times higher in the OWL group (OR 2·13, 95% confidence interval 1·60-2·84), and 57% higher in the TFL (1·57, 1·40-2·56), with no changes in the GDA (0·97, 0·73-1·29). OWL also resulted in the highest odds for correctly identifying the least harmful option, and for correctly identifying a product with excessive amounts of sugars, sodium and/or saturated fats.

OWL performed best in helping shoppers to correctly identify when a product contained excessive amounts of nutrients of concern, to correctly identify the least harmful option, and to decide to purchase the least harmful or none of the options, more often.

To identify the main foods determining saturated fatty acid (SFA) intakes and model the impact of food exchanges to improve compliance with dietary fat recommendations in Irish children.

Estimated food and nutrient intakes were obtained from a cross-sectional study, the National Children’s Food Survey II. Participants were categorised into low, medium, and high SFA consumers, and the contribution of food categories to SFA intakes were compared. A food-exchange model was developed, whereby a selected range of high SFA foods were exchanged with lower SFA or unsaturated fat alternatives.

Participants were randomly selected from primary schools throughout the Republic of Ireland.

A representative sample of 600 Irish children (5–12 years).

The main determinants of low and high SFA consumers were milk, cheese, and butter. These foods, including snack foods, and meat and meat products, were considered exchangeable foods within the model. Compared with baseline data, modelled intakes for total fat, SFA, monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) and trans-fat presented decreases of 3.2, 2.7, 1.6 and <0.1% of total energy (% TE), respectively. Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), omega 6, omega 3 and alpha-linolenic acid showed increases of 1.0, 0.8, 0.2 and 0.1% TE, respectively. Compliance with total fat, MUFA and trans-fat recommendations remained adequate (100%). Adherence to SFA and PUFA recommendations improved from 18 to 63%, and 80 to 100%, respectively.

The food-exchange model decreased SFA intakes and increased PUFA intakes, suggesting modest dietary changes to children’s diets can effectively improve their overall dietary fat profile.