Arash Rashidi

In-school Snacking, Breakfast Consumption, and Sleeping Patterns of Normal and Overweight Iranian High School Girls: A Study in Urban and Rural Areas in Guilan, Iran

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship of snacking during school hours, sleep time, and breakfast consumption by weight status of Iranian high school girls in urban and rural areas in Guilan Province, Iran. DESIGN Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire and measure of body weight and height. SETTING High schools in urban and rural areas in Guilan Province, northern Iran. PARTICIPANTS Representative sample of 2302 school girls (1106 in Rasht City and 1196 in rural areas) selected by multistage cluster sampling. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Breakfast skipping, snacking habits at school, sleep habits, body weight, and height. ANALYSIS Differences in the frequency of the measured variables between the urban and rural girls and overweight and normal weight girls were tested using the chi-square test, P < .05. RESULTS Prevalence of obesity was significantly (P < .05) lower in urban areas (4.1%) than in rural areas (5.2%). Prevalence of overweight was significantly higher in those who usually skipped breakfast (P < .001). Consumption of food items of low nutrient density as snacks during the school day was common in this population, especially in rural areas. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS The school environment may contribute to the high prevalence of overweight/obesity observed among Iranian adolescent females. Students should be encouraged to eat breakfast and choose nutritious snacks during the school day.

Obese and female adolescents skip breakfast more than their non-obese and male peers

We examined the association between overweight/gender and skipping breakfast among adolescent students in Tehran city using a cross-sectional study and a multistage random sampling method. All educational zones in Tehran city were covered during the educational year of 2000–01. In total, 2321 students aged 11–16 years (1068 male; 1263 female) participated in the study. Weight and height were measured and body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) was calculated. Overweight, pre-obesity and obesity were defined as BMI ≥ 85th, 85th to 95th, and ≥ 95th percentile of age-sex-specific BMI reference values, respectively. Self-reported frequency of breakfast consumption was categorized as usual/always, often, and rarely/never (5–7, 2–4 and 0–1 times/wk, respectively). Student’s t and Chi-square tests were employed to analyze the data. Statistical inferences were made at α = 0.05. In boys and girls, the mean ± standard deviation of BMI was 19.8 ± 4.0 and 20.6 ± 4.1 kg/m2, the 18.8% and 23.1% were overweight, and 7.3% and 8.3% were obese, respectively. There was a significant difference in the frequency of breakfast consumption between obese and normal male students (P < 0.001). Differences between pre-obese and normal, and obese and normal female students were also significant (P < 0.002 and P < 0.001, respectively). A significant difference was found in the frequency of breakfast consumption between male and female adolescents in all three categories (P < 0.001). These results suggest that obese and female adolescents are more likely to skip breakfast than their normal and male peers and are therefore at higher risk for growth deficits and low educational performance. Preventive/educational programs are urgently needed in this age group.

Assessing the most-in-need leadership skills among community nutrition managers: A qualitative exercise in Iranian health system

Abstract Community nutrition is a multi-disciplinary and inter-sector branch of nutrition sciences, which significantly relies on multi-stakeholder understanding, collaboration, and action. In most countries, community nutrition professionals operate within the larger governmental health system. Therefore, community nutrition managers are not only supposed to fulfill their responsibilities within the health system, but also advocate, coordinate, and supervise for multi-disciplinary initiatives and activities. The diverse set of responsibilities and tasks requires high levels of commitment (confidence and motivation) and leadership skills, besides technical competencies, among the target group. In this study, leadership requirements and most-in-need capacity building necessities of community nutrition managers were derived from analyses of their latest role statements and semi-structured interviews, made with four senior health policy leaders (key informants). Analysis of the role statement showed necessity of almost every leadership skill for the fulfillment of responsibilities. Similar leadership requirements emerged from key informant interviews. The interviews also revealed that commitment and a number of leadership competencies, such as effective communication and team working skills, are highly in need, and must seriously be considered. Meanwhile, these skills are mainly in the inter-personal and organizational leadership domains. This study may argue, therefore, that aspects of self-leadership competencies, described as mental models and personal mastery elements by Senge, are somewhat masked by other aspects of leadership. According to the key informants, leadership competencies could be developed and flow in the system through organizing training courses for human resource professionals, as well as accurate selection of candidates for managerial positions and facilitating on-the-job experiencing.

Nutrition Leadership Development: Capacity-Building Initiatives in Iran and the Middle-East Region Since 2009.

Personal and organizational performance is determined by commitment and both technical and general competencies, including leadership skills. Academia, however, mainly targets technical aspects in its curricular programs. On the other hand, the inter-disciplinary and multi-sector nature of Nutrition necessitates high levels of collaboration between stakeholders. Leadership development is therefore required in Nutrition. This paper describes the endeavor made in Iran and the Middle-East region, aiming at building leadership capacity among nutrition professionals. The empowered human resource is expected to facilitate nutrition security at the national and regional levels. Since 2007, the development process of the initiative has begun through research, bench marking, and consultation. The “learning organizations,” “leadership from inside-out,” and “transformational leadership” frameworks have been employed as underpinning theories. Main topics have been self-awareness, effective communication, shared visioning, trust building, creativity, and motivating. Outbound team-building activities and coaching have also been included. The first workshop of the Iranian Food and Nutrition Leadership Program was held in 2009 in Tehran. The experience expanded to the region as the Middle-East Nutrition Leadership Program (MENLP). The Ph.D. Nutrition programs (at four leading Universities) and Iranian Nutrition Society have been taken as other opportunity windows to develop leadership competencies. Biannual Iranian nutrition congresses have been used as the main media for advocacy purposes. High-satisfaction rates obtained following each training activity. In short, the initiative on “nutrition leadership development” has received growing investment and positive feedback in Iran. Continuous improvement of the initiative, establishment of active alumni networks, building MENLP regional platform, and integrating a monitoring and evaluation system are required to increase the investment returns.