Involvement of the food industry in nutrition conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean

Objective: Identify and characterise the food industry's involvement in nutrition and dietetics national and regional events in Latin America and the Caribbean. Design: Between February and April 2020, we conducted desk-based searches for nutrition and dietetics events held in the region between January 2018 and December 2019. Online freely accessible, publicly available information was collected on the involvement of the food industry through: sponsorship of events; sponsorship of sessions; speakers from the food industry; scholarships, fellowship, grants, awards and other prizes and; exhibition space/booths. Setting: Nutrition and dietetics events in Latin America and the Caribbean. Results: Thirty-one events held in twenty countries of the region had information publicly available online at the period of data collection. There was a lack of transparency on the involvement of industry actors in these events. When information was publicly available, we found that a total of ninety-two food industry actors sponsored 88 % of these events. Conclusions: There is a mostly unreported, but likely extensive, involvement of food industry actors in nutrition and dietetics events in Latin America and the Caribbean.(AU)

Estado nutricional de preescolares asistentes a la junta nacional de jardines infantiles de Chile: evaluación de la concordancia entre indicadores antropométricos de obesidad y obesidad central / Nutritional status of preschool children attending the Chilean national nursery schools council programs (JUNJI): assessment of the agreement among anthropometric indicators of obesity and central obesity

Históricamente, el monitoreo nutricional de los programas de ayuda nutricional infantil ha utilizado indicadores de peso-edad y talla-edad para detectar deficiencias nutricionales. Recientemente, dado el aumento de la obesidad infantil se ha recomendado también incorporar mediciones de peso-talla y de circunferencia de cintura. Sin embargo, en preescolares no está claro cuál es el grado de concordancia existente entre estos indicadores. Los objetivos de este artículo son: reportar el estado nutricional de niños beneficiarios de la Junta Nacional de Jardines Infantiles de Chile y evaluar la concordancia entre medidas antropométricas de obesidad general y obesidad central en este grupo. En 574 niñas y 580 niños entre 3,0 y 5,9 años de edad se midió peso, talla, circunferencia de cintura y de cadera y 5 pliegues. Los puntajes Z se estimaron según los estándares de crecimiento OMS 2006. Se definió obesidad general como Z P/T ó Z IMC/E ≥+ 2DE y obesidad central como circunferencia de cintura ≥ percentil 90 para el sexo y la edad según NHANES III. La prevalencia de obesidad fue cercana al 16 por ciento con ambos indicadores, mientras que la de obesidad central fue 15 por ciento. La concordancia entre indicadores antropométricos de obesidad general y central fue buena (Kappa entre 0,6 y 0,7). En conclusión, en niños beneficiarios de un programa de ayuda social chileno se encontró una alta prevalencia de obesidad y obesidad central. En este grupo, existe una buena concordancia entre indicadores antropométricos de obesidad general y obesidad central, lo que sugiere que no se justificaría la incorporación de mediciones de circunferencia de cintura al monitoreo nutricional del programa.

Historically, the anthropometric assessment of nutritional welfare programs has been targeted to assess nutritional deficiencies based on weight-to-age and height-to-age indicators. Recently, given the increase on childhood obesity, it has been also recommended the measurement of indicators of obesity (i.e. weight-to-height) and central obesity (i.e. waist circumference). However, the agreement of these indicators in preschool children is unclear. The aims of this study were: 1) assess the nutritional status of children attending the Chilean National Nursery Schools Council Program (JUNJI); 2) assess the agreement between general and central obesity anthropometric measurements in these children. In 574 girls and 580 boys, 3.0 to 5.9 years old, we measured: weight, height, waist and hip circumference, and five skinfolds. We used the WHO 2006 growth standards to estimate Z-scores. We defined general obesity as WHZ or BAZ= 2, and central obesity as waist circumference ≥ 90 percentile of NHANES III. The participants were on average slightly shorter but considerably heavier and obese than the reference populations. Prevalence of general obesity was close to 16 percent with both indicators while prevalence of central obesity reached 15 percent. There was good agreement among general obesity indicators and central obesity indicators (Kappa = 0.6-0.7). In summary, we found a high prevalence of obesity and central obesity among Chilean preschool children beneficiaries of a welfare program. At this age, there was a good agreement among general obesity indicators and central obesity indicators. These results suggest that waist circumferences measurements should not be incorporated to the program.