Nutrition
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Maternal underweight and childhood malnutrition are life-threatening public health concerns in several South and South-East Asian nations. The aim of this study was to better design interventions and prevent malnutrition of children in the region by exploring the association of maternal underweight with children's anthropometric status. ⋯ Findings indicate that maternal underweight is positively associated with children's anthropometric status, such as stunting, underweight, and wasting. The information from this research will guide actors and policymakers to scale up interventions with all-inclusive nutritional issues and promote healthier weight status among mothers to ensure higher odds of healthier anthropometric status in their children in the South and South-East Asian countries.
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Food neophobia is a rejection or avoidance of novel food products. Despite the adaptive importance of this behavior, it exerts a negative influence on dietary habits and preferences. Sensory sensitivity relates to food neophobia and among specific sensory modalities, olfaction seems to be an obvious candidate for a correlate of this behavior as odor perception largely affects food intake and enjoyment. However, research on olfactory perception and food neophobia is scarce, and despite some promising results, the full picture of their association still awaits discovery. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between food neophobia and olfaction in adolescents, a group that has not been included in the previous studies investigating this association. ⋯ The overall regression model suggested that self-assessed sensitivity and odor awareness were the most influential, olfaction-related predictors of food neophobia in adolescents.