Nutrition education and its relationship to body image and food intake in Asian young and adolescents: a systematic review.

Background: The literature brings to light the unhealthy nutritional habits prevalent among Asian adolescents and their high level of body image dissatisfaction. This study aims to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the effect of nutritional education interventions on their nutritional knowledge and food intake behavior, attitude, practice, and body image. Methods: We searched relevant published studies in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, and Springer using the PICO framework and performed a quality assessment using the 10-point checklist adapted from the National Institutes for Health tool. Results: The majority of the nutritional education interventions improve unhealthy food intake and body image misperception, particularly on nutritional knowledge/self-efficacy, healthy dietary habits, physical activities, and fruit and vegetable intake. We also found a negative association with excess weight gain, obesity, and unethical weight reduction practices, leading to dissatisfaction with body image. Conclusion: These interventions can help address dietary problems and body image perception and support the development of future interventions.

A systematic review of interventional studies on oral care of palliative patients.

BACKGROUND: To study and review the effectiveness of oral care interventions for palliative patients for amelioration of clinical conditions affecting oral cavity. METHODS: Following PRISMA standard, a systematic evaluation of articles published between 2000 and 2021 was undertaken utilising five databases on interventions studies. This comprehensive review consists of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and specific types of non-randomised studies (NRS) examining oral care interventions for palliative patients. Three independent authors screened search records, identified related studies, extracted data and evaluated risk of bias. The key findings of each study were summarised according to the research questions and data that generated during the data extraction procedure. RESULTS: Out of the 67 identified studies, seven were included in this review (five RCTs and two NRSs) involving head-and-neck cancer, oral cancer, oral mucositis, xerostomia and individuals with malignant disease. Interventions studied were: Ziziphus honey, artificial saliva, CAM2028-Benzydamine, morphine mouthwash, ketamine mouthwash, bethanechol tablets and caphosol with regular oral-care. The durations of interventions in the included studies were largely short-term (six weeks or less). Overall, six studies revealed good results in support of the intervention, with magnitudes of effect ranging from 13.2-10,110.0%. However, just four researches found significant changes, with magnitudes of effect ranging from 50.0-10,110.0%. Although two of the trials have not revealed significant changes in the results, investigations have indicated a reduction in oral conditions in the group with interventions. Only one trial has not indicated an improvement in oral conditions in the groups which received the interventions. DISCUSSION: By assessing the efficacy of available oral hygiene interventions for palliative patients, this systematic review can help palliative team finds the viable strategies to apply in controlling oral problems among hospice patients. Even though only four of the seven research found a statistically significant difference, most studies found great effectiveness in favour of intervention.

Why oral palliative care takes a backseat? A national focus group study on experiences of palliative doctors, nurses and dentists.

Aim: Poor oral care among frail older people at the end of life endangers quality of life. However, only few dying people have access to oral palliative care services. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate oral palliative care practices and referral patterns for palliative patients in the Brunei healthcare settings. Design: An exploratory qualitative study. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted among palliative care nurses (N = 7), palliative medicine doctors (N = 4), dentists (N = 6), oncologists (N = 4) and oncology nurses (N = 4). Verbatim was analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Results: Analyses revealed four distinct themes emerging as current oral palliative care assessment and referral practice in the Brunei healthcare settings: "taking a back seat," "opportunistic oral care," "they refused and refused" and "challenging healthcare resources and oral palliative care."

Oral health problems among palliative and terminally ill patients: an integrated systematic review.

BACKGROUND: High incidence of treatable oral conditions has been reported among palliative patients. However, a large proportion of palliative patients lose their ability to communicate their sufferings. Therefore, it may lead to under-reporting of oral conditions among these patients. This review systematically synthesized the published evidence on the presence of oral conditions among palliative patients, the impact, management, and challenges in treating these conditions. METHODS: An integrative review was undertaken with defined search strategy from five databases and manual search through key journals and reference list. Studies which focused on oral conditions of palliative patients and published between years 2000 to 2017 were included. RESULTS: Xerostomia, oral candidiasis and dysphagia were the three most common oral conditions among palliative patients, followed by mucositis, orofacial pain, taste change and ulceration. We also found social and functional impact of having certain oral conditions among these patients. In terms of management, complementary therapies such as acupuncture has been used but not well explored. The lack of knowledge among healthcare providers also posed as a challenge in treating oral conditions among palliative patients. CONCLUSIONS: This review is first in its kind to systematically synthesize the published evidence regarding the impact, management and challenges in managing oral conditions among palliative patients. Although there is still lack of study investigating palliative oral care among specific group of patients such as patients with dementia, geriatric or pediatric advanced cancer patients, this review has however provided baseline knowledge that may guide health care professionals in palliative settings.

Oral Microbiological Evidence among Palliative Patients: An Integrated Systematic Review.

Life-limiting diseases such as cancers and its related treatments often compromise normal oral microbial flora and predispose a palliative patient to diverse oral infections. Knowledge on microbial flora in the oral cavity of patients with life-limiting diseases is essential to develop treatment options for clinical practitioners. This review aimed to systematically synthesize the published evidence on the oral microbiology of palliative patients. An integrative review was undertaken with defined search strategy from five databases with manual search through key journals and reference list. Studies included were published during the year 2000-2017 focusing on microbiological evidence associated with oral conditions among palliative patients. Candida presence was reported in the oral cavity of terminally ill patients in seven of nine articles, with Candida albicans being the predominant species. The majority of the included studies used oral swabs as a technique for isolation of the organism. This review is first to systematically synthesize the published evidence on the oral microbial flora of palliative patients, taking into account the techniques for identification of the microbiota. Larger multicenter studies may help in developing standardized clinical guidelines for the oral care of these patients.

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards eating and physical activity among primary school children in Brunei: a cross-sectional study.

Background Childhood obesity has become a global public health crisis. Many studies have been conducted to explore the knowledge, attitude and practices towards eating and physical activity amongst parents and healthcare workers. However, very little is known amongst children. It is imperative to understand these factors as they have been associated with obesity among children. Objective This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of Bruneian children towards eating and physical activity, in order to identify the factors that influence the development of obesity. Methods The study involved 353 children from four primary schools in Brunei. The data collection tool used was modified validated questionnaires with sections on demographic characteristic, knowledge about obesity, eating habits and physical activity. Results The majority of children (>60%) had good knowledge of obesity and intake of healthy food, but, 84.2% lacked knowledge on the required daily servings of fruits and vegetables. 68.8% purchased food and beverages from their school canteen. 93.8% were aware about the health benefits of physical activity and 70.2% spent only 1-2 h of screen time per day, however, 46.9% did not meet the recommended amount of physical activity although they reported to have performed enough. This suggested that a comprehensive education on food intake requirements and physical activity are necessary in order to better educate children. Conclusion Health educators and public health professionals may find our findings useful in order to plan and develop tailored interventions for children, as well as better promotion of a healthy lifestyle to children and their families.