The shift from acute infectious and deficiency diseases to chronic noncommunicable diseases is not a simple transition but a complex and dynamic epidemiological process, with some diseases disappearing and others appearing or reemerging. The unabated pandemic of childhood and adulthood obesity and concomitant comorbidities are affecting both rich and poor nations, while infectious diseases remain an important public health problem, particularly in developing countries. More attention should be given to the high burden of disease associated with soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis, which until recently was not considered a priority even though regular drug treatment is obtainable at relatively little cost. In developing countries, the pressing requirement is to provide an accessible and good quality health-care system, whereas industrialized countries have a major need for greater public health education and the promotion of healthy life-styles.

Use of BMI as a surrogate for body fat percentage is debatable and universal BMI cut-off points do not seem appropriate; lower cut-off points than currently recommended by WHO should be used in some populations, especially in Asia. The adult WHO BMI database indicates that, on average, women are more obese than men, while men are more likely to be pre-obese than women. Urban rates of overweight and obesity are generally higher than rural rates in both sexes. The trend in pre-obesity and obesity over time is generally upward, with very marked increases in the USA and UK in both sexes over the last 10 years.

Multiple micronutrient deficiencies, in particular iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a severe public health problem in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). Because of the practical difficulties encountered in improving the nutritional adequacy of traditional complementary foods and the limitations associated with the use of liquid iron supplementation for the treatment and prevention of IDA in infants and young children, recently, home-fortification with multivitamins and minerals sprinkles was recommended. This study aims to compare the effect of twice weekly versus daily supplementation with multivitamins and minerals powder (MMP) on anaemia prevalence, haemoglobin concentration, and growth in infants and young children in a rural community in Lao PDR.

This paper analyzed the relationship between some indicators of reproductive history and body fatness in relation to the timing of the menopause transition in Hungarian women using survival analysis after controlling for birth cohort. Data on menstruation and reproductive history were collected during the personal interviews in a sample of 1932 women (aged 35+ years). Menarcheal age, the length of menstrual cycles and menstrual bleedings, regularity of menstrual cycles, number of gestations, lactation, the ever use of contraceptives, menopausal status and age at menopause were used as indicators of reproductive history. The body fat fraction was estimated by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Body fatness was also estimated by dividing women into obese and non-obese categories (considering body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio). Survival analyses were used to analyze the relationship between the indicators of reproductive history and body fatness during the menopausal transition. Only the menarcheal age among the investigated reproductive life characteristics showed secular changes in the studied decades in Hungary; the mean age at menarche decreased by approximately 2.5 months per decade from the 1920s until the 1970s. Ever use of hormonal contraceptives, a relatively long cycle length in the perimenopausal transition and higher parity were all related with lower risk of early menopause. Later menarcheal age, normal length of menstrual cycle or bleeding in the climacterium, irregular bleeding pattern and postmenopausal status were associated with a higher amount of body fatness, while never use of contraceptives, regular menstruation, postmenopausal status and relatively early menopause were associated with a higher risk of abdominal obesity. This report confirms that age of menarche is not significantly predictive of age at menopause but prior use of oral contraceptives, longer mean cycle length and smaller number of gestations all are. In addition, age of menarche, irregular bleeding pattern before the climacterium, length of menstrual cycles and bleedings during the climacterium and postmenopausal status were associated with obesity during the climacterium.

To determine whether a cash-for-work programme during the annual food insecurity period in Bangladesh improved nutritional status in poor rural women and children. The panel study involved a random sample of 895 households from over 50,000 enrolled in a cash-for-work programme between September and December 2007 and 921 similar control households. The height, weight and mid-upper arm circumference of one woman and child aged less than 5 years from each household were measured at baseline and at the end of the study (mean time: 10 weeks). Women reported 7-day household food expenditure and consumption on both occasions. Changes in parameters were compared between the two groups. At baseline, no significant difference existed between the groups. By the study end, the difference in mean mid-upper arm circumference between women in the intervention and control groups had widened by 2.29 mm and the difference in mean weight, by 0.88 kg. Among children, the difference in means between the two groups had also widened in favour of the intervention group for: height (0.08 cm; P<0.05), weight (0.22 kg; P<0.001), mid-upper arm circumference (1.41 mm; P<0.001) and z-scores for height-for-age (0.02; P<0.001), weight-for-age (0.17; P<0.001), weight-for-height (0.23; P<0.001) and mid-upper arm circumference (0.12; P<0.001). Intervention households spent more on food and consumed more protein-rich food at the end of the study. The cash-for-work programme led to greater household food expenditure and consumption and women's and children's nutritional status improved.