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Technical University of Munich

NUTRINT

Title: Reducing Nutrition-related Noncommunicable Diseases in Adolescence and Youth: Interventions and Policies to Boost Nutrition Fluency and Diet Quality in Africa 

Funding Body: EU Horizon Europe

Funding Period: 2023-2026

Partners: 

  • Africa Academy for Public Health (Tanzania)
  • Addis Continental Institute of Public Health (Ethiopia)
  • Center for Health, Exercise and Sport Sciences (Serbia)
  • Charité Berlin (Germany)
  • Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam (Netherlands)
  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (US)
  • Heidelberg University – Heidelberg Institute of Global health (Germany)
  • IESE Business School, Universidad de Navarra (Spain)
  • Nouna Health Research Centre (Burkina Faso)
  • Makerere University School of Public Health (Uganda)
  • University of Dodoma (Tanzania)
  • University of Ghana (Ghana)
  • University of Ibadan Research Foundation (Nigeria)
  • University of KwaZulu-Natal Collage of Health Sciences (South Africa)

Objectives:

  • The overall objective of NUTRINT is to establish a global alliance to prevent and reduce nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases among adolescence and youth in Africa through improving nutrition literacy and fluency and providing critical policy information and tools to scale and sustain interventions and policies to support adolescents in healthy food consumption and lives. As part of the project, we will assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of prioritized interventions and policies.

Background:

  • Ninety percent of the world’s 1.2 billion young people between 10 and 24 years of age live in low- and middle-income countries. Compared to other population groups, adolescents have been increasingly burdened with high and increasing rates of undernutrition, diet-related obesity, and non-communicable diseases. Thus, developing healthy nutrition behaviors in childhood may help to prevent malnutrition and chronic, long-term health issues such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. 

Methods: 

  • A key component of the project comprises the utilization and extension of existing Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in partner countries to efficiently collect longitudinal health data on adolescents. Partners will also conduct extensive intervention and policy research, which will involve the design of novel interventions using participatory design methods, the conduct impact evaluations using randomized trials and quasi-experimental studies embedded within the HDSS data collection activities, as well as the conduct of mixed-methods performance evaluation and economic evaluation.

Impact:

  • The outcome of the project will include a better understanding of youth diet and nutrition and physical activity-related risks of non-communicable diseases in seven countries in SSA. It will also strengthen the evidence base related to the implementation of interventions that promote healthy behaviors among adolescents and youth, long-term costs-and effects and impact of these interventions, and the factors that lead to their adoption, scale up and sustainment.

Webpage: https://www.arisenutrint.eu/

Contact: Dr. Jacob Burns 

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