Issue 44 of the POSHAN Abstract Digest, brings to you yet another collection of articles on various topics pertaining to maternal and child nutrition. This issue features several studies on the nutritional status of adolescents and the relationship between maternal dietary diversity and body composition with children’s health. A few studies look at coverage of nutrition and health interventions in the country, including the Anemia Mukt Bharat program and the National Rural Health mission.

Season’s greetings! The 47th issue of POSHAN’s Abstract Digest features studies on maternal nutrition, anemia, and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. The maternal nutrition articles include a modeling study that examines the importance of prenatal nutrition for reducing the global burden of non-communicable diseases, and a gap analysis study to identify key elements to strengthen maternal nutrition counselling during routine health services. There are two anemia articles: one examines the association of adolescent anemia and physical growth with learning outcomes, while the other investigates the prevalence and determinants of anemia among men. Among the two articles covering IYCF practices, one assesses food group consumption patterns among children in 59 countries and the other investigates the association between IYCF practices and nutrition indicators. Other interesting studies in this issue include two articles based on learnings from interventions through women’s self-help groups, an assessment of anthropometric data quality in India’s National Family Health Survey, another on implementation characteristics of father-inclusive interventions in low- and middle-income countries, and one on the perceptions, risk factors, and behaviors of overweight adults.

This issue of Abstract Digest comes to you at a time when the global nutrition research community is actively looking for ways to address malnutrition in the changing context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The articles in this issue include a modelling study by Roberton and colleagues on early estimates of the indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries, and comments on it.

This last issue of the Abstract Digest for 2016 brings to focus the importance of maternal factors including pre- and peri-conceptional nutrition, education and stature, as well as macro-level factors such as sustained economic growth and investments in health, education, and water for the overall well-being of a child.

Issue 37 of the Abstract Digest brings to you a set of global, regional, and India-focused articles on issues pertaining to undernutrition and its solutions. Global studies include the Optima Nutrition modelling assessing the likelihood of 129 countries reaching the global nutrition targets by 2030, a systematic review of economic evaluation of interventions to address undernutrition by scaling up proven interventions and identifying priority interventions, a study that identifies research priorities for social, behavioral and community engagement interventions for maternal and child health, and a review of literature on social accountability approaches. India-specific studies examine inequality in child undernutrition among urban populations, the economic feasibility of nutritionally adequate diets, and two studies focusing on frontline workers time use and factors influencing their performance. In this edition we have also included implementation research focused articles relevant for maternal and child health programs.

In this 40th issue of the POSHAN Abstract Digest, we bring to you a collection of articles on the burden of malnutrition in India, its distribution patterns and determinants. You will find several articles focused on nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive solutions aimed at improving nutritional outcomes and determinants. This issue also features two articles on data for nutrition, one pertaining to data availability for nutrition financing in India and another describing the current situation of reliable biomarker data availability on micronutrient deficiencies at the global level. We have also included a small section on COVID-19 focused peer-reviewed articles.

This issue of the Abstract Digest features our new Policy Note, summarizing costs of delivering a set of essential nutrition interventions at scale in India. We also bring to you the new WHO guidelines for improving the quality of maternal and newborn health and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, two Alive & Thrive studies on IYCF, work on the performance of anganwadis under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), models for the management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and studies on ICDS and health programs that deliver the essential nutrition interventions in India.

This issue of the Abstract Digest features several systematic reviews, a special Maternal and Child Nutrition supplement, several interesting research articles, and reports. Many articles in this issue reiterate the importance of prenatal conditions and maternal nutrition to ensure healthy child growth.

Subsistence production: a sign of market failure. Commercialization cannot be left to the market. Household effects of commercialization. Nutrition effects of commercialization. Policy action needed.