A Mixed Model Approach for Estimating the Optimal Food Fortification of Vitamin D: Experiment Based on Mashhad Cohort Study in Iran.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D deficiency is a prevalent problem in worldwide healthcare related to several system disorders. Food fortification as a solution is associated with several challenges including insufficient coverage of the entire population, required degree of fortification, the vehicles used for fortification and potential toxicity. This study aimed to determine the optimal amount of vitamin D for fortification without surpassing the upper intake level (UL) of intake at the 95th percentile of the Iranian population and compare two methods of food fortification. METHODS: This study is aimed to develop a model of two different fortifying approaches related to an available dataset called MASHAD cohort study. The dataset comprised demographic and nutritional data of 9704 Iranian individuals living in the Greater Mashhad region. The first approach was a computational method necessary to implement a range of eight foods and calculate the optimal approach. In the second case, we used the European formula method called ILSI. RESULTS: To find the appropriate value for fortification, we calculated the consumption of 400 IU and 1000 IU supplements of vitamin D. Three micrograms per 100 g in each food was the optimal output. We also used Flynn and Rasmussen's formula on our data. Using these methods, we found that 2.1 micrograms per 100 kcal provides the best result. Hence, using the two different approaches, the results appear to be consistent and promising. CONCLUSION: One interesting finding was that supplement consumption did not greatly affect the impact of fortification. This observation may support the hypothesis to determine the amount of fortification, and we can ignore the study population's supplement consumption.

Study of challenges to utilise mobile-based health care monitoring systems: A descriptive literature review.

Mobile health encompasses remote and wireless applications to provide health services. Despite the advantages of applying mobile-based monitoring systems, there are challenges and limitations; understanding the challenges may assist in identifying available solutions and optimising decision-making to apply mHealth technologies more practically. This study aimed to investigate the main challenges related to mHealth-based systems for health monitoring purposes. This review was carried out through investigation of English evidence from four databases, including Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, using a defined search strategy from 2013 to 2017. Two independent researchers reviewed the results based on PRISMA guidelines, and data was categorised using a bottom-up approach to reach a framework for the most general challenges. Among the 105 papers obtained, eight works were selected. The revealed challenges were categorised into six main branches across a tree (with 55 nodes, four levels) including user-related, infrastructure, process, management, resource and training challenges. Identifying the resolvable and preventable challenges, such as those related to training, design might play a crucial role in preventing loss of resources and in growing the success rate of a project, particularly if considered in national level projects.