• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.265-273
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• 2016

Objectives: This study compared the nutritional status of child-bearing age women between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Methods: The data presented in the DPRK Final Report of the National Nutrition Survey 2012 was utilized for the nutritional status and food intake of North Korean women. To produce the South Korean women's data comparable to those of North Korean women, the data from the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Survey were analyzed and the data presented in the 2010 Report of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards were utilized. Results: The prevalence of maternal anemia (blood hemoglobin < 12.0 g/dL) was over 30% in all the age groups of North Korean women and 8.9%, 14.2%, 16.4% in 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 year old South Korean women, respectively. The prevalence of maternal protein-energy malnutrition (Mid-Upper Arm Circumference < 22.5 cm) was 25.2%, 21.4%, 21.8% in 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 year old North Korean women, respectively and less than 10% in all the age groups of South Korean women. Result of dietary diversity comparison showed that North Korean women consumed less food than South Korean women at all food groups: grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy. Percentage of North Korean women having consumed protein rich foods-meat and fish, eggs or dairy products-were much lower than those of South Korean women. Conclusions: The striking disparity of nutritional status between South and North Korean women indicates that nutrition support for North Korean women is essential in the process of preparation for a unified nation.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.304-311
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• 2014

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between household food insecurity and nutritional status of children in low-income households. A cross sectional study involved a survey of households (n = 223) receiving the financial assistance. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Eligible mothers that fulfilled the inclusion criteria such as non-pregnant, non-lactating mothers, aged 18 to 55 years with their youngest children aged 2 to 12 years, were purposively selected. The Radimer/Cornell hunger and food-insecurity instrument was administered and children's height and weight were measured. RESULTS: About 16.1% of the households were food secure, while 83.9% experienced some kind of food insecurity. Out of food insecure category, 29.6% households were food insecure, 19.3% women were individual food insecure and 35.0% fell into the child hunger category. Education of the mother (P = 0.047), household size (P = 0.024), number of children (P = 0.024), number of children going to school (P = 0.048), total monthly income (P < 0.001), income per capital (P < 0.001), number of household members contributing to the income (P = 0.018) and food expenditure (P = 0.006) were significant risk factors for household food insecurity. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting in children were 61.0%, 61.4% and 30.6% respectively. Based on multinomial logistic regression, children in food-insecure households were 2.15 times more likely to be underweight and three times to be stunted than children in the food-secure households. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that household food insecurity is associated with the nutritional status of the children in the rural area of Northeastern Peninsular Malaysia.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.12 no.sup1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2009

Nutritional assessment is based on anthropometric, clinical, dietary and biochemical data. There is a lack of studies about the propriety of biochemical indexes for the nutritional assessment in children despite biochemical data in pediatric population are different from them in adult's in many respects. Serum albumin is useful index to evaluate the severity of malnutrition. Hemoglobin and hematocrit tend to decrease in malnutrition on account of defect of iron metabolism and to increase in metabolic syndrome on account of enhancement of erythropoiesis. But, unlike adult, total lymphocyte count is not so useful biochemical indexes in children. We should consider pediatric characteristic when interpret biochemical indexes for nutritional assessment in children, and nutritional status in children should be assessed comprehensively with anthropometric, clinical, dietary and biochemical data.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.58 no.10
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• pp.363-368
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• 2015

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease mainly affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of the disease is rapidly increasing worldwide, and a number of patients are diagnosed during their childhood or adolescence. Aside from controlling the gastrointestinal symptoms, nutritional aspects such as growth, bone mineral density, anemia, micronutrient deficiency, hair loss, and diet should also be closely monitored and managed by the pediatric IBD team especially since the patients are in the development phase.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.185-200
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• 1995

In this survey, we investigated the way of thinking about meal management of housewives including the sincerity to meal preparation, the eating practices and cronic degenerative diseases related dietary behaviors, and studied the effects of above factors on the real food intakes. We also investigated the trends of health-foods and nutrient supplements usage. The results obtained from 506 housewives in Seoul were summarized as follows. Although our subjects prepared their meals habitually without special concern, they did not prefer the use of convenient foods. The food prefrence of housewivess who had more child and refered higher life status was similar with other family members. The dietary attitudes were good in large family, the higher income and the more child group. The highly educated group skipped breakfast more frequently. The mealmanagers with better education career and good living status considered for the restriction of salty foods, sweet foods, animal fats and pungent foods, and for the nutritionally balanced diet. The high income group showed great concerns about weight gain at meal times. The nutritional qualities expressed by the frequency of food group intakes were high in the better educated and living status groups, and their eating frequencies of animal protein foods and calcium sources were significantly high. Mealmanagers who had no job intaked vegetable oils through frying foods frequently. The use of health-foods and nutrient supplements was influenced by age, educational and economic level and self-estimated living status, but the trends in prevalence of both were not consistent. Health-foods were prefered by the groups of high educational career, affluent income and advanced living status, and low educational career, low income and low living status groups favored the nutrient supplements. The restrictive intake of animal fat and the use of health-food were positively correlated, which seemed that the subjects used health-foods as supplements in compensation for nutritional unbalance caused by the avoidance of animal protein foods.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.328-335
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• 2017

Objectives: The prevalence of underweight in children under 5 years of age is anomalously high in Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. This state of affairs may be related to poor housing conditions, such as limited access to clean water, the absence of a sanitary latrine, and the use of poor housing materials. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of housing conditions on underweight in under-5 children in Konawe District. Methods: This study was conducted in 2013 in 5 health centres in Konawe District, Southeast Sulawesi Province, and used a case-control study design. The study recruited 400 under-5 children, including 100 of whom were cases and 300 of whom were age-matched controls (1:3). Cases were underweight children, while the controls were children with a normal nutritional status. The independent variables were the availability and types of water and latrine facilities and housing materials (roof, wall, and floor). The statistical analysis used Cox regression. Results: A lack of water availability (odds ratio [OR], 5.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 9.5; p<0.001), a lack of latrine availability in the home (OR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.5 to 4.0; p<0.001), and poor-quality roofing materials (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.7; p<0.02) significantly contributed to underweight in children. In contrast, the walls and the floors did not contribute to under-5 year children being underweight (p=0.09 and p=0.71, respectively). Conclusions: Sanitation facilities and roofing were identified as important factors to address in order to improve children's nutritional status. Children's health status was directly impacted by food intake via their nutritional status.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.155-164
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• 2002

This study was conducted to investigate the differences in environmental and psychological factors in children with obesity and to offer useful information for obesity treatment and prevention. 123 children of 5-6th grade in elementary school and their mothers were included in this study and divided into either the obese group and normal group(obese group: 61, normal group: 62) according to the Weight-Length Index(WLI). Results showed that between the two groups there no significant differences in family income, mother's occupation status, educational level, and anthropometric measurement. Nutritional knowledge in the obese group was significantly higher than that of the normal group(p<0.05). The mothers of children with obesity had a higher level of nutritional knowledge than the mothers of normal children(p<0.05). There were no significant differences in food behavior between the obese and normal groups. There were no significant differences in maternal child-rearing practices and in maternal attitude on flood behavior of children. Considering psychological factors ; 72.1% of the children with obesity appraised their body image as obese(p<0.05), and 54.1% of the mothers in obese group perceived their child's body shape as obese(p<0.05). The level of self-esteem were not significantly different when compared between the obese and normal groups. From these results, it was suggested that effective measures for obesity treatment and prevention should include nutritional monitoring, and such efforts need to be maintained in order to help the obese children and their mothers.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.135-142
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• 2018

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This cross-sectional study assessed household food security status and determined its association with diet quality and weight status among indigenous women from the Mah Meri tribe in Peninsular Malaysia. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The Radimer/Cornell Hunger and Food Insecurity Instrument and the Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (HEI) were used to assess household food security status and diet quality, respectively. Information on socio-demographic characteristics and 24-hour dietary recall data were collected through face-to-face interview, and anthropometric measurements including weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) were obtained from 222 women. RESULTS: Majority of households (82.9%) experienced different levels of food insecurity: 29.3% household food insecurity, 23.4% individual food insecurity, and 30.2% fell into the child hunger group. The food-secure group had significantly fewer children and smaller household sizes than the food-insecure groups (P < 0.05). The mean household income, income per capita, and food expenditure significantly decreased as food insecurity worsened (P < 0.001). The food-secure group had significantly higher Malaysian HEI scores for grains and cereals (P < 0.01), as well as for meat, poultry, and eggs (P < 0.001), than the food-insecure groups. The child-hunger group had significantly higher fat (P < 0.05) and sodium (P < 0.001) scores than the food-secure and household food-insecure groups. Compared to the individual food-insecure and child-hunger groups, multivariate analysis of covariance showed that the food-secure group was significantly associated with a higher Malaysian HEI score while the household food-insecure group was significantly associated with a higher BMI after controlling for age (P < 0.025). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of indigenous households faced food insecurity. Food insecurity at the individual and child levels was associated with lower quality of diet, while food insecurity at the household level was associated with higher body weight. Therefore, a substantial effort by all stakeholders is warranted to improve food insecurity among poorer households. The results suggest a pressing need for nutritional interventions to improve dietary intake among low income households.

• Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.78-85
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• 2004

Children are the most nutrition sensitive sub-group of a population. The nutritional status of children should be especially emphasized at all levels. This study was performed to investigate the current status, trend, and influencing factors to malnutrition of infants and children in China. The study was mainly based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey which is a longitudinal study conducted in 8 provinces and the data on growth of children under 7 years of age in 9 cities in China. The result of this study showed that one fifth of the children under 5 years of age are still suffering from stunted growth and one tenth suffering from underweight. The nutrition intervention on children under 2 years of age, especially on those under 18 months should be emphasized. Better supplementary food can improve the nutritional status to decrease the prevalence of stunted children. Therefore, the development of supplementary food should be the priority and should be emphasized with breastfeeding.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.304-319
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• 1996

It is important to evaluate nutritional status of elderly patients receiving dialysis, since wasting and malnutrition are their common problems. This study aims at assessing their nutritional status by the type and duration of dialysis. The nutritional status such as somatic fat and protein storage was evaluated with anthropometric measure including weight/height ratio, triceps skinfold thickness and midarm muscle circumference. It was also measured with albumin, transferrin, C3 and IGF-1 and calorie and protein intakes. The general clinical condition of patients was evaluated with the severity of uremia and metabolic acidosis. which were measured through the levels of serum urea, creatinine and bicarbonateion. The data were analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA, Wilcoxon-rank sums test, Scheffe test, Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson correlation coefficients. The results are following : 1. There was no significant difference in the calorie and protein intakes by the type and duration of dialysis received. 2. As for the anthropometric measures, no significant difference was found by the type of dialysis in body mass index triceps skinfold thickness and midarm muscle circumference. Yet these anthropometric measures differed significantly by the duration of dialysis in those elderly patients receiving hemodialysis(HD group), but this finding was not found in those receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis(CAPD). 3. Regarding the indicators of uremia and metabolic acidosis, blood urea nitrogen(BUN) and creatinine were lower in the CAPD group than in the HD group, whereas bicarbonate ion was higher in the CAPD group than in the HD group, with no statistical significance. In the HD group, creatinine increased significantly with the increase of the duration of dialysis. 4. Serum trasferrin and C3 were significantly higher in the CAPD group than in the HD group. However. each of biochemical indices did not show statistical significance by the duration of dialysis in both HD and CAPD groups. 5. Anthropometric measures were significantly associated with dietary intake. Significant correlations were observed between biocarbonate ion, BUN and creatinine. In addition, the correlations between serum protein and albumin and between transferrin and C3 were statistically significant. Yet, IGF-1 revealed no significant correlation with other nutritional indices. The above findings indicate that there were no difference in nutritional status measured with protein and calorie intakes between the type and duration of dialysis, but CAPD seems to benefit correcting uremia and metabolic acidosis than HD. Studies of dietary management for dialysis patients need to be pursued in order to improved the quality of aged patients receiving dialysis.