Thorne-Lyman, Andrew L.

Urbanization is occurring rapidly in many low- and middle-income countries, which may affect households’ livelihoods, diet, and food security and nutritional outcomes.

The main objective of our study was to explore whether agricultural activity amongst a peri-urban population in Nepal was associated with better or worse food household security, household and maternal dietary diversity, and nutritional outcomes for children and women.

Poor vitamin B-12 (cobalamin) status is widespread in South Asia. Insufficient vitamin B-12 status has been linked to poor neurodevelopment in young children.

Children’s dietary patterns vary seasonally, particularly in subsistence agriculture settings like Nepal, but the seasonality of nutritious non-staple food consumption is not well explored in the literature.

Preschool undernutrition remains a burden in Nepal. This paper reports results of surveys in 2013 and 2014, examining patterns of child nutritional status across the country, associations with household food insecurity and antecedent comparative national data for subsequent evaluations of nutritional status following the earthquake in Nepal in 2015.

This poster uses data from over 300 children observed over 33 months to draw parallels between early childhood development outcomes and consumption of animal source foods. Presented at ICN 2017.

Despite marked improvement in child undernutrition, especially stunting, in Nepal over the past decade, stunting prevalence remains high at 41% thus generating an urgent need to understand factors associated with childhood stunting.

The earthquake that hit Nepal in April, 2015, caused considerable structural damage and loss of life but little is known about the longer term impacts of the earthquake on nutritional status of preschool children and related risk factors. This analysis provides the first systematic national estimate of the nutritional situation in Nepal following the earthquake.

Describing vitamin D status and its predictors in various populations is important in order to target public health measures. Objectives: To describe the status and predictors of vitamin D status in healthy Nepalese mothers and infants. Methods: 500 randomly selected Nepalese mother and infant pairs were included in a cross-sectional study. Plasma 25(OH)D concentrations were measured by LC-MS/MS and multiple linear regression analyses were used to identify predictors of vitamin D status.

We measured the associations between vitamin B-12 status in infancy (2-12 mo) and the development and cognitive functioning in Nepalese children 5 y later. Vitamin B-12 status was assessed in infancy with the use of plasma cobalamin, total homocysteine (tHcy), and methylmalonic acid (MMA). At 5 y of age, we measured development with the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd edition (ASQ- 3), and cognitive functioning by using the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, 2nd edition (NEPSY II), in 320 children.