Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Existing food insecurity instruments are focused largely on the financial constraints associated with acquiring sufficient amounts of food. This narrow focus has resulted in underestimating the true prevalence of food poverty, particularly in high-income countries. Food poverty needs to be defined as capability deprivation, extending from the nutritional to the temporal, spatial, qualitative and affective aspects of eating. In this article, the Alkire-Foster counting approach is evaluated and an alternative method for measuring such multidi-mensional food poverty is proposed...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous literature mostly has demonstrated the efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) combined with whole nutrition powder in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the benefits of whey protein as an oral nutritional supplement (ONS) during PR are not clear. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: It took 12 weeks to complete the trial, we divided 90 elderly patients with stable-stage COPD into a low-intensity exercise group (n= 30, PR group), PR plus whey proteins complex group (n= 30, PRWP group), and a control group (n= 30) randomly, and assessed index such as exercise capacity, mental health status, lung function, and body composition...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We aimed to investigate the association of triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index with hypertension and compare the discriminative power of the TyG index, lipid, glycemic parameters for hypertension using the China Health Examination Collaborative study (CHEC Study). METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Data were collected at Ningbo Mingzhou Hospital and Beijing physical examination center from the CHEC Study during 2014 and 2021. Participants with ≥2 medical check-up times were included...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Lack of professional and accurate diagnosis of malnutrition led to a reduction in Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) payment and a decrease in Case-Mix Index (CMI). The aim of this study was to explore the effects of adding a proper nutritional diagnosis and modifying complication groups on DRG payment and CMI. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis was performed on patients ad-mitted to the hospital from January to June 2022 who had received a nutritional assessment...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic factors, dietary intake, and sarcopenic obesity among older adults in Korea. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Data from the seventh Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2018) were analyzed. The study included 3,690 participants (1,645 men and 2,045 women) aged 65 years and older. Sarcopenic obesity was defined as the coexistence of low muscle strength (handgrip strength <28 kg in men and <18 kg in women) and abdominal obesity (waist circumference >90 cm in men and >85 cm in women)...

In 2022, Taiwan enacted the Food and Agricultural Education Act, thus officially launching its food education policy. The objective of this article is to elucidate the social background to this Act and current challenges to promoting food education. The data were obtained from the relevant literature and interviews with 11 key actors, who represented academia, the government, public education and civil society. Although having much in common with the Japanese equivalent policy, Taiwan's food education contains some notable features...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sarcopenia is prevalent in patients with stroke. However, the relationship between sarcopenia and poor functional outcome of patients with acute stroke remains unknown. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the above association. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Observational studies which evaluated the influence of sarcopenia on functional outcome in patients with acute stroke were retrieved by search the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with acute kidney injury requiring continuous renal replacement therapy are at high risk of malnutrition. Nutritional support is an important part of treatment for patients with critical illness admitted to the intensive care unit. We aimed to investigate the status of nutritional provision and the effects of nutritional support on clinical outcomes. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Our institution's medical records (from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021) were analyzed in this retrospective cohort study...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emerging expert consensuses and guidelines recommend that omega-3 fatty acids may have anti-inflammatory effects in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, these recommendations are based on pathophysiological studies of inflammation rather than direct clinical evidence. We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We retrieved literature from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WANFANG, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Cochrane Library databases up to May 1, 2023...

In 2022, Taiwan enacted the Food and Agricultural Education Act, thus officially launching its food education policy. The objective of this article is to elucidate the social background to this Act and current challenges to promoting food education. The data were obtained from the relevant literature and interviews with 11 key actors, who represented academia, the government, public education and civil society. Although having much in common with the Japanese equivalent policy, Taiwan's food education contains some notable features...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is a life sustaining therapy for patients with chronic intestinal failure. Reported outcomes for Asian HPN patients are scarce. We aim to review the clinical outcomes of adult and paediatric HPN patients in our cohort which caters for 95% of Singaporean HPN patients. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective review of HPN patients from an adult (2002-2017) and paediatric cohort (2011-2017) from the largest tertiary PN centres in Singapore...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Gastrectomy causes vitamin B-12 deficiency since vitamin B-12 requires gastric acid and intrinsic factor for its absorption. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is considered to develop years after gastrectomy because of large hepatic storage. However, most gastric cancer develops after long-standing atrophic gastritis with vitamin B-12 malabsorption. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We have investigated vita-min B-12 status in 22 patients before gastrectomy and 53 patients after gastrectomy due to gastric cancer, also with consideration on post-gastrectomy anemia...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Amino acids (AAs) are crucial nutrients and fundamental building blocks of organisms that can be utilized to assess nutritional status and detect diseases. However, insufficient information has been reported on plasma AA in the Eastern Chinese population. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: 1859 persons who underwent physical examination in our hospital from January to December 2020 were enrolled. Plasma AA levels were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cow milk protein allergy (CMPA) can mimic surgical disease, gastroenteritis, sepsis, and necrotizing enterocolitis in the neonatal period. For this reason, we aimed to evaluate the clinical features, differential diagnosis, and treatment methods of neonates with CMPA. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: The charts of twenty-six breastfed full-term and preterm newborns presenting with CMPA between October 2018 and February 2021 were retrospectively reviewed...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between frailty, malnutrition, comorbid medical conditions and activities of daily living (ADL) in older adult patients with fractures, and to analyse the influential factors of frailty. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: The FRAIL scale including five components: fatigue, resistance, ambulation, illness, and loss of weight, was used to evaluate frailty. Participants were divided into frailty, pre-frailty and non-frailty groups...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The effects of muscle meat and vegetable intake on body fat mass remain unclear in the general population. This study aimed to investigate the association of body fat mass and fat dis-tribution with a muscle meat-vegetable intake (MMV) ratio. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: In total, 29,271 par-ticipants aged 18-80 years were recruited from the Shaanxi cohort of the Regional Ethnic Cohort Study in Northwest China. The associations of muscle meat, vegetable and MMV ratio, as the independent variable, with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, total body fat percentage (TBF) and visceral fat (VF), as dependent variables were evaluated by gender-specific linear regression models...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Few studies have explored the relationship between overall diet quality and stress load. Therefore, we have evaluated the association between dietary quality and allostatic load (AL) in adults. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: The data were derived from the 2015-2018 National Health and Nutri-tion Examination Survey (NHANES). Dietary intake information was obtained by 24-hour dietary recall. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) 2015 version was estimated as an indicator of dietary quality...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the capacity of clinical nutrition services in secondary and tertiary hospitals in the Sichuan Province, China. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: Convenience sampling was used. E-questionnaires were distributed to all eligible medical institutions in Sichuan through the official network of provincial and municipal clinical nutrition quality control centers. The data obtained were sorted in Microsoft Excel and analyzed by SPSS. RESULTS: A total of 519 questionnaires were returned, of which 455 were valid...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Malnutrition is associated with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). The aim of this study is to investigate the association between persistent malnutrition and the effect of PTB treatment. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A total of 915 PTB patients were included. Baseline demographic information, anthropometry, and nutritional indicators were measured. The treatment effect was assessed by combinations of clinical manifestations, sputum smear, chest computerized tomography, gastrointestinal symptoms, and the indexes of liver function...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Assessing knowledge, self-efficacy, and practice among a given population us-ing a validated and reliable questionnaire is crucial. The aim of this study was to translate, validate, and test the reliability of the knowledge, self-efficacy, and practice in the Arabic population. Methods and Study De-sign: A previously published knowledge, self-efficacy, and practice nutrition questionnaire was translated and validated into Arabic. A panel of translation and nutrition experts from Arab countries participated in translation and testing validity...