Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-46).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1972. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-93).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-110).

Proefschrift Universiteit Leiden. / Description based on print version record.

Background: Undernutrition is a global public health challenge with life-long consequences. For a child chronically undernourished within the first 1000 days of its life, the consequences include lower school attainment, shorter adult height, reduced adult income and national economic productivity. Investing in preventing child undernutrition has both immediate and later life benefits for children and society. To prevent child undernutrition, promote optimal growth and development, nutrition interventions should target the 1000-days window of opportunity. Aim and objectives: This thesis aimed to assess infant feeding practices in the Matebeleland region of Zimbabwe. The objectives were to (i) explore factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding, (ii) estimate nutrient intake and assess nutritional quality of infants' diets and (iii) formulate and pilot food-based feeding recommendations for infants. Methods: This thesis employed mixed methods. The breastfeeding study and piloting of feeding recommendations were qualitative, whilst the food intake and linear programming studies were quantitative. Results: Diets consumed by infants in the Matebeleland region are predominantly plant-based and poor in both diversity and micronutrient density. The diets do not meet calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamin B3 requirements for 9-11 month-old infants. Urban infants and those from wealthier households had higher median nutrient intakes than infants from rural and poor households did, respectively. Conclusion: Diets consumed by infants in the Matebeleland region are poor in diversity and micronutrient density and cannot meet calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamin B3 requirements for the 9-11 months target group. Maize meal fortification improved the micronutrient density of the diets.

No description available.

Infant mortality has been viewed widely as an important indicator of population health status. The infant mortality rate in British Columbia has fallen dramatically during the past three decades, and this province now has lowest rate in Canada. The infant mortality rate of Canada is the third lowest rate in the world, higher only than that of Japan and Sweden. Despite this general decline, however, geographical inequalities in infant mortality still exist in British Columbia at the Health Unit level. Reducing differences in health status amongst regions is a goal which has been addressed recently at the international level. “Health for All by year 2000” is a public health goal set by the World Health Organization. This dissertation seeks to investigate whether or not regional inequalities in infant mortality rates in British Columbia have fallen in the same way that the provincial mortality rate as a whole has declined. Secondly, it seeks to explore, etiologically and ecologically, any potential factors which may be responsible for existing geographical inequality in infant mortality at the Health Unit scale. To achieve these goals an index of geographical inequality, essentially a weighted coefficient of variation, was first developed. This index was then compared to the provincial infant mortality rate to examine its temporal trend and to determine whether or not geographical inequalities in infant mortality have been declining in parallel to the mortality rate as a whole. Multi-variate analyses were then performed on selected etiological and ecological factors in order to identify significant factors responsible for Health Unit specific high infant mortality rates. They were used also to identify important ecological factors which may be responsible for the high prevalence rates of the more significant etiological factors leading to elevated infant mortality rates in specific Health Units. Using these results, interactive relationships amongst ecological determinants, etiological factors, and infant mortality rates were established. These analyses established that regional variations in infant mortalities have not been reduced to the same degree as the provincial infant mortality rate. This is especially true of the post-neonatal mortality rate for which regional differences have increased during the past 10 years. This result leads to the conclusion that infant health status in specific Health Units has not improved in comparison to that in others. Multi-variate analysis suggests that the teenage birth rate is responsible for much of the regional inequality in post-neonatal mortality, and that family income level is the ecological factor which determines the prevalence of the teenage birth rate in specific Health Units. If this relationship is correct, it implies that the teenage birth rate should be reduced and the family economic condition should be improved, in order to mitigate regional inequalities in the infant mortality rate in British Columbia. / Graduate

The purpose of the study was to investigate the first manifestations of variation in human beings. The objective was to describe differences that first appear and to clarify some of the dimensions and limits which form the background of such variations. Thirty-nine neonates, all of whom, according to medical opinion, were normal, were used as subjects. Each child was observed for eight 30-minute periods while lying in his cot, and two or three times whilst being fed by his mother. These observation periods were spaced throughout the first, third, and fifth days of life and were planned to take account of the infant's age and feeding cycles. All recording was done in code by the same observer. The following analyses were carried out on cotside data and results were as described: Three states of infant behaviour which were named 'sleep’, 'specific activity', and 'mass activity' were differentiated in terms of the amount and type of movements that infants showed, and individuals were compared to see whether consistent dispositions toward either sleep or mass activity could be found. No such consistency was found. Individuals were compared to see whether or not some babies were consistently more active during sleep or mass activity than others. Results of this analysis were ambiguous. Head, facial, body, limb and extremity movements were totalled for each infant each day and results were compared to see whether infants differed in the sequences they showed. Results indicated that there were no established sequences during the first week. Mass activity was analyzed and seven differently structured patterns were found. Most of these became more frequent as the child grew older, and there were some differences in the patterns shown by different babies. Data from feeding observations enabled a comparison to be made between the feeding situations of bottle and breast fed infants. As a result it was found that breast fed infants experience a wider variety of maternal emotions, tend to be less skillfully handled and to show more signs of frustration. There was no significant difference between the two types of feeding group in proneness to sleep or mass activity. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Report (Ed. D.)--Teachers College. / Issued also on microfilm. Includes bibliographical references.