The American journal of clinical nutrition
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Short-term breastfeeding and early exposure to complex dietary proteins, such as cow milk proteins and cereals, or to fruit, berries, and roots have been implicated as risk factors for β cell autoimmunity, clinical type 1 diabetes, or both. The Trial to Reduce Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in the Genetically at Risk (TRIGR) is an international, randomized, double-blind, controlled intervention trial designed to answer the question of whether weaning to an extensively hydrolyzed formula in infancy will decrease the risk of type 1 diabetes later in childhood. In our pilot study, weaning to a highly hydrolyzed formula decreased by ≈ 50% the cumulative incidence of one or more diabetes-associated autoantibodies by a mean age of 4.7 y. ⋯ Eighty percent of the participants were exposed to the study formula. The overall retention rate over the first 5 y was 87%, and protocol compliance was 94%. The randomization code will be opened when the last recruited child turns 10 y of age (ie, in 2017).
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In sub-Saharan Africa, ~ 40% of children <5 y old are stunted, with levels that have remained largely unchanged over the past 2 decades. Although the complex determinants of undernutrition are well recognized, few studies have evaluated strategies that combine nutrition-specific, health-based approaches with food system- and livelihood-based interventions. ⋯ These findings provide encouraging evidence that a package of multisector interventions has the potential to produce reductions in childhood stunting.
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Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a multiple disease burden. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are emerging, and their risk factors are becoming more common as lifestyles change and rates of urbanization increase. Simultaneously, epidemics of infectious diseases persist, and HIV/AIDS has taken hold in the region, although recent data indicate a decrease in new HIV infection rates. ⋯ Given that treated HIV/AIDS has become a chronic disease, and the health care needs of people on ART resemble those of people with NCDs, and given that vertical programs are difficult to sustain when health systems are underresourced and strained, there is a powerful argument to integrate the primary level care for people with chronic diseases, whether they be NCDs or infectious diseases. Pilot studies are required to test the feasibility of an integrated service that extends from health facilities into the community in a reciprocal manner based on the WHO Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions model of care. These will begin to provide the evidence that policy makers need to change the mode of health care delivery.