Interpreting the ways in which nutrition and food security varies around the world is foundational to our understanding of global health and how it might be improved. Through assessing dietary status and food security, examining its causes, and evaluating the health challenges faced by different people around the world, our community-based research endeavors to identify health inequities and measure their social and behavioral underpinnings. Primarily conducted in middle and low-income countries, our work is carried out in partnership with domestic and international organizations and communities. Through the examination of various determinants of health and nutrition, our research contributes to the global effort to end hunger, achieve food security, and improve overall nutrition. To see a listing of research by region, click here.
Food Security and Nutrition Assessment
The following papers examine assessment of nutrition, dietary status and food security, as well as potential interventions to promote food security in regions worldwide. We investigate the role of household expenditures, analyzing the significance of economic barriers and the ways in which they are measured. These topics are explored further in papers and reports that provide new approaches to food security surveillance and resilience in food security. These offer strategies to address and combat crises by reducing vulnerability and promoting sustainable development, using systems thinking as an avenue of analysis for resilience program planning, monitoring, and evaluation.
Some of this work is produced by Tulane faculty in collaboration with external organizations such as the Mozambique Ministries of Health and Agriculture, Development Information Services International, Somalia Resilience Program, the Food Security Information Network, the University of Texas at Austin, USAID, and the United Nations World Food Programme.
- Luckett et al: Application of the Nutrition Functional Diversity indicator to assess food system contributions to dietary diversity and sustainable diets of Malawian households
- Rose et al: A Comparative Evaluation of Dietary Indicators Used in Food Consumption Assessments of At-Risk Populations
- Rose and Tschirley: Predicting Dietary Intakes with Simple Food Recall Information: a Case Study from Rural Mozambique
- Rose et al: Evaluation of a Rapid Field Tool for Assessing Household Diet Quality in Mozambique
- Rose and Tschirley: A Simplified Method for Assessing Dietary Adequacy in Mozambique
- Mock and Bertrand: Conceptual framework for nutrition surveillance systems
- Geniez et al: Integrating food poverty and minimum cost diet methods into a single framework: a case study using a Nepalese household expenditure survey
- Rose et al: Understanding the role of potatoes in the Peruvian diet: An approach that combines food composition with household expenditure data
- Rose: Interventions to reduce household food insecurity: A synthesis of current concepts and approaches for Latin America
- Rose et al: Quantitative indicators from a food expenditure survey can be used to target the food insecure in South Africa
- Rose et al: Prevalence of household food poverty in South Africa: results from a large, nationally representative survey
- Kahn & Mock et al: Is Madagascar becoming increasingly vulnerable to food crises?
- Mock et al: mVAM: A New Contribution to the Information Ecology of Humanitarian Work
- Morrow, Mock et al: Knowing Just in Time: Use cases for mobile surveys in the humanitarian world
- Morrow, Mock et al: Review of mVAM programme: novel application of mobile technologies for food security monitoring
- Rose et al: Food Security Assessment at WFP: Report on Continued Development and Testing of a Standardized Approach
- Morrow, Mock and Papendiek: From complexity to food security decision-support: Novel methods of assessment and their role in enhancing the timeliness and relevance of food and nutrition security information
- Rose: Assessing Food Security at WFP: Towards a Unified Approach
- Rivers, Mason, Rose et al: The impact of orphanhood on food security in the high-HIV context of Blantyre, Malawi
- Morrow et al: Rooting for the Future: On-Farm Trees Contribution to Household Energy Security and Asset Creation as a Resilient Development Pathway: Evidence from a 20 Year Panel in Rural Ethiopia
- Downie et al (Somalia Resilience Program – SomReP): Positive Deviance in Somalia: Why are some households more resilient than others?
- Mock et al (Food Security Information Network): Systems Analysis in the Context of Resilience
- Constas et al (Food Security Information Network ): A common analytical model for resilience measurement
The Double Burden of Malnutrition
The double burden of malnutrition is characterized by the coexistence of undernutrition and obesity within a population. Our research discusses the inherent connection between undernutrition and overnutrition in low-income nations, evaluating the success of intervention efforts and policies.
In producing this research, Tulane faculty collaborated with colleagues from various universities in low- and middle-income countries, including the University of Cape Town, the University of Rwanda – Kigali, and Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas.
- Trirado et al: Mapping of nutrition and sectoral policies addressing malnutrition in Latin America
- Condo, Gage, Mock et al: Sex differences in nutritional status of HIV-exposed children in Rwanda: A longitudinal study
- Neumann, Oace, Chaparro et al: Low vitamin B12 intake during pregnancy and lactation and low breastmilk vitamin 12 content in rural Kenyan women consuming predominantly maize diets
- Mason et al: Iodine fortification is related to increased weight-for-age and birthweight in children in Asia
- Charlton and Rose: Nutrition among older adults in Africa: the situation at the beginning of the millenium
- Bertrand, Mock and Franklin: Differential Correlates of Nutritional Status in Kinshasa, Zaire
- Welch, Mock et al: Measuring hunger in the Russian Federation using the Radimer/Cornell hunger scale
- Shrimpton, Mbuya, Provo: The Double Burden of Malnutrition in East Asia and the Pacific: Evidence and Lessons from a Multisectoral Perspective
- Shrimpton and Rokz: The Double Burden of Malnutrition: A Global Review of the Evidence
- Chaparro and Estrada: Mapping the nutrition transition in Peru: evidence for decentralized nutrition policies
Maternal and Child Nutrition
Internationally, mothers and children face a unique set of nutritional issues. In these papers, we explore the potential causes and implications of these issues in regions ranging from Scandinavia to Eastern Africa. This collection of research spans infant feeding patterns, the relationship between maternal and child health, nutrition challenges beyond infancy and into childhood, and a handful of other related topics.
Much of research in this section was carried out alongside professionals from other universities and organizations, such as the Ministry of Health in Guinea, Michigan State University, Stockholm University, University of California – Los Angeles, University of Queensland, the Louisiana Department of Public Health, among others.
- Chaparro, Koupil, and Byberg: Maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and offspring body composition in young adulthood: The modifying role of offspring sex and birth order
- Chaparro et al: Childhood family structure and women’s adult overweight risk: a longitudinal study
- Chaparro, Ivarsson, and Koupil et al: Regional inequalities in pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity in Sweden, 1992, 2000 and 2010
- Chaparro and Koupil: The impact of parental educational trajectories on their adult offspring’s overweight/obesity status: a study of three generations of Swedish men and women
- Neumann, Oace, Chaparro et al: Low vitamin B12 intake during pregnancy and lactation and low breastmilk vitamin 12 content in rural Kenyan women consuming predominantly maize diets
- Rivers, Mason, Rose et al: The impact of orphanhood on food security in the high-HIV context of Blantyre, Malawi
- Hotchkiss, Mock, and Sieber: The effect of the health care supply environment on children's nutritional status in rural Nepal
- Welch, Mock et al: Health and nutrition in children under 2 years of age in three areas of the Russian Federation
- Rose et al: Infant mortality rates before, during, and after a nutrition and health intervention in rural Guatemalan villages
- Mock et al: Intra-household correlations in maternal-child nutritional status in rural Guinea: Implications for programme-screening strategies
- Mangani, Mock et al: Breast-feeding, water and sanitation, and childhood malnutrition in the Philippines
- Dikassa, Mock et al: Maternal Behavioural Risk Factors for Severe Childhood Diarrhoeal Disease in Kinshasa, Zaire
- Mock et al: The relationship between maternal and child nutritional status in rural Guinea
- Mock et al: Correlates and implications of breast-feeding practices in Bas Zaire
- Franklin, Bertrand and Mock el al: Feeding Patterns of Infants and Young Children in Kinshasa, Zaire
- Gussler and Mock: A comparative description of infant feeding practices in Zaire, the Philippines and St. Kitts‐Nevis
