Nutrition, Diets, and Health

Educational impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program in Mali

Effects of a large-scale alcohol ban on population-level alcohol intake, weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, and domestic violence in India: A quasi-experimental population-based study

Background Globally, alcohol consumption is a leading risk factor for deaths and disability and a causal factor in over 200 diseases, injuries, and health conditions. In April 2016, the manufacture, transport, sale, and consumption of alcohol was banned in Bihar, a populous Indian state. We sought to estimate the impacts of this ban on health outcomes and domestic violence. Methods Data from the Indian National Family Health Surveys (2005–06, 2015–16, 2019–21), Annual Health Survey (2013), and District Level Household Survey (2012), were used to conduct difference-in-differences (DID) analysis, comparing Bihar (n = 10,733 men, n = 88,188 women) and neighbouring states (n = 38,674 men, n = 284,820 women) before and after the ban. Outcomes included frequent (daily or weekly) alcohol consumption, underweight, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and intimate partner violence. A triple difference model adding male–female interaction to the DID model was also estimated. Attributable averted cases were calculated to estimate the impact of the ban. Findings Across all models, the ban led to reduced frequent alcohol consumption (DID: −7.1 percentage points (pp) (95% CI −9.6pp, −4.6pp), lower overweight/obesity (−5.6pp (−8.9, −2.2) among males, and reduced experiences of emotional (−4.8pp (−8.2pp, −1.4pp) and sexual (−5.5pp (−8.7pp, −2.3pp) violence among females. The ban prevented approximately 2.4 million cases of daily/weekly alcohol consumption and 1.8 million cases of overweight/obesity among males, and 2.1 million cases of intimate partner violence among females. Interpretation Strict alcohol regulation policies may yield significant population level health benefits for frequent drinkers and many victims of intimate partner violence.

Food security and social assistance in Sudan during armed conflict: Evidence from the first round of the Sudan Rural Household Survey (November 2023–January 2024)

The conflict in Sudan has severely impacted the food security landscape in rural areas, with profound implications for household diets, coping strategies, and overall food insecurity levels. Data from a national rural household phone survey conducted between October 2023 and January 2024 highlights the dire food consumption patterns, the prevalence of food insecurity, and the reliance on reduced coping strategies among the rural population of Sudan. As of the end of 2023, nearly 40 percent of rural households were consuming inadequate diets, with West Kordofan, South Kordofan, North Darfur, East Darfur, and Sennar states experiencing the highest prevalence of poor food consumption (34, 33, 29 and 24 percent, respectively). The primary components of diets were cereals and oils, with nutrient-rich foods, such as meats and fruits, consumed less frequently, highlighting a critical gap in nutritional adequacy. The situation has resulted in households across Sudan resorting to a range of coping strategies to try to meet their food needs, such as buying less preferred or less expensive food (on average 4 days out of 7), limiting portion sizes, or reducing the number of daily meals. The five coping mechanisms that were examined in the analysis were found to be implemented with approximately similar frequencies across rural Sudan. However, the situation was particularly dire in West Darfur, South Kordofan, and Khartoum, the states recording the highest prevalence of consumption of inadequate diets and the highest reduced Coping Strategy Index (rCSI) scores.