Stephen A Vosti
Biographic Data
| ID | 1734014 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen A Vosti |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen A |
| FAMILY NAME | Vosti |
| SIGNATURE | VOSTI S A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Davis |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8928-5396 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 102 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Impacts of Vitamin A Degradation on the Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Vitamin A Fortification Programs: Modeled Evidence for Preschool Children in Nigeria
Dietary vitamin A inadequacy remains a serious public health problem, especially among young children. Food and condiment fortification programs and policies are in place in many countries to address this issue, but degradation of the vitamin A added via fortification can reduce the quantity of vitamin A reaching consumers. We modeled the impacts of vitamin A degradation on program effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in fortified wheat flour, su…
Development and psychometric validation of a questionnaire assessing perception and acceptance of micronutrient-fortified bouillon cubes among non-index household members aged ≥ 15 years in northern G…
Micronutrient deficiencies remain a major public health issue in West Africa, contributing to anaemia, impaired cognitive development, and increased infection risk. Bouillon cubes, widely consumed in the region, offer a culturally appropriate means of micronutrient delivery. However, no validated instrument exists to assess the psychosocial and behavioural factors influencing household acceptance of fortified bouillon cubes. This study aimed to d…
Consumption of Selected Healthy and Unhealthy Food Groups and Associations With Nutritional Status Among Children 2–5 Years of Age in Northern Ghana
Poor diet quality may contribute to the multiple forms of malnutrition among children in Ghana. This cross-sectional study (1) described the prevalence and frequency of consumption of fruits, vegetables, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), salty snacks and sweet snacks among children 2-5 years in northern Ghana; (2) identified factors associated with consumption; and (3) examined relationships between consumption and nutritional status. Households w…
A United Family Prospers: Intrahousehold Economic Discord, Household Income and Child Growth in Burkina Faso
Estimating the cost and cost‐effectiveness of adding zinc to, and improving the performance of, Burkina Faso's mandatory wheat flour fortification programme
Zinc is an essential micronutrient that promotes normal growth, development and immune function. In the context of persistent dietary zinc inadequacies, large-scale food fortification can help fill the gap between intake and requirements. Burkina Faso mandates wheat flour fortification with iron and folic acid. We used activity-based cost modelling to estimate the cost of adding zinc to the country's wheat flour fortification standard assuming (1…
The cost-effectiveness of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements for prevention of child death and malnutrition and promotion of healthy development: Modelling results for Uganda
Objective: Recent meta-analyses demonstrate that small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) for young children significantly reduce child mortality, stunting, wasting, anaemia and adverse developmental outcomes. Cost considerations should inform policy decisions. We developed a modelling framework to estimate the cost and cost-effectiveness of SQ-LNS and applied the framework in the context of rural Uganda. Design: We adapted costs …
Association between prenatal provision of lipid‐based nutrient supplements and caesarean delivery: Findings from a randomised controlled trial in Malawi
In populations with a high prevalence of childhood and adolescent undernutrition, supplementation during pregnancy aiming at improving maternal nutritional status and preventing fetal growth restriction might theoretically lead to cephalopelvic disproportion and delivery complications. We investigated whether the prenatal provision of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) was associated with an increased risk of caesarean secti…
Effect of religion on the risk behaviour of rural Ghanaian women: Evidence from a controlled field experiment
Religious doctrines may guide individual attitudes and preferences, including risk behaviour among others. We estimate the effect of religion on the willingness to take risk amongst 1209 rural women in Ghana, and observe that, whereas religious affiliation influences the decision to engage in risk, it does not in any way influence the level of risk taking thereafter. Specifically, we find that relative to the non-religious, religious affiliation …
Early Childhood Nutrition, Parental Growth Perceptions and Educational Aspirations in Rural Burkina Faso
Early childhood nutrition can have long-term impacts on human capital outcomes. Besides direct biological effects, parents’ perceptions of exogenous nutrition shocksimpacts and their adjustments in subsequent investments, can amplify these direct effects on long-run outcomes. Understanding and anticipating parental perceptions and responses can improve the design of policies aimed at improving child nutrition. Using a randomised trial providing n…
Ghanaian parents' perceptions of pre and postnatal nutrient supplements and their effects
Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) have been studied in efficacy and effectiveness trials, but little is known about how parents perceive the products and their effects. In a randomised trial in Ghana, efficacy of SQ-LNS provided to women during pregnancy and the first 6 months postpartum and to their children from 6 to 18 months of age was assessed by comparison with iron-folic acid (IFA) capsules and multiple micronutrient…
Unintended effects of a targeted maternal and child nutrition intervention on household expenditures, labor income, and the nutritional status of non-targeted siblings in Ghana
It is common for health and nutrition interventions to target specific household members and for evaluations of their effects to focus exclusively on those members. However, if a targeted intervention changes a household's utility maximization problem or influences decision-making, households might respond to the intervention in unintended ways with the potential to affect the wellbeing of non-targeted members. Using panel data from a randomized …
Program changes are effective and cost‐effective in increasing the amount of oil used in preparing corn soy blend porridge for treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Malawi
Corn Soy Blend (CSB) porridge is commonly prepared with oil for treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). A recent review recommended that 30 g of oil be used with 100 g of CSB to increase energy density and micronutrient absorption. This study assessed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of program changes aimed at achieving that target oil:CSB ratio in prepared porridge. Caregivers of children in MAM supplementary feeding programs we…
Willingness to pay for small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements for women and children: Evidence from Ghana and Malawi
Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) are designed to enrich maternal and child diets with the objective of preventing undernutrition during the first 1,000 days. Scaling up the delivery of supplements such as SQ-LNS hinges on understanding private demand and creatively leveraging policy-relevant factors that might influence demand. We used longitudinal stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) data from contingent valuation studies that…
Eating down or simply eating less? The diet and health implications of these practices during pregnancy and postpartum in rural Bangladesh
Objective To: (i) determine the prevalence of self-reported eating less and eating down during early and late pregnancy and postpartum, and explore risk factors associated with eating less; (ii) examine the association between eating less and diet quality; and (iii) determine the association between eating less and weight gain during pregnancy. Design Data were collected longitudinally from a cohort of women participating in a community health pr…
Adherence to recommendations on lipid‐based nutrient supplement and iron and folic acid tablet consumption among pregnant and lactating women participating in a community health programme in northwest…
Limited knowledge exists on sustained adherence to small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements for pregnant and lactating women (LNS-PL) and how this compares with that of other prenatal supplements. To address these gaps, a random subsample of women (n = 360) during pregnancy, early (6- to 12-week post-partum) and late (12- to 24-week post-partum) lactation, from an ongoing effectiveness trial in Bangladesh, was selected for in-home intervie…
Acceptability of locally produced ready‐to‐use therapeutic foods in Ethiopia, Ghana, Pakistan and India
Successful treatment of severe acute malnutrition has been achieved with ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), but only 15% of children with severe acute malnutrition receive RUTF. The objective of this study was to determine whether new formulations of RUTF produced using locally available ingredients were acceptable to young children in Ethiopia, Ghana, Pakistan and India. The local RUTFs were formulated using a linear programming tool that all…
Maternal plasma cholesterol and duration of pregnancy: A prospective cohort study in Ghana
Low plasma cholesterol may be associated with preterm birth; however, results are mixed and limited primarily to high-income countries. Our objective was to determine whether maternal plasma lipid concentrations are associated with pregnancy duration. We performed a nested cohort (n = 320) study of pregnant Ghanaian women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. Total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipopr…
Impact of small quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements on infant and young child feeding practices at 18 months of age: Results from four randomized controlled trials in Africa
Optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices can help ensure nutrient adequacy and support healthy growth and development. Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) have been proposed to help fill nutrient gaps, but little is known about the impact of provision of SQ-LNS on breastfeeding or complementary feeding practices. In the context of four coordinated randomized controlled nutrient supplementation trials in diverse…
Impact of small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplement on hemoglobin, iron status and biomarkers of inflammation in pregnant Ghanaian women
We examined hemoglobin (Hb, g/L), iron status (zinc protoporphyrin, ZPP, μmol/mol heme, and transferrin receptor, TfR, mg/L) and inflammation (C-reactive protein, CRP and alpha-1 glycoprotein, AGP) in pregnant Ghanaian women who participated in a randomized controlled trial. Women (n = 1320) received either 60 mg Fe + 400-μg folic acid (IFA); 18 micronutrients including 20-mg Fe (MMN) or small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS, 11…
The effect of providing lipid-based nutrient supplements on morbidity in rural Malawian infants and young children: A randomized controlled trial
Objective Safety of home fortificants in children is uncertain in areas where infections are common. We tested the hypothesis that provision of lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) containing Fe does not increase infectious morbidity in children. Design Randomized controlled trial. Infants were randomised to receive 10, 20 or 40 g LNS/d; or no supplement until age 18 months. All LNS contained 6 mg Fe/d. Morbidity outcomes (serious adverse event…
Nutrient supplementation may adversely affect maternal oral health – a randomised controlled trial in rural M alawi
Nutritional supplementation during pregnancy is increasingly recommended especially in low-resource settings, but its oral health impacts have not been studied. Our aim was to examine whether supplementation with multiple micronutrients (MMN) or small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements affects dental caries development or periodontal health in a rural Malawian population. The study was embedded in a controlled iLiNS-DYAD trial that enrolle…
Babies, soft drinks and snacks: A concern in low‐ and middle‐income countries
Undernutrition in infants and young children is a global health priority while overweight is an emerging issue. Small-scale studies in low- and middle-income countries have demonstrated consumption of sugary and savoury snack foods and soft drinks by young children. We assessed the proportion of children 6-23 months of age consuming sugary snack foods in 18 countries in Asia and Africa using data from selected Demographic and Health Surveys and h…
Comparison of methods to assess adherence to small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements ( SQ ‐ LNS ) and dispersible tablets among young B urkinabé children participating in a community‐based int…
Adherence to supplementation provided during an intervention trial can affect interpretation of study outcomes. We compared different approaches for estimating adherence to small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) and dispersible tablets in a randomised clinical trial in Burkina Faso. A total of 2435 children (9-18 months) were randomly assigned to receive daily 20 g SQ-LNS with varying contents of zinc and a dispersible tablet co…
A parsimonious crop‐water productivity index: An application to Brazil
Reducing poverty in rural areas of developing countries requires sustained and sustainable increases in agricultural water productivity. However, aside from traditional measures of precipitation, little is known about water available to farmers or how productively they use it. We present a crop‐water productivity index (a ratio of the value of annual crop production to a dimensionless potential water availability index) for large water basins usi…
Farm subsidies and obesity in the United States: National evidence and international comparisons
Links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries: Asset categories and investment poverty
Rights to Forest Products, Deforestation and Smallholder Income: Evidence from the Western Brazilian Amazon
Unintended effects of a targeted maternal and child nutrition intervention on household expenditures, labor income, and the nutritional status of non-targeted siblings in Ghana
It is common for health and nutrition interventions to target specific household members and for evaluations of their effects to focus exclusively on those members. However, if a targeted intervention changes a household's utility maximization problem or influences decision-making, households might respond to the intervention in unintended ways with the potential to affect the wellbeing of non-targeted members. Using panel data from a randomized …
Likely effects on obesity from proposed changes to the US food stamp program
Effect of religion on the risk behaviour of rural Ghanaian women: Evidence from a controlled field experiment
Religious doctrines may guide individual attitudes and preferences, including risk behaviour among others. We estimate the effect of religion on the willingness to take risk amongst 1209 rural women in Ghana, and observe that, whereas religious affiliation influences the decision to engage in risk, it does not in any way influence the level of risk taking thereafter. Specifically, we find that relative to the non-religious, religious affiliation …
Farm subsidies and obesity in the United States: National evidence and international comparisons
Malaria among gold miners in Southern Pará, Brazil: Estimates of determinants and individual costs
Malaria among gold miners in Southern Pará, Brazil: Estimates of determinants and individual costs
Links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries: Asset categories and investment poverty
Sustainability, Growth, and Poverty Alleviation: A Policy and Agroecological Perspective
Developing countries are under pressure to produce more food for their growing populations, conserve natural resources, and reduce poverty. In the short term, however, these goals may compete with one another. This book focuses on the interactions between agricultural growth and environment and between environment and poverty. The chapters analyze and illustrate these interactions with case study evidence from the developing world in general and …
Rights to Forest Products, Deforestation and Smallholder Income: Evidence from the Western Brazilian Amazon
Ecosystem services, agriculture, and rural poverty in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon: Interrelationships and policy prescriptions
Farm subsidies and obesity in the United States: National evidence and international comparisons
Likely effects on obesity from proposed changes to the US food stamp program
A parsimonious crop‐water productivity index: An application to Brazil
Reducing poverty in rural areas of developing countries requires sustained and sustainable increases in agricultural water productivity. However, aside from traditional measures of precipitation, little is known about water available to farmers or how productively they use it. We present a crop‐water productivity index (a ratio of the value of annual crop production to a dimensionless potential water availability index) for large water basins usi…
Babies, soft drinks and snacks: A concern in low‐ and middle‐income countries
Undernutrition in infants and young children is a global health priority while overweight is an emerging issue. Small-scale studies in low- and middle-income countries have demonstrated consumption of sugary and savoury snack foods and soft drinks by young children. We assessed the proportion of children 6-23 months of age consuming sugary snack foods in 18 countries in Asia and Africa using data from selected Demographic and Health Surveys and h…
Comparison of methods to assess adherence to small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements ( SQ ‐ LNS ) and dispersible tablets among young B urkinabé children participating in a community‐based int…
Adherence to supplementation provided during an intervention trial can affect interpretation of study outcomes. We compared different approaches for estimating adherence to small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) and dispersible tablets in a randomised clinical trial in Burkina Faso. A total of 2435 children (9-18 months) were randomly assigned to receive daily 20 g SQ-LNS with varying contents of zinc and a dispersible tablet co…
Nutrient supplementation may adversely affect maternal oral health – a randomised controlled trial in rural M alawi
Nutritional supplementation during pregnancy is increasingly recommended especially in low-resource settings, but its oral health impacts have not been studied. Our aim was to examine whether supplementation with multiple micronutrients (MMN) or small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements affects dental caries development or periodontal health in a rural Malawian population. The study was embedded in a controlled iLiNS-DYAD trial that enrolle…
Adherence to recommendations on lipid‐based nutrient supplement and iron and folic acid tablet consumption among pregnant and lactating women participating in a community health programme in northwest…
Limited knowledge exists on sustained adherence to small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements for pregnant and lactating women (LNS-PL) and how this compares with that of other prenatal supplements. To address these gaps, a random subsample of women (n = 360) during pregnancy, early (6- to 12-week post-partum) and late (12- to 24-week post-partum) lactation, from an ongoing effectiveness trial in Bangladesh, was selected for in-home intervie…
Acceptability of locally produced ready‐to‐use therapeutic foods in Ethiopia, Ghana, Pakistan and India
Successful treatment of severe acute malnutrition has been achieved with ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), but only 15% of children with severe acute malnutrition receive RUTF. The objective of this study was to determine whether new formulations of RUTF produced using locally available ingredients were acceptable to young children in Ethiopia, Ghana, Pakistan and India. The local RUTFs were formulated using a linear programming tool that all…
Maternal plasma cholesterol and duration of pregnancy: A prospective cohort study in Ghana
Low plasma cholesterol may be associated with preterm birth; however, results are mixed and limited primarily to high-income countries. Our objective was to determine whether maternal plasma lipid concentrations are associated with pregnancy duration. We performed a nested cohort (n = 320) study of pregnant Ghanaian women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. Total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipopr…
Impact of small quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements on infant and young child feeding practices at 18 months of age: Results from four randomized controlled trials in Africa
Optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices can help ensure nutrient adequacy and support healthy growth and development. Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) have been proposed to help fill nutrient gaps, but little is known about the impact of provision of SQ-LNS on breastfeeding or complementary feeding practices. In the context of four coordinated randomized controlled nutrient supplementation trials in diverse…
Impact of small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplement on hemoglobin, iron status and biomarkers of inflammation in pregnant Ghanaian women
We examined hemoglobin (Hb, g/L), iron status (zinc protoporphyrin, ZPP, μmol/mol heme, and transferrin receptor, TfR, mg/L) and inflammation (C-reactive protein, CRP and alpha-1 glycoprotein, AGP) in pregnant Ghanaian women who participated in a randomized controlled trial. Women (n = 1320) received either 60 mg Fe + 400-μg folic acid (IFA); 18 micronutrients including 20-mg Fe (MMN) or small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS, 11…
The effect of providing lipid-based nutrient supplements on morbidity in rural Malawian infants and young children: A randomized controlled trial
Objective Safety of home fortificants in children is uncertain in areas where infections are common. We tested the hypothesis that provision of lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) containing Fe does not increase infectious morbidity in children. Design Randomized controlled trial. Infants were randomised to receive 10, 20 or 40 g LNS/d; or no supplement until age 18 months. All LNS contained 6 mg Fe/d. Morbidity outcomes (serious adverse event…
Program changes are effective and cost‐effective in increasing the amount of oil used in preparing corn soy blend porridge for treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in Malawi
Corn Soy Blend (CSB) porridge is commonly prepared with oil for treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). A recent review recommended that 30 g of oil be used with 100 g of CSB to increase energy density and micronutrient absorption. This study assessed the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of program changes aimed at achieving that target oil:CSB ratio in prepared porridge. Caregivers of children in MAM supplementary feeding programs we…
Willingness to pay for small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplements for women and children: Evidence from Ghana and Malawi
Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) are designed to enrich maternal and child diets with the objective of preventing undernutrition during the first 1,000 days. Scaling up the delivery of supplements such as SQ-LNS hinges on understanding private demand and creatively leveraging policy-relevant factors that might influence demand. We used longitudinal stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) data from contingent valuation studies that…
Eating down or simply eating less? The diet and health implications of these practices during pregnancy and postpartum in rural Bangladesh
Objective To: (i) determine the prevalence of self-reported eating less and eating down during early and late pregnancy and postpartum, and explore risk factors associated with eating less; (ii) examine the association between eating less and diet quality; and (iii) determine the association between eating less and weight gain during pregnancy. Design Data were collected longitudinally from a cohort of women participating in a community health pr…
Ghanaian parents' perceptions of pre and postnatal nutrient supplements and their effects
Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) have been studied in efficacy and effectiveness trials, but little is known about how parents perceive the products and their effects. In a randomised trial in Ghana, efficacy of SQ-LNS provided to women during pregnancy and the first 6 months postpartum and to their children from 6 to 18 months of age was assessed by comparison with iron-folic acid (IFA) capsules and multiple micronutrient…
Unintended effects of a targeted maternal and child nutrition intervention on household expenditures, labor income, and the nutritional status of non-targeted siblings in Ghana
It is common for health and nutrition interventions to target specific household members and for evaluations of their effects to focus exclusively on those members. However, if a targeted intervention changes a household's utility maximization problem or influences decision-making, households might respond to the intervention in unintended ways with the potential to affect the wellbeing of non-targeted members. Using panel data from a randomized …
Early Childhood Nutrition, Parental Growth Perceptions and Educational Aspirations in Rural Burkina Faso
Early childhood nutrition can have long-term impacts on human capital outcomes. Besides direct biological effects, parents’ perceptions of exogenous nutrition shocksimpacts and their adjustments in subsequent investments, can amplify these direct effects on long-run outcomes. Understanding and anticipating parental perceptions and responses can improve the design of policies aimed at improving child nutrition. Using a randomised trial providing n…
Association between prenatal provision of lipid‐based nutrient supplements and caesarean delivery: Findings from a randomised controlled trial in Malawi
In populations with a high prevalence of childhood and adolescent undernutrition, supplementation during pregnancy aiming at improving maternal nutritional status and preventing fetal growth restriction might theoretically lead to cephalopelvic disproportion and delivery complications. We investigated whether the prenatal provision of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) was associated with an increased risk of caesarean secti…
Effect of religion on the risk behaviour of rural Ghanaian women: Evidence from a controlled field experiment
Religious doctrines may guide individual attitudes and preferences, including risk behaviour among others. We estimate the effect of religion on the willingness to take risk amongst 1209 rural women in Ghana, and observe that, whereas religious affiliation influences the decision to engage in risk, it does not in any way influence the level of risk taking thereafter. Specifically, we find that relative to the non-religious, religious affiliation …
Child Nutrition and Water Access (20 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Economics (12 works) · Environmental health (12 works) · Internal Medicine (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Micronutrient (9 works) · Context (archaeology (7 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (7 works) · Malnutrition (7 works)