FITNESS AND FATNESS IN GREEK ADOLESCENTS

A recent spike in adult mortality rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) in Greece led researchers to investigate the association between CHD risk factors and lifestyle parameters in Greek children. After examining fitness, fatness, fat intake, and physical activity in over 200 children, and comparing with several primary CHD risk factors, they found that the presence of such factors depended mainly on the level of physical activity and were independent of the other lifestyle covariates. The authors warn that physical activity has to be increased in early life if adult CHD mortality rates are to be reduced. (

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MALNUTRITION GUIDELINES NEED IMPROVEMENT

Current WHO guidelines for health workers in developing countries need further improvement if malnourished children are to be correctly and consistently identified. Nurses in a hospital in the Gambia were trained to identify severe protein-energy malnutrition using the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) algorithm. Their findings were then compared with those of a trained observer, and the results showed that the nurses identified only half of the children who had severe malnutrition, and incorrectly identified several more as having the disorder. The …