How to complement traditional instruments to measure the economic dimension of food security in older people? An application for regions of Argentina.

Introduction: One of the dimensions of food security has to do with economic access to food. Aim: Propose a methodology that allows evaluating economic access to food in Argentina for the elderly population. Methods: Dietary guides for the Argentine population are used. Meanwhile, the food consumption patterns observed in the elderly population in Argentina are considered from a household expenditure survey, from which implicit food prices can also be obtained. Results: Six dietary plans corresponding to different regions of the country are designed and evaluated and it is found that they would be affordable only in two of the six regions analyzed. Conclusion: in the Metropolitan, Pampas, Cuyo, and Northeast regions the cost of the ideal basket is higher than food spending, fundamentally in the Northeast region where food spending should increase by 25%.

Agreement between the total energy expenditure calculated with accelerometry data and the BMR yielded by predictive equations v. the total energy expenditure obtained with doubly labelled water in low-income women with excess weight.

Low-income women are the group with the highest levels of obesity worldwide. In low-income settings, the use of predictive equations, which yield a measure of the individuals' BMR, is a feasible approach to estimate the individuals' total energy expenditure (TEE), using the factorial method (calculated-TEE = BMR × physical activity level), an important step of the obesity nutritional care. The present study aimed to identify the predictive equation that, in conjunction with metabolic equivalents of tasks (MET) data from accelerometers, yields the calculated-TEE with better agreement compared with the TEE measured by doubly labelled water (TEE-DLW). Forty-five women aged 19-45 years, with excess weight and mothers of undernourished children, were included. They received DLW to determine TEE (14 d); at the same time, they used triaxial accelerometers (7 d) to estimate their MET. The Bland-Altman method, paired-sample t tests, concordance correlation coefficient and root-mean-square error were used to assess the agreement. Maximum allowed differences were defined as 24 %, based on the within-variance coefficient of the energy intake of the sample. Eleven equations were studied. The calculated-TEE obtained by five equations showed non-significant bias: Dietary Reference Intake (Institute of Medicine (2005) Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids), FAO/WHO/UNU ((2001) Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series), Harris & Benedict ((1919) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA4, 370-373), Henry & Rees ((1991) Eur J Clin Nutr45, 177-185) and Schofield ((1985) Hum Nutr Clin Nutr39, 5-41). The mean percentage differences were -1·5, -0·8, 2·2, -2·2 and 2·0 %, respectively. Considering all parameters, FAO/WHO/UNU ((2001) Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series) equation performed slightly better than the others; nevertheless, no equation in conjunction with the estimated-MET showed a calculated-TEE with its CI for the Bland-Altman limits of agreement inside the pre-defined acceptable range.