This study aimed to provide a structured description of the commonalities and differences in healthcare structures across Africa to establish a reliable basis for the health technology assessment (HTA) of nutrition and nutrition interventions. A ranking of current nutrition conditions in the general population of the participating countries was included to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing hospital malnutrition (HMN), which will inform future multi-country research.

A questionnaire on the structure of the health systems was distributed among ten African countries. Subsections were included that inquired about the drivers or barriers to using principles of HTA to assess nutritional care. Analysis and ranking of malnutrition data were based on data from the Global Hunger Index report and two poverty indicators used by the World Bank.

The health system structure of each country was identified and described, whereas questions about HTA could not always be analyzed due to a lack of adequate in-depth knowledge and skills in most countries. Early experience from some countries demonstrates a conceivable route ahead for African countries in strengthening the capacity for and implementing HTA in accordance with distinct national healthcare contexts and social determinants of health.

Problems related to nutritional care represent one of the major priorities in the surveyed countries. A future HMN multi-country study will provide valuable insight into the potential of low-cost primary prevention orientations.

To examine the literature and identify main themes, methods and results of studies concerning food and nutrition addressed in research on transgender populations.

A systematic review conducted through July 2020 in the MedLine/PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Of the 778 studies identified in the databases, we selected thirty-seven. The studies were recent, most of them published after 2015, being produced in Global North countries. The most often used study design was cross-sectional; the least frequently used study design was ethnographic. Body image and weight control were predominant themes (n 25), followed by food and nutrition security (n 5), nutritional status (n 5), nutritional health assistance (n 1) and emic visions of healthy eating (n 1).

The transgender community presents body, food and nutritional relationships traversed by its unique gender experience, which challenges dietary and nutritional recommendations based on the traditional division by sex (male and female). We need to complete the lacking research and understand contexts in the Global South, strategically investing in exploratory-ethnographic research, to develop categories of analysis and recommendations that consider the transgender experience.

To explore district nurses and general practitioners (GPs) interaction in a case seminar when discussing nutritional care for patients in palliative phases cared for at home and to construct a theoretical model illuminating the professionals’ main concern.

Nutritional care for people who are frail and older requires collaboration between nurses and physicians in primary health care. However, both collaboration and knowledge need to be improved, and there is a lack of continuing interprofessional education to meet these needs. We therefore developed an interprofessional educational intervention about nutritional care for patients in palliative phases of disease that was adapted to primary home health care and ended with a case seminar. The case seminar discussions gave us the opportunity to study micro-level interactions between district nurses and GPs in a learning context.

Grounded theory method was used to construct a theoretical model of the interactions between district nurses and GPs as they discussed an authentic case.

A substantive grounded theory that illuminates how district nurses and GPs interacted, negotiating responsibility for nutritional care for patients in palliative phases cared for at home. The theory is described in a tentative theoretical model that delineates factors that facilitate interprofessional dialogue and lead to interprofessional learning, or block such dialogue and learning. The theoretical model illuminates the importance of a distinction between uniprofessional and interprofessional dialogue in interprofessional educational interventions. It suggests that interprofessional learning was generated directly from the interaction between district nurses and GPs in the case seminar discussions. The model can be used to promote better teamwork and collaboration in caring; for example, as a basis for reflection in collaborative and interprofessional learning interventions and as a tool for facilitators and teachers.

To evaluate the inclusion and exclusion of nutritional content in guidance materials related to nutritional care for hospitalised Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) patients of any age with the aim to provide recommendations for future revised nutritional care guidelines in Ebola Treatment Units (ETU).

Qualitative and quantitative analyses of ETU protocols and other guidance materials were conducted. Materials were obtained from practitioners, their organisations and governments active in EVD outbreaks since 2014.

Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Guidance materials showed a wide variety of topics. Most contained information on different feeding phases during illness, the use of specialised products, what and how to feed children aged 0–23 months, and meal and snack frequency for different age groups. Most materials lacked guidance on how to assess or accommodate patients’ dietary preferences, how to obtain feedback on nutritional care from patients or how to assess whether patients need feeding support. These aspects are particularly relevant to prevent deterioration of the patients’ nutritional status. There was limited guidance on operational aspects of food preparation and provision.

Since 2014, numerous materials have been developed by organisations and governments on nutritional support in ETU. Although every EVD outbreak response must be contextualised because of the complexity of EVD and its case management, it is important to resolve technical differences and to provide comprehensive and more practical guidance. The findings of this study may inform future revised guidelines from normative UN organisations and governments of countries affected by EVD.

The aim of this study was to evaluate district nurses’ (DN) perceived nutritional care and actual level of knowledge about nutritional care before and after a continuing educational intervention.

Nutritional treatment is an important part of nursing care, and health professionals responsible for nutritional care for older adults must therefore have sufficient understanding of nutritional problems to provide appropriate support. Previous research has shown that nutritional problems frequently go unrecognized and that health care personnel often lacks knowledge about nutritional care and relevant methods of assessing nutritional status. However, little is known about DNs’ knowledge about nutritional care.

An evaluative study with a study-specific questionnaire administered before and after a 2.5-day continuing educational course for DNs in primary health care in Stockholm County, Sweden. The course was given over a period of two to three months. The questionnaire measured DNs’ perceived nutritional care and actual level of knowledge about nutritional care.

A total of 456 DNs completed the questionnaire both before and after the intervention. Participants’ mean age was 50 years. They had worked a mean of 26 years in health care and 10 years as DNs. Before the intervention, many DNs reported that they did not work with nutritional care in an optimal way. After the intervention, significant improvements were found in perceived nutritional care and actual level of knowledge about the topic. However, not all DNs achieved the learning objectives of the course, so work remains to be done to ensure that DNs have sufficient knowledge of nutritional care to provide appropriate support and correctly prescribe oral nutritional supplements.

The study provides new information on DNs’ perceived nutritional care and actual level of knowledge. The result of the intervention helps lay the foundation for good nutritional care for older patients in primary care.