Zakari Ali

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Verified

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• PhD Nutritional Epidemiology (LSHTM)
• Research Fellow at MRC Unit the Gambia

Dietary modification has the potential to improve nutritional status and reduce environmental impacts of the food system. However, for many countries, the optimal composition of locally contextualized healthy and sustainable diets is unknown. The Gambia is vulnerable to climate-change-induced future water scarcity which may affect crop yields and t...

With rising demand for food and the threats posed by climate change, The Gambia faces significant challenges in ensuring sufficient and nutritious food for its population. To address these challenges, there is a need to increase domestic food production while limiting deforestation and land degradation. In this study, we modified the FABLE Calculat...

In common with many nations undergoing a nutrition transition, micronutrient deficiencies, undernutrition and overnutrition coexist in The Gambia. Addressing these challenges simultaneously would require transformational changes in the country's food system. However, the evidence base that would enable informed decision-making in the Gambian food s...

Facilitating dietary change is pivotal to improving population health, increasing food system resilience, and minimizing adverse impacts on the environment, but assessment of the current 'status-quo' and identification of bottlenecks for improvement has been lacking to date. We assessed deviation of the Gambian diet from the EAT-Lancet guidelines f...

Agriculture in West Africa faces the challenge of meeting the rising demand for food as national incomes and populations increase while production becomes more uncertain due to climate change. Crop production models can provide helpful information on agricultural yields under a range of climate change scenarios and on the impact of adaptation strat...

Executive summary Despite the initial hope inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is now dangerously close to breaching its target of limiting global multiyear mean heating to 1·5°C. Annual mean surface temperature reached a record high of 1·45°C above the pre-industrial baseline in 2023, and new temperature highs were recorded throughout...

Birth weight (BW) is commonly used as a benchmark for child health and growth. Low birth weight (LBW) is defined by the WHO as a BW of 2500g (2.5kg) (LBW). LBW has been identified as a risk factor for poor child health and has been linked to a variety of negative child health outcomes, including cognitive impairment and poor school performance. The...

Introduction Despite the gains on exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), recent nationwide surveys have consistently revealed a decline in EBF rates in Ghana. The World Food Programme implemented an intervention for Enhanced Nutrition and Value Chain (ENVAC) which was based on three pillars including pregnant women, lactating women, adolescent and children...

Undernutrition and food security have improved in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) over the last decades. However, food systems in LMICs are now more vulnerable to shocks such as climate change and disease outbreaks which threaten existing gains in nutrition. Diets are key drivers of food systems and nutrition and could be an essential entry...

Background: Middle childhood and adolescence are critical times for the growth, development, and establishment of healthy eating habits. The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region has been through economic and nutrition transitions over the past 20 years, which are likely to have affected the nutritional status of this group. Objective: This revie...

Purpose A lack of data, intervention studies, policies, and targets for nutrition in school-age children (SAC) and adolescents (5-19 years) is hampering progress towards tackling malnutrition. To stimulate and guide further research, this study generated a list of research priorities. Methods Using the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiativ...

Objective Height data is not useful immediately without further processing. The Growth Length Mat (Stunting Mat) was designed to stunting directly. However, the Mat has not been validated for use in Ghana. This study compared stunting measured with the Mat and stunting measured following the WHO recommended procedure. We sampled 163 children aged 6...

Identifying and assessing adaptation options are key pre-requisite steps to adaptation prioritization and effective adaptation planning. In this paper, we presented a systematic approach for adaptation stocktaking, combining a systematic mapping and an outcome-oriented and evidence-based assessment, illustrated using the case of The Gambia. This st...

Objectives We assessed deviation of the Gambian diet from the EAT-Lancet guidelines for healthy and sustainable diets and identified leverage points to improve nutritional and planetary health. Methods We performed secondary analyses using the recent Integrated Household Survey dataset comprising food consumption data from 12,713 households. Consu...

Background: Though low dietary diversity during pregnancy results in low nutrient intake and adverse pregnancy outcomes, information on dietary diversity and its associated factors among pregnant women in Ghana particularly Northern Ghana is scanty. This study therefore assessed dietary diversity and associated socio-demographic characteristics amo...

Background The coexistence of under- and overnutrition is of increasing public health concern in The Gambia. Fruits, vegetables and pulses are essential to healthy and sustainable diets, preventing micronutrient deficiencies and non-communicable diseases, while cereals significantly contribute to energy intake. However, environmental changes are pr...

Objective: Height data is not useful immediately without further processing. The Stunting mat was designed to stunting. However, the mat has not been validated for use in Ghana. This study compared stunting measured with the mat and stunting measured following the WHO recommended procedure. We sampled 163 children aged 6-24-m in the Bono region of...

Climate change and environmental degradation are among the greatest threats to human health. Youth campaigners have very effectively focused global attention on the crisis, however children from the Global South are often under-represented (sometimes deliberately) in the dialogue. In The Gambia, West Africa, the impacts of climate change are alread...

Objective To summarise available evidence on the nutritional status of school-age children and adolescents (5–19 years) from seven global regions, and on interventions implemented to improve malnutrition in this population. Design Findings were compiled from seven scoping literature reviews, including data from low- and middle-income countries (LM...

Data gaps in school-age children (SAC) and adolescent nutrition and health are a key constraint to advancing advocacy and tracking progress globally. The exclusion of SAC and adolescents, or having them included in wide age ranges together with adults in routine surveys, represents a significant missed opportunity in obtaining SAC and adolescent-sp...

Food security in Bangladesh has improved in recent years, but the country is now facing a double burden of malnutrition while also being highly vulnerable to climate change. Little is known about how this may affect food supply to different sectors of the population. To inform this, we used a national dietary survey of 800 rural households to defin...

Background Many nutrients have powerful immunomodulatory actions with the potential to alter susceptibility to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, progression to symptoms, likelihood of severe disease, and survival. Objective The aim was to review the latest evidence on how malnutrition across all its forms (under- and overnutrition and...

Adequate diet during pregnancy has positive effects on the mother and pregnancy outcome. Assessment of diet quality during pregnancy is particularly important in areas where household food security is suboptimal, to enable appropriate targeting and intervention. This study assessed diet quality and identified predicting factors among pregnant women...

Background Data on student experience of the clinical learning environment in Ghana are scarce. We therefore aimed to assess students’ evaluation of the clinical learning environment and the factors that influence their learning experience. Methods This was a cross-sectional survey of 225 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. We used the C...

This was a global stakeholder consultation on the priorities for adolescent nutrition. Published by ENN available at: https://www.ennonline.net/adolescentnutritionmappingstudy

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact health and livelihoods in West Africa. Exposure of food system fragilities by the pandemic presents the opportunity for regional-specific reforms to deliver healthy diets for all and promote resilience to future shocks.

Abstract Background Inadequate breastmilk production is one of the key factors associated with suboptimal breastfeeding. In most local African homes, special herbs and some food items are commonly used to promote breastmilk production (known as lactogogue/galactogogue). We describe the use and characterize the herbs and food items used to promote b...

Background School feeding offers an excellent opportunity for targeted intervention to students not only as means for improving educational outcomes but also enhancing nutritional outcomes. The Government of Ghana introduced the free lunch feeding policy for nonresidential students in senior high schools (SHS) in 2018. Objective We assessed uninte...

Background Many nutrients have powerful immunomodulatory actions with the potential to alter susceptibility to COVID-19 infection, progression to symptoms, likelihood of severe disease and survival. The pandemic has fostered many nutrition-related theories, sometimes backed by a biased interpretation of evidence. Objectives To provide a systematic...

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to identify locally relevant factors that predict low haemoglobin (Hb < 11.0g/dl) level of preschool children (6-23 months) in an impoverished area of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach-This study used a cross-sectional analysis of 278 mother-child pairs selected from households using random sampling techniques....

Background Inadequate breast milk production is one of the key factors associated with suboptimal breastfeeding. In most local African homes, special herbs and some food items are commonly used to promote breast milk production (known as lactogogue/galactogogue). We describe the use and characterize the herbs and food items used to promote breastmi...

Background: Inadequate breastmilk production is one of the key factors associated with suboptimal breastfeeding. In most local African homes, special herbs and some food items are commonly used to promote breastmilk production (known as lactogogue/galactogogue). We describe the use and characterize the herbs and food items used to promote breastmil...

Background: Inadequate breastmilk production is one of the key factors associated with suboptimal breastfeeding. In most local African homes, special herbs and some food items are commonly used to promote breastmilk production (known as lactogogue/galactogogue). We describe the use and characterize the herbs and food items used to promote breastmil...

Background Data on student experience of the clinical learning environment in Ghana are scarce. We therefore aimed to assess students’ evaluation of the clinical learning environment and the factors that influence their learning experience. Methods This was a cross-sectional survey of 225 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. We used the Cl...

Background: Data on student experience of the clinical learning environment in Ghana are scarce. We therefore aimed to assess students’ evaluation of the clinical learning environment and the factors that influence their learning experience. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of 225 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. We used the...

Background: Data on student experience of the clinical learning environment in Ghana are scarce. We therefore aimed to assess students’ evaluation of the clinical learning environment and the factors that influence their learning experience. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of 225 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students. We used the...

Background: Childhood anemia (hemoglobin <11.0g/dl) remains a key public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana. Anemia in early childhood has consequences on the cognitive development and growth of children. We determined the factors associated with hemoglobin (Hb) level of children 6-23 months of age in the Wa Municipality of Ghana....

Background The child health record booklet (CHRB) is a powerful tool for screening children under five and for education of caregivers by health workers. The objective of the present study was to assess the knowledge and utilization of CHRB by mothers and health workers in child growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) in the East Mamprusi Municipal,...

Abstract Background Assessment of single nutrients or foods does not normally reflect the diet of population groups. Dietary pattern analyses are useful in understanding the overall diet and its relationship with disease conditions. The objective of the present study was to determine the dietary patterns and associated factors among schooling adole...

Background: Adverse birth outcomes continue to be a global public health challenge, particularly in low resource settings. Therefore, the present study aimed at assessing maternal determinants of low birth weight and neonatal asphyxia in the Upper West region of Ghana. Methods: An analytical cross sectional survey was conducted among mothers who at...

Background Data on the effect of maternal daily work hours on child nutritional status is scarce in Ghana. Such data may be important in defining maternal employment policies for improved child nutrition. This study therefore sought to determine the effect of maternal daily work hours on the nutritional status of farmer and public service mothers i...

Abstract Background Ramadan is a monthlong fast for healthy adolescents and adult Muslims. The quality of foods eaten and eating patterns in Ramadan may be different from other months of the year. Food intake of adolescents is a concern as energy and nutrient requirements are higher and needed to support the growth spurt of this stage. The objectiv...

Abstract Background Undernutrition in children under 5 years is a major risk factor to child deaths and is related to impaired cognitive development and lower school performance. Underprivileged children such as orphans are at particularly high risk of undernutrition. Little is however known about the nutritional status and dietary diversity of orp...

Background: Typical complementary foods in developing countries are often inadequate in multiple micronutrients. One way of preventing micronutrient deficiency among infants and young children (IYC) is to feed them a variety of nutrient dense foods. The use of commercial infant cereals (CIC) as complementary food is increasing in Ghana. However, i...

Abstract Background Undernutrition among preschool children in Northern region is the highest in Ghana. However, there is scarcity of data on the factors that determine undernutrition in these children. This study investigated the effect of maternal and child factors on undernutrition among preschool children in Northern Ghana. Methods This study w...