Study to assess the feedback of COVID-19 patients to nutritional services provided in dedicated COVID hospital

Background: In patients’ overall perception of their hospital experience it is widely recognized that food and other aspects of foodservice delivery are important elements and health care teams have committed to deliver appropriate food to their patients on daily basis. The provision of hospital foodservice should not only meet, but, also exceed patients’ expectations so as to gain the patients’ confidence in hospital food. Nutrition is an important element of care. A balanced nutrition is extremely important for patients who have been infected with COVID-19.Methods: To see the feedbacks of COVID-19 patients admitted in dedicated COVID hospital, the present hospital based cross sectional study was undertaken in various wards of dedicated COVID hospital of metropolitan city of western Maharashtra.Results: Mean age of participants was 41 years. Mean duration of hospital stay was 9.1 days. 60% patients were in age group between 31 to 60 whereas only 3% participants were above 80 years of age. 59% were male, 85% were from urban area. 55% participants were taking mix diet. 54% participants stayed for 8 to 10 days. 58% participants were presented with different co morbidities. 73.07% participants had normal diet during their stay in the hospital. Variables like age, gender and hospital stay had significant association with the feedback to nutritional services (p<0.05).Conclusions: Participants were satisfied towards nutrition and nutritional services provided in dedicated COVID hospital.

Undervalued Spiny Monkey Orange (Strychnos spinosa Lam.): An Indigenous Fruit for Sustainable Food-Nutrition and Economic Prosperity

Strychnos spinosa Lam. is among the top nutrient-dense indigenous fruit species that are predominant in Southern Africa. It is a highly ranked indigenous fruit based on the nutrition and sensorial properties, which make it an important food source for the marginalized rural people. On the basis of the high vitamin C, iron, and zinc content, it has the capacity to improve the food- nutrition and the socioeconomic status of individuals, especially those in the rural areas of the developing nations. The nutritional composition of Strychnos spinosa compare favorably with many of the popular fruits, such as strawberries and orange. Additionally, Strychnos spinosa has antioxidant activity similar to well-known antioxidant fruits, which keeps it in the class of the popular fruits, giving it added nutrition–health-promoting benefits. In order to improve the availability of Strychnos spinosa, more research on the domestication, processing, preservation, value chain, and economic potential need to be further explored. Therefore, we recommend more concerted efforts from relevant stakeholders with interest in Strychnos spinosa fruit production as a possible sustainable solution to food shortage, food-nutrition insecurity, malnutrition, and austerity, mainly in the rural communities of the developing countries.

Inovasi Olahan Lele oleh Kelompok Bunda Koja sebagai Strategi Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Area PT. Pertamina (Persero) Integrated Terminal Jakarta

Knowledge about food nutrition for toddlers and the ability to buy nutritious food are important factors in toddlers parenting. Kelurahan Rawa Badak Selatan (KRBS) is one of area in Koja Subdistrict, North Jakarta which dominated by toddlers whose nutritional status needs to be improved. CSR PT. Pertamina Integrated Terminal Jakarta carried out the Serba Unsur Lele (SULE) program as a community empowerment strategy by create various product innovations from catfish and catfish bone by-product. The aim of this activities is Bunda Koja community, including mothers of toddlers, are able to improve the knowledge and skills of catfish products processing and build a growing business, some products that routinely given to toddlers are expected to give a positive impact for toddler nutrition. This program consisted of training and the application of mentoring. The series of programs include training on catfish products innovation training, management of catfish production, and product marketing. The innovations been developed for production is nuggets, abon, and catfish stick. Catfish bones by- product are processed into crackers, tempe chips, and fish bone biscuits. Abon, nuggets, crackers and tempeh chips have been through the production and marketing stages. This activity succeeded in having a positive impact especially for mothers of toddlers, could receive the additional income from the catfish product business. The more catfish products innovation which will be developed is expected to become a business so that it can have a positive impact on the economy of the Bunda Koja community, mothers of toddlers, and the surrounding community.

International Aid for Agricultural Development of Timor-Leste

Background: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is the newest nation in the 21st century, which became independent in 2002. Yet continued violent tensions kept the country from stabilizing its sociopolitical situations and it remains as a least developed country with many challenging issues, including food/nutrition insecurity. The international community has been supporting Timor-Leste to ameliorate it by aiding the agricultural development of the country. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the aid profile of the donors for Timorese agricultural development. The findings of the study intend to provide the Timorese government and donors with a useful dialogue point for more efficient collaboration. Methods: The aid data reported to the Creditor Reporting System are sorted for the profile examination. The analysis is based on the aid disbursement between 2002 and 2019. Results: Australia was the largest donor, mostly shaping the agricultural aid profile of the donors. Japan, USA, and New Zealand were the major donors in that order, following Australia. Yet, their prioritized sub-sectors or interests appeared to vary; Australia prioritized strengthening Timorese seed systems and focused on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, Japan emphasized rice production, USA was mainly interested in cash/horticultural crops value chains, and New Zealand invested mainly in agricultural cooperatives. Of the multilateral organizations, the European Union was the principal donor. Conclusion: The Timorese government and donors may need a strategic collaboration to utilize available resources more efficiently as its food/nutrition insecurity is rooted in complex issues and improving it also hinges on development of other sectors.

Imputation on the Food, Nutrition and Environment Surveys 2007 and 2009 data

<p>The Food Nutrition Environment Survey (FNES) is a survey of New Zealand early childhood centres and schools and the food and nutritional services that they provide for their pupils. The 2007 and 2009 FNES surveys were managed by the Ministry of Health. Like all the other social surveys, the FNES has the common problem of unit and item non-responses. In other words, the FNES has missing data. In this thesis, we have surveyed a wide variety of missing data handling techniques and applied most of them to the FNES datasets. This thesis can be roughly divided into two parts. In the first part, we have studied and investigated the different nature of missing data (i.e. missing data mechanisms), and all the common and popular imputation methods, using the Synthetic Unit Record File (SURF) which has been developed by the Statistics New Zealand for educational purposes. By comparing all those different imputation methods, Bayesian Multiple Imputation (MI) method is the preferred option to impute missing data in terms of reducing non-response bias and properly propagating imputation uncertainty. Due to the overlaps in the samples selected for the 2007 and 2009 FNES surveys, we have discovered that the Bayesian MI can be improved by incorporating the matched dataset. Hence, we have proposed a couple of new approaches to utilize the extra information from the matched dataset. We believe that adapting the Bayesian MI to use the extra information from the matched dataset is a preferable imputation strategy for imputing the FNES missing data. This is because the use of the matched dataset provides more prediction power to the imputation model.</p>