Feeding practices in Guatemalan infants - Adherence to the WHO recommendations and barriers to their implementation

Main investigators:

Marieke Vossenaar & Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Collaborating centers:

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (Colleen Doak)

Date started:

January 2011

Main goals:

To describe barriers to optimal early infancy feeding practices, specifically adherence to exclusive breastfeeding, in infants from 0 up to 6 months of life in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

To understand associations between feeding practices and developmental and health outcomes in infants from 0 up to 6 months of life in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Developing Evidence-Based Strategies to Improve Early Child Nutrition in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Main investigators:

Marieke Vossenaar & Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Collaborating centers:

Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (Colleen Doak)

Date started:

January 2011

Main goals:

To determine the barriers to appropriate complementary feeding practices of 6-24 month olds in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Intensity, Prevalence of Giardia Infection in Guatemalan day-care centers

Main investigators:

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt & Terry-Lynn Duffy

Collaborating centers:

University of Alberta

Date started:

2009

Main goals:

To estimate the percentage of children attending daycare with asymptomatic giardiasis, with a 5-week longitudinal component to allow for demonstrating new infection, self-clearance, chronic infection and no giardial infection of giardiasis over that interval. 

Application of three different methods to determine Giardia infection: microscopy, ELISA, Quick Giardia Test.   

Calibration and validation of two non-invasive devices to evaluate hematological status project

Main investigators:

Caitlin Crowley & Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Collaborating centers:

Hildegard-Grunow Foundation, Germany

Date started:

2009

Main goals:

Evaluate the correspondence of non-invasive and invasive methods for determining hemoglobin status

Determine the validity and reliability of digital readings among extreme hemoglobin ranges in the highland and coastal areas (Totonicapán and Retalhuleu)

Establish a field-friendly method for screening for anemia

Reconnaissance of Food Intake among Rural and Urban Infants Aged 6 to 12 Months

Main investigators:

Raquel Campos & Liza Hernandez

Collaborating centers:

Date started:

Rural area: September 2007

Urban area: February 2008

Main goals:

The objectives of this project are to estimate complementary food intake and modelated the breast milk intake for group and for individual infants (3 24-h recalls), as well as to ascertain the phasing of introduction of complementary foods by maternal retrospective and by age-intake mapping in two sites (the village of Santo Domingo Xenacoj and a local neighborhood of Guatemala City).

Outcome variables other than food intake include growth changes, dietary diversity and differences in types of complementary food offered (family food/baby food, processed food/non-processed food, and traditional food/modern food) , cost calculation of complementary food and, reproducibility regarding the age of introduction of complementary foods.

Preliminary Orientation on Water Sources, Microbiological Quality of Water, and Household Use of Water in Rural Households

Main investigators:

Liza Hernandez

Collaborating centers:

Mayor and local authorities and, midwives and local leaders, Santo Domingo Xenacoj, Sacatepequez, Guatemala

Date started:

2006

Main goals:

To examine the degree of contamination of water samples with fecal bacteria at the household source of drinking water, the vessel and from the principal water distributors administrates by the mayor, of proximate consumption among 22 households.  The primary reservoir sources for the community were cultured and found to meet water quality standards.

Vitamin D Status of Elderly Mayans in Urban and Rural Settings of the Western Highlands of Guatemala

Main investigators:

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Collaborating centers:

Date started:

Main goals:

Interest in vitamin D has been in ascendancy as reports emerge that pigmented ethnic groups have insufficient circulating levels of 25-OH-vitamin D and chronic non-transmissible diseases may be prevented by abundant vitamin D status, while opinion grows that the current adequate intakes for the vitamin are too low and the upper tolerable limit is also overly conservative.  Studies in children in Quetzaltenango have shown very low intakes of dietary vitamin D.  Persons in this region, situated at 2300 m above sea-level at a tropical latitude, can be expected to have sustained, intense exposure to ultraviolet radiation.  However, dark skin pigmentation blunts the bioconversion of 7-OH-cholesterol to vitamin D.  Aging of the skin progressively losses 75% of its original efficiency for bioconversion of vitamin D.  Aging also can limit the amount of time spent out of doors.  These pros and cons for adequate vitamin D status converge in elderly Mayan adults in the Western Highlands.  A survey of circulating 25-OH-vit D in 100 Mayans, >60 y in urban and rural residence in the Quetzaltenango province, is currently underway. 

Polymorphism Frequencies for Carotene Monooxygenase I among Mayans

Main investigators:

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Collaborating centers:

University of Newcastle, UK

Date started:

Main goals:

It is a classical observation that the efficiency of bioconversion of provitamin A carotenes to active vitamin A varies from individual to individual, even when controlling for background vitamin A status.  It has been discovered that the intestinal cleavage enzyme, Carotene Monoxidase I, has a series of polymorphisms that can be characterized by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR).  Dr. Georg Lietz at the Newcastle University has developed a diagnostic PCR, and characterized the polymorphism frequency in an Anglo British population.  We shall collaborate in assessing the frequency in group of Mayan adolescents in the public school population of Quetzaltenango. 

Within-individual Reproducibility of Self-reported Weight and Height (and Derived Body Mass Index) and Stunkard Silhouette Figure Body Image

Main investigators:

Date started:

Main goals:

CeSSIAM had a university student project in 2007 on the reproducibility of self-reported height and weight at a 14-day interval and their relation to measured values.  As an exchange-student internship project, we have extended the exploration of this theme to reproducibility of self-reported height and weight, combined with self-assessment of BMI-calibrated body images (Stunkard figure series), in 100 adult women of diverse social classes.

Promotion of Adolescent and Child Health: Xela-Children Study

Main investigators:

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt & Marieke Vossenaar

Collaborating centers:

Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands

Date started:

Main goals:

Examine differences in dietary intake among urban children (3rd and 4th grade) in different socio-economic school settings (private and public schools), Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Use of innovative and interactive pictorial self-registration method for dietary data collection

Examine differences in water and beverage consumption.