Bmc Public Health
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Review Meta Analysis
Effects of micronutrient fortified milk and cereal food for infants and children: a systematic review.
Micronutrient deficiency is a common public health problem in developing countries, especially for infants and children in the first two years of life. As this is an important time window for child development, micronutrient fortified complementary feeding after 6 months of age, for example with milk or cereals products, in combination with continued breastfeeding, is recommended. The overall effect of this approach is unclear. ⋯ Multi micronutrient fortified milk and cereal products can be an effective option to reduce anemia of children up to three years of age in developing countries. On the basis of our data the evidence for functional health outcomes is still inconclusive.
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Few epidemiological data on hip fractures were previously available in Lithuania. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence and hospital costs of hip fractures in Vilnius in 2010. ⋯ The data on incidence and costs of hip fractures will help to assess the importance of interventions to reduce the number of fractures and associated costs.
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Parents play a critical role in their children's introduction to alcohol. A range of parenting factors have been associated with the progression to risky drinking among adolescents, and have recently formed the basis of the Australian 'Parenting Guidelines for Adolescent Alcohol Use' designed to help parents delay or reduce their adolescents' alcohol use. ⋯ Further dissemination of the guidelines may be the first step in a public health strategy, but it is likely that parents will require support to effectively adopt the recommendations. Understanding the influences on parents' beliefs about their children's drinking and the functions of social networks in the creation of behavioural norms relating to alcohol consumption and supply may be necessary to address adolescent risky drinking.
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Unintentional injuries are an important cause of death in India. However, no reliable nationally representative estimates of unintentional injury deaths are available. Thus, we examined unintentional injury deaths in a nationally representative mortality survey. ⋯ These direct estimates of unintentional injury deaths in India (0.6 million) are lower than WHO indirect estimates (0.8 million), but double the estimates which rely on police reports (0.3 million). Importantly, they revise upward the mortality due to falls, particularly in the elderly, and revise downward mortality due to fires. Ongoing monitoring of injury mortality will enable development of evidence based injury prevention programs.
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It is widely believed that corporate actors exert substantial influence on the making of public health policy, including in the alcohol field. However, the industry is far from being monolithic, comprising a range of producers and retailers with varying and diverse interests. With a focus on contemporary debates concerning the minimum pricing of alcohol in the UK, this study examined the differing interests of actors within the alcohol industry, the cleavages which emerged between them on this issue and how this impacted on their ability to organise themselves collectively to influence the policy process. We conducted 35 semi-structured interviews between June and November 2010 with respondents from all sectors of the industry as well as a range of non-industry actors who had knowledge of the alcohol policy process, including former Ministers, Members of the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, civil servants, members of civil society organisations and professionals. ⋯ Alcohol industry corporations and trade associations collaborate with one another effectively where there are shared interests, allowing the best placed bodies to lead on a given issue. Thus, whilst industry actors may be deeply divided on certain issues they are able to coordinate their positions on occasions where there are clear advantages in so doing. Health policymakers may benefit from an awareness of the multiplicity of interests within the industry and the ways that these may shape collective lobbying positions.