Introduction: Adolescent overweight and obesity as measured by body mass index (BMI) seem to be increasing at an alarming rate in urban populations. Parental BMI plays an important role in their adolescent's BMI. Overweight and obesity co-existing with undernutrition in adolescents is an important public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We present results from a population-based study on adolescents’ prevalence of BMI and its association with their parents’ BMI in Mumbai and Kolkata, India. Methods and materials: Multistage random sampling of households was used to select adolescents aged 12–14 years and one of their parents in 2019–2020. In Mumbai, 843 adolescents, and in Kolkata, 913 adolescents and one of their parents were interviewed independently by trained field investigators. Height and weight were measured using standardised procedures. Adolescents’ BMI categories were defined using Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations. For parents, the BMI was categorised using Asian cut-off categories into underweight (BMI < 18.5), normal weight (BMI: 18.5–22.9), overweight (BMI: 23.0–27.0), and obese (BMI > 27.0). Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between parental BMI and adolescents’ BMI. Results: In Mumbai, 15.7% and in Kolkata, 21.1% of adolescents were overweight or obese. Nearly 80% of mothers and 70% of other parents were either overweight or obese. The mothers of adolescents who were overweight or obese showed a high risk of their adolescent being overweight [odds ratio (OR): 4.16 (1.36–12.73)] or obese [OR: 18.53 (2.02–170.44)] in Mumbai and [OR: 4.45 (1.25–15.80)] and [OR: 8.81 (1.40–55.33)] in Kolkata respectively after adjusting for adolescent's gender and head of the household's highest level of educational attainment. Conclusion: Adolescents’ overweight/obesity status is strongly associated with their mothers’ BMI in urban India. This association may reflect both genetic and environmental effects. The present study highlights the high prevalence of adolescent overweight and obesity in these urban populations and underscores how important it is to identify effective public health strategies for the primary prevention of childhood obesity.

Aim and background: Many recent studies identified increasing trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Bangladesh. Multiple factors were identified as attributes to this phenomenon. One of the underlying causes of the increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight among urban school children is assumed to be the high consumption frequency of energy-dense fast food available on the school premises. Studies addressing the role of fast foods (FF) intake behaviour of school-going children on their increasing weight gain are very scanty. The present study was undertaken to find out the causal association between the chrononutrition behaviour of fast food consumption and childhood overweight and obesity. Materials and methods: A total of 246 students aged 11–18 years from 4 selected schools in Dhaka city were studied using a cross-sectional data collection technique. Along with socioeconomic and anthropometric variables, a pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect the consumption frequency of snacking and types of snack foods, as well as snacking time for frequent eaters per day. The association of chrononutrition behaviour (type, frequency, volume, and snacking time) of fast food consumption with overweight and obesity of children were explored by an appropriate statistical tools. Results: Screening of the children resulted in 26.02% of them being overweight while 7.32% of them were obese on body mass index (BMI) Z-score. Most of them belonged to higher-income families. About 42% of them consumed commercial snack foods at least one time per day. The BMI Z-score of them significantly correlated with their frequently eaten snack foods (p = 0.048) and eating out behaviour (p = 0.016). Body mass index of the children was also influenced significantly by parents’ education (p = 0.002) and nutritional knowledge (p = 0.000). Two times snack eaters per day showed higher BMI-score than one-time eaters. Conclusion: The findings denote an association between chrononutrition behaviour of snacking among Dhaka school children with their higher BMI Z-score.

Saliva, a non-invasively and safely available biofluid, has been suited for diverse diagnostic tests. Recent investigations have explored its utility in assessing both oral conditions and systemic diseases. Metabolomics technologies enable simultaneous analysis of numerous metabolites and identify novel biomarkers to diagnose and predict therapeutic outcomes. Research on metabolomics-based salivary tests has been accumulated for disorders with metabolic dysregulation, such as periodontal disease and oral cancers. Clinical studies are also performed to develop and validate diagnostic markers of systematic cancers occurring in the organs far from the oral cavity. However, several challenges still exist in applying biomarkers in clinical settings. Establishing standardisation of processes, including saliva collection, storage, measurement, and data analysis, is imperative. Elucidating the rational mechanisms of molecular markers in saliva is essential. Here, we review the biological and technical aspects of the recent salivary tests.

The three selected publications of interest are highlighted: (1) Title: Optimising the reach of mobile health messaging programs: An analysis of system-generated data for the Kilkari programme across 13 states in India. (2) Title: Artificial intelligence (AI) and global health: How can AI contribute to health in resource-poor settings? (3) Title: Global Health Ethics: WHO.