2E health and social behaviour Flashcards
Nutrition
The process of securing the dietary requirements for individuals or a population
Macronutrients
Things required in diet in relatively large amounts (ie carbohydrate, protein, fat, water)
Micronutrients
Things required in diet in relatively small amount (ie vitamins and minerals)
Hunter Gatherer diet Vs Western diet
Hunter gatherer diet contained more protein, carbohydrate and fibre and considerably less fat than the western diet
Population nutritional surveillance: Study designs to assess population nutrition- list 5
- ecological
- retrospective case control
- cohort
- RCT
- nutritional surveys
Study designs to assess population nutrition: ecological studies
- compare disease outcomes with diets of different nations (or disease outcomes and diet of a country over time)
- potential for confounding means conclusions are hard to draw
- can be a fruitful source of hypotheses
eg ‘french paradox’ it was noted that France had a relatively low prevalence of CHD and a relatively high intake of saturated fat. Studies considered various candidate protective factors such as red wine, fish and lack of snacking. However a larger, carefully conducted study into CHD showed the french paradox did not exist.
Study designs to assess population nutrition: retrospective case control
Individuals with disease and health controls are asked about a range of dietary influences
- Has the potential for recall bias and that the onset of disease may have altered diet (difficult for participants to be sure when diet changed)
Study designs to assess population nutrition: cohort study
- Health cohort, follow up and see who develops disease
- adjustments are made for confounding factors
Study designs to assess population nutrition: RCT
- nutrient or food constituent is given to one group only
- expensive
- effect sizes are often small so large study/ meta analysis needed
Study designs to assess population nutrition: nutritional surveys
- Food expenditure surveys (ie UK ONS living cost and food survey - part of Integrated Household Survey)
- Diet and nutrition surveys (eg UK National diet and Nutrition Survey)
- Breastfeeding surveys (eg UK Infant feeding Survey)
-school meal surveys
Sources of Nutritional Surveillance data (4 categories)
- Food supply data
- food expenditure data
- data and nutrition surveys
- nutritional surveillance in children
Sources of Nutritional Surveillance data: food supply data
- Data is available on agricultural food production and food imports/ exports
- for most countries this is collated nationally by the UN food and agriculture organization
- Ad hoc food mapping exercises often form part of needs assessment. These establish where people can buy/eat food. They often identify ‘food deserts’ often inner city areas where people cannot access fresh food without a car
Sources of Nutritional Surveillance data: food expenditure data
- most European countries conduct a household income and expenditure survey every 1-5 years
- UK has Living Cost and Food Expenditure survey as part of the Integrated Household Survey
- collects food expenditure data via self reported diaries annually
Sources of Nutritional Surveillance data: diet and nutrition surveys
- may involve food diaries, physical measurements (ie BMI, blood analysis), interviews etc
-Food diaries are often unreliable as people tend to underestimate their intake. There is also bias as obese people tend to underestimate by more than non-obese
- UK has National Diet and Nutrition survey. Surveys adults age 19-64years, continuous, cross sectional survey
Sources of Nutritional Surveillance data: nutritional surveillance in children
- Breastfeeding surveys: Uk has Infant feeding survey which surveys around 15000 mums on nutrition over the first year of life. Was 5 yearly but 13 year gap between last 2 (2010 and 2023)
- School meals- data is available on number of children having school meals but only for schools using local authority caterers (not available for private caterers)
Short term nutritional impacts: too much sugar
dental caries
Short term nutritional impacts: too much salt
hypertension
Short term nutritional impacts: lack of protein
Kwashiorkor
muscle wasting, protruding belly, diarrhoea, fatigue
Short term nutritional impacts: lack of calories, fat and protein
Marasmus (emaciation)
Short term nutritional impacts: lack of B vitamins
Beri beri
- heart failure, generalised oedema and neuropathy
Short term nutritional impacts: lack vitamin C
Scurvey
- gum disease, bleeding, listlessness
Long term nutritional impacts: central obesity
type 2 diabetes
Long term nutritional impacts: lack of fruit and veg
CHD
many cancers
Long term nutritional impacts: lack of calcium
osteoporosis
Long term nutritional impacts: lack of vitamin B12
clinical features: pernicious anaemia, neuropsychiatric symptoms
high risk groups: alcohol dependency, strict vegetarians and vegans
Long term nutritional impacts: Vitamin D deficiency
clinical features: children –> osteomalacia, ricketts
adults–> osteoporosis
high risk groups: dark skin, keep skin covered for religious reasons, elderly
Long term nutritional impacts: folate deficiency
clinical effects: anaemia, birth defects
high risk groups: alcohol dependency, pregnancy and lactation
Long term nutritional impacts: iron deficiency
clinical effects: anaemia
High risk groups: pregnancy, strict vegetarians/ vegans
Acute malnutrition: pathophysiological pathway
Acute lack of nutrution–> inflammatory response and cytokine release –>:
1. infection
2. impaired healing
3. organ failure
chronic malnutrition: pathophysiological pathway
chronic overnutrition–> obesity –> insulin and leptin resistance +/- diabetes (this leads to increased obesity)
malnutrition in disease states: pathophysiological pathway
Disease –> anorexia–> reduced food intake –> malnutrition–> disease
Protein energy malnutrition
- accounts for > 5million deaths per year
- definitions of kwashiokor and marasmus and not universally agreed on
- broadly:
kwashiokor= lack of protein –> odema, protruding belly, muscle wasiting
Marasmus = lack of calories, fat and protein –> emaciation, stunted growth
malnutrition in pregnancy: UK dietary and supplement recommendations
- avoid alcohol, soft cheese, unpasteurised milk, some fish
- take 400 micrograms folic acid for first 12 weeks pregnancy. take 10 microgram vit D daily throughout
malnutrition in pregnancy: IUGR
IUGR= est foetal weight < 10th centile
low birth weight = >37 weeks and < 2500g
-inadequate nutrition in pregnancy can lead to foetus not reaching full growth potential (this is one cause of IUGR)
- IUGR is a strong predictor of complication during pregnancy ie still birth, hypoxic brain injury, chronic lung disease
- also evidence that IUGR can increase risk of some adulthood disease ie cardiovascular disease, renal disease
IUGR is a serious public health problem in developing countries but only effects about 2% in developed countries