Effect of dietary counseling on preventing excessive weight gain during pregnancy.

OBJECTIVES: Excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG) is associated with short- and long-term health problems among mothers and their offspring. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of dietary counseling on EGWG. STUDY DESIGN: Randomized controlled intervention trial. METHODS: The study was conducted at the antenatal care (ANC) clinic, Center for Social and Preventive Medicine, Pediatrics Hospital, Cairo University, during the period from July 2015 to April 2016. A total of 200 primigravidae aged between 20 and 30 years were included and randomized into intervention and control groups. Based on data analysis from phase 1, nutritional practices of the studied participants were identified and tailored nutrition counseling sessions designed. Follow-up of the studied participants throughout ANC visits was done to enforce the healthy dietary intake and encourage weight gain according to the recommendations to avoid EGWG. RESULTS: The intervention resulted in a significantly higher proportion of women in the intervention group who gained gestational weight within the Institute of Medicine recommendations compared to women in the control group (42.7% vs 13.9%, respectively) (P-value <0.001); this was detected between the 25th and 35th weeks of gestation. Dietary counseling had significantly improved the frequency of consumption of different food items and knowledge, attitude, and practice mean scores of the intervention group in comparison with the control group (P-value <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study demonstrated that dietary counseling given to pregnant women reduced the proportion of EGWG and improved dietary practices. There is a strong need for effective intervention strategies targeting EGWG to prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Study of the effect of dietary counselling on the improvement of end-stage renal disease patients.

Proper nutrition may help to reverse the wasting syndrome in dialysis patients with kidney disease on dialysis. This intervention study aimed to identify malnutrition problems and assess the effect of dietary counselling on improvement of health status of end-stage renal disease patients subjected to haemodialysis. Pre-intervention data were collected from 41 patients attending El Haram dialysis centre, Giza, Egypt; 97.5% of the patients were considered mildly to moderately malnourished and multiple malnutrition problems were detected (protein-energy malnutrition, hypocalcaemia, and anaemia and hyperphosphataemia). Nutritional counselling sessions resulted in statistically significant post-intervention improvements in Karnofsky performance scale scores, malnutrition inflammation scores and nutritional knowledge of the patients. Providing one-to-one nutrition counselling could be linked to improvements in the patients' nutritional knowledge and practices and to their health status and performance in activities of daily life.

Study of the effect of dietary counselling on the improvement of end-stage renal disease patients

Proper nutrition may help to reverse the wasting syndrome in dialysis patients with kidney disease on dialysis. This intervention study aimed to identify malnutrition problems and assess the effect of dietary counselling on improvement of health status of end-stage renal disease patients subjected to haemodialysis. Pre-intervention data were collected from 41 patients attending El Haram dialysis centre, Giza, Egypt; 97.5% of the patients were considered mildly to moderately malnourished and multiple malnutrition problems were detected [protein-energy malnutrition, hypocalcaemia, and anaemia and hyperphosphataemia]. Nutritional counselling sessions resulted in statistically significant post-intervention improvements in Karnofsky performance scale scores, malnutrition inflammation scores and nutritional knowledge of the patients. Providing one-to-one nutrition counselling could be linked to improvements in the patients' nutritional knowledge and practices and to their health status and performance in activities of daily life

Congenital malformations in primary health care in Al-Qassim region.

The objective of this predesigned research was to determine the prevalence, sociodemographic correlates, and pattern of congenital malformations (CMs) in a population less than 20 years of age. From January 1991 to December 1991, the extensive examination of family health files coupled with door-to-door survey identified 1736 patients with CMs. The results showed that the prevalence of CMs was 6.9/1000 population. The male to female ratio was 1.3:1. The patient's age, sibling order, co-morbid disorders of CMs, parental age, chronic maternal diseases, and the family history of CMs were significantly associated with groups of arbitrarily classified CMs. The most frequently encountered CMs were of central nervous system (39.2%) followed by cardiovascular (22.3%), alimentary (13.1%), musculoskeletal (6.85%), urogenital (6.16%), communicative and audiovisual (5.5%), and miscellaneous (6.9%). Further one-way ANOVA found significant differences among CM categories and age of patients and parents. Unlike Western trends, our study tentatively concludes that overall the inheritance rather than socioenvironmental factors contributes significantly in the etiology of different congenital malformations. We further suggest that the basic information of this research might be useful foundation data in future analytic studies on congenital malformations.

A seroepidemiological study of measles: Some practical implications for measles immunization program, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

It was hypothesized that the recent outbreaks of measles in a geographically defined area of Al-Qassim might reflect significant changes in the epidemiology of measles and cast doubt upon the real protective value of measles vaccines. Therefore, the two objectives of this research were to study some epidemiological parameters of cases of measles (n=993) and the current immunological status of immunized children (n=2810). The crossmatched data about measles patients were collected on an official proforma and 3 mL of blood were extracted from each child for determining the measles IgG and IgM antibodies. The results showed that female patients were significantly overrepresented (51.3%). The majority of patients encountered at primary health care centers (PHCCs) (81.3%) were more than five years of age (76.5%). Among nonvaccinated measles cases, 54.9% (n=402) were from rural/desert areas. The measles vaccine failure rate was 26.3%. The results of the surveyed children showed that 2% of them were not vaccinated. The measles IgM levels were detected significantly in recently vaccinated females (n=29/51, 56.9%). The measles IgG positivity unaffected by age, sex, and residence was found in 87.4% of children. A significant portion of children from rural/desert areas were not vaccinated (n=44/57, 77.2%). Though there were apparently high seroconversion rates in children under two years of age following Edmonston-Zagreb vaccine, overall it did not achieve any statistical significance when compared with seroconversion rates in all children following Schwartz vaccine. We conclude that besides at age six months, and MMR containing measles vaccine at 12 months, children at school entry (six years) should also be considered for measles vaccination.