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Under Weightiness among Ever-married Non-pregnant Women in Bangladesh: A Population Based Study

The increasing prevalence of under weightiness among young women is a growing public health concern. This paper identified the determinant factors of under weightiness among non-pregnant ever-married women in Bangladesh. Data and necessary information of 16,206 non-pregnant ever-married women were extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011. The chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were used as the statistical tools to analyze the data. The results revealed that the women are found underweight around two times more (15.4% in urban, and 28% in rural) in the rural areas than that of urban areas in Bangladesh. Almost all the factors are found statistically significantly associated with underweight for both urban and rural areas. The binary logistic regression model identified the higher risk of being underweight in the younger age group (15-24 years), illiteracy, husband's illiteracy, having more children, poor economic condition, not having exposure to mass media, household food unsecured, and genital discharged women for both urban and rural areas. The under weightiness among non-pregnant ever-married women for both urban and rural areas are prevalent. Therefore, there is a need for public health programs related to nutrition that are able to address both the areas simultaneously.

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Prevalence and Determinants of Anaemia among Adolescent Girls in Secondary Schools in Yala Division Siaya District, Kenya

Approximately half of adolescent girls living in Sub-Saharan Africa are anemic. Anaemia is associated with lower physical work capacity, impaired cognitive functioning and lower school achievement among adolescents. This study was done to determine factors associated with the prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls aged 14-18 years old within Yala division, Siaya District, Kenya. A mixed method multistage sampling was used to select 230 female students. Blood and stool samples were analysed for anaemia, malaria and worm infestation respectively. Questionnaires were used to assess intake of dietary iron. Results showed 26.5% , 41.3%, 7.4% prevalence anaemia (Hb <12.0 g/dl), malaria and ova of ascaris respectively. Factors that were significantly(P≤0.05) associated with anaemia were: the respondent’s age (OR 3.38 ), educational status of the fathers’, primary (OR=0.313) post-secondary (OR=0.343) inadequate daily dietary iron intake (OR=8.87), presence of malaria parasites (OR=3.68) and ova of ascaris (OR=11.94). The study concluded that anaemia is a public health problem among adolescents in this area. Interventions and strategies aimed at addressing effectively anemia in this population should therefore be targeted at the associated factors including parents especially fathers who should provide more bio available iron for the respondents in the diet.

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Food Security in a Regional Area of Australia: A Socio-economic Perspective

While Australia is considered to be a highly food-secure nation, some populations are more vulnerable to food insecurity than others and this applies to Tasmania, an island state of Australia. The aim of this study was to highlight food security issues in the two local government areas of Dorset and Clarence in Tasmania, Australia. This paper reports on the key quantitative findings of the project with a focus on food access and food utilisation, and their association with socio-economic factors. Quantitative data were collected from a total of 835 survey participants using a questionnaire developed in close consultation with service provider organizations as well as public health and nutrition experts. The study revealed 53 (6.6%) residents were at the low food security and 18 (2.1%) who literally went without food. The significant correlations between low food security and socio-economic factors evidenced in the study further suggested that the low-food security residents were more likely to come from the more vulnerable groups of low income families (χ2= 42.528, df = 6, p < 0.05), the younger and older population groups (χ2= 12.361, df = 5, p < 0.05) or those living in socio-economically disadvantaged rural areas (χ2= 165.9, df =7, p < 0.05). A link between physical and financial access was clearly indicated due to high fuel cost (44.4%) which was the most common barrier reported among those who used personal vehicles for travelling to and from food shops. The study findings help to direct strategic policies to food security for the future of such as the for all Tasmanians strategy by the Tasmanian Food Security Council which focuses on ensuring social food equity for all Tasmanians. These strategies include promoting publicly funded community cars, promoting local produce and food access initiatives such as increased farm gate sales, farmer markets, food cooperatives, community gardens and growing and swapping produce within communities.

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Exclusive Breastfeeding Knowledge of HIV Positive mothers and Associated Factors in Selected Health Institution of West Oromia, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, breastfeeding is a norm and essential for child survival. However, the pandemic HIV/AIDS and the recognition that HIV positive mothers can transmit the virus to their babies through breast milk precipitated a terrible public health dilemma in countries like Ethiopia where incidences of HIV is high. This paper aimed to assess the EBF knowledge of HIV positive mothers and associated factors in a selected health institution of West Oromia (Ethiopia). Results showed that the knowledge of EBF among HIV positive mothers. Significantly high proportion, 86.4% and 65.3% of the study participants had the knowledge on the benefits of exclusively breastfeeding and its protective role against disease in infant respectively. Similarly, the majority (80.5%) of the study participants had knowledge that breast milk alone is enough for six months. The study identified that educational level, occupation, mode of delivery had statistically significant with knowledge of HIV positive mothers on EBF (p<0.05). In other way this study showed that family size of the respondents had statistical association with knowledge of EBF (P<0.01). Of the assumed associated factors considered in this study, HIV positive mothers whose educational level were secondary school were about 11.5 times more likely had knowledge about EBF than the other educational level (AOR=11.525, 95%CI: 1.408-94.340). Moreover, mothers who attended their delivery mode by caesarean section were 4.928 times more likely had knowledge about EBF than mothers who delivered by natural delivery (AOR=4.928, 95%CI: 1.206-20.128).

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Precision Nutrient Management through Use of LCC and Nutrient Expert&amp;reg; in Hybrid Maize under Laterite Soil of India

management has played a crucial role in achieving self sufficiency in food grain production. Energy crisis resulted in high price index of chemical fertilizers. Coupled with limited production of fertilizer along with escalating fertilizer cost, reduced soil health and the problem of pollution gave rise to interest in precision nutrient management tools. Field experiment was conducted to study the effect of variety and nutrient management on the growth and productivity of maize under lateritic belt of West Bengal during kharif season of 2013 at the farmers' field located in Birbhum district of West Bengal, on sandy loam lateritic soil having low fertility status and acidic reaction (pH5.6). The experiment consisted of the five levels of fertilizer i.e, F1 = control, F2 = state recommendation (150:75:75 kg N:P2O5:K2O ha -1 ), F3= Expert ® (120:34:51 kg N:P2O5:K2O ha -1 ), F4=farmers practices (80:40:40 kg N:P2O5:K2O ha -1 ), and F5= Basal application of 50:75:75 kg N:P2O5:K2O ha -1 with split N application on basis of LCC, and two level of varieties viz.,V1= Rajkumar,V2= Sona, thus making ten treatment combinations, which were replicated thrice and was laid out in randomized block design(RBD). The Nutrient Expert ® is a Decision support tool developed by IPNI (International Plant Nutrition Institute) & CIMMYT, Mexico. The values for growth parameter like plant height, dry matter, cob characters like length of cob, girth of cob, weight of cob, number of cobs per plant, number of grains per cob, grain yield, stover yield, harvest index were observed. It was found that the growth parameter as well as yield component and yield were significantly affected by different varieties and different levels of fertilizer. Among the two hybrid varieties, Rajkumar proved significantly superior over hybrid variety Sona with regard to growth attributes like plant height, dry matter accumulation. The result indicated that different schedules of fertilizer expressed significant effect on plant height, cob girth and length, grain per cob, grain weight per cob, test weight, Maize grain yield and stover yield at harvest. It was found that where fertilizer was applied on the basis of Nutrient recommendation gave highest yield and yield parameter values. The highest values for agronomic efficiency, physiological efficiency and recovery efficiency were also found where fertilizer was applied on the basis of Nutrient expert ® recommendation. Thus, it was observed that the application of nutrient on the basis of recommendation obtained from the decision support system like Nutrient expert ® and LCC based application proved superior over farmer's practice as well as State recommendation where much higher dose of nutrients were applied. So, it may be concluded that the Nutrient based recommendation and cultivation of Rajkumar hybrid may be helpful in improving productivity and profitability of Maize cultivation in the Laterite soils of West Bengal, India .

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