Projects

This is the flagship and main project since inception of the Center for Nutrition Studies. It is supported by a grant from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR-5/8/5/36/2019//ECD-I; PI: Dr. Anurag Bhargava) and carried out by the Center for Nutrition Studies, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University) with faculty from Center for Nutrition Studies and in collaboration with National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad and State TB Cell, Jharkhand and Central TB Division.

It is being conducted in 4 districts of Jharkhand with 2800 patients and their household contacts.

It is a clinical trial, registered with the Clinical Trial Registry – India (CTRI/2019/08/020490) to study the effect of food rations on the occurrence of new cases of tuberculosis in household contacts of patients suffering from TB.

The intervention is dry food rations and micronutrients to patients with microbiologically confirmed pulmonary TB in control as well as intervention arm. And in the intervention arm, the household contacts also get the dry food rations during the treatment period of the index case. The primary outcome that will be studied is the number of new cases of TB that occur in the household contacts during a two year follow-up period.

It is first of its kind project with largest sample size in the field of TB and Nutrition.

Center has partnered with NIN for Vitamin A and D estimations for the micronutrient substudy of the RATIONS trial.

On World TB Day (24 March), the Center for Nutrition Studies, Yenepoya University, Mangalore in association with McGill International TB Centre, Montreal announced the public release of N-TB. N-TB App is an android mobile based application for the nutritional assessment and counselling of adult patients with TB.

This app, endorsed by the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme and WHO India, was included in the new initiatives unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Delhi End TB Summit on March 13^th 2018.

Undernutrition in TB patients is now considered a medical condition like co-existing diabetes, or HIV infection. WHO recommends that nutritional assessment, counselling and support should be considered an integral part of TB care.

The N-TB is the first of its kind app for healthcare providers. It enables the classification of the nutritional status of the patient by calculating the BMI. If the BMI is very low, it red-flags this and provides an overview of management of severe undernutrition. The app also provides the weight gain required during treatment to achieve a desirable weight, and the recommended daily caloric and protein intake.

Maternal Nutrition implementation project to test the operational feasibility of the maternal nutrition algorithm (developed by the NCEARD, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi).

Maternal Nutrition Algorithm (NCEARD Toolkit) has been developed by National Centre of Excellence and Advanced Research on Diets (NCEARD) to strengthen the available Antenatal Care platforms in public health facilities and in community for assessing, classifying and providing services to pregnant women as per nutritional risk.

This is designed so as to deliver nutritional care within the available human resources, equipment and supplies, reporting and review of the ANC services. UNICEF Hyderabad Field Office along with National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, Center for Nutrition Studies, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), Mangalore supported the testing of the algorithm across the two sites in Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka and three sites in Telangana.

This was conducted in collaboration with the Department of Community Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Yenepoya Nursing College.

Adolescence as an age-group does not receive adequate attention in national surveys. They form an important segment but get combined with the adults as far as the National Family Health Surveys are concerned or in the National TB Programs globally.

Information on adolescent nutrition is scant. NFHS has data on boys and girls only in the 15-19 age group. A reanalysis of NFHS-3 & 4 using appropriate age and gender specific cut-offs for 15-19 year olds found that thinness may have been overestimated more than two-fold.

Stunting (low height for age) in 15-19 year olds has hitherto remained hidden in the data of NFHS-3 & 4. Stunting was found in >30% of boys and girls in NFHS-4, with a disturbing increase compared to NFHS-3.

Growth potential is spread across first 1000 and the next 7000 days, and adolescence is the last window of opportunity. Stunting affects cognitive development, learning ability, work performance and incomes, and is also a risk factor for obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in adult life.

To bring nutrition at the center stage in research, service and academia, capacity building, skill building and mutual learning is the most way to go.

A 4-day short course on nutritional assessment techniques was organized by the Center for Nutrition Studies with support from UNICEF (GRANT REFERENCE NO: SSFA/2019/07). There were a total of 12 resource persons with eight of them from leading national and international institutions.

These included National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, St John's Research Institute, Bangalore, National Centre for Excellence and Advanced Research in Diets (NCEARD), Lady Irwin College and AIIMS in New Delhi, National Institute of Health and Welfare and University of Tampere in Finland.

Thirty-two participants were trained over 4 days in this course. The topics covered included theory and practical sessions on various methods of dietary assessments, basic and advanced anthropometry and body composition, maternal nutrition, physical activity and functional assessment.