ABSTRACT
MALAWI. What this article is about: This article outlines two programmes - weekly iron and folic acid supplementation for adolescent girls and a nutrition sensitive agriculture programme - which form part of the Malawian government's efforts to optimise adolescent nutrition behaviours. Key messages: * Weekly iron and folic acid supplementation achieved high coverage across many schools but was impacted by COVID-19-related restrictions. * The nutrition sensitive agriculture programme led to steady improvements in adolescent girls meeting minimum dietary diversity standards with the impact of COVID-19 being mitigated through creative learning solutions. * This integrated, multi-sector approach to adolescent nutrition has proven effective thus far and efforts to scale up are now warranted.
ABSTRACT
ASIA & AFRICA. What this article is about: This article outlines the activities carried out by Nutrition International since 2015, providing weekly iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation to adolescents residing in six separate high-risk countries. Key messages: * Despite regional supply chain challenges and the complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, weekly programmes were successful in supporting governments to increase IFA supplementation coverage. * There remains a paucity of data on adolescent health outcomes which makes the design, implementation and monitoring of adolescent health projects particularly difficult. * Although school-based delivery models are effective at the population level, reaching adolescents who do not attend school - who are often at higher risk - remains a significant challenge. Governments should prioritise reaching these isolated groups in order to meet public health policy objectives.
ABSTRACT
We aimed to investigate the prevalence of decreased folate levels in patients hospitalized with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and evaluate their outcome and the prognostic signifi-cance associated with its different levels. In this retrospective cohort study, data were obtained from the electronic medical records at the Sheba Medical Center. Folic acid levels were available in 333 out of 1020 consecutive patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection hospitalized from January 2020 to November 2020. Thirty-eight (11.4%) of the 333 patients comprising the present study population had low folate levels. No significant difference was found in the incidence of acute kidney injury, hypoxemia, invasive ventilation, length of hospital stay, and mortality be-tween patients with decreased and normal-range folate levels. When sub-dividing the study population according to quartiles of folate levels, similar findings were observed. In conclusion, decreased serum folate levels are common among hospitalized patients with COVID-19, but there was no association between serum folate levels and clinical outcomes. Due to the important role of folate in cell metabolism and the potential pathologic impact when deficient, a follow-up of folate levels or possible supplementation should be encouraged in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Fur-ther studies are required to assess the prevalence and consequences of folate deficiency in COVID-19 patients.