Angeline Jeyakumar
Country (Nationality)
India
Grantee Title
Project: Comparison of nutrition transition in regions at different levels of urbanization in Maharashtra (India) and Johannesburg (South Africa)
Grantee Description
Home Institution: Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), Maharashtra, India
Host institution in Africa: University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Angeline specializes in Public Health Nutrition. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at School of Health Sciences, SPPU, where she has been since 2000. She coordinates post graduate courses in public health nutrition for health sciences and master's in public health (MPH) students. She is trained in applied epidemiology at Emory University, by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA. Her research interests include maternal and child health, leading to studies in iron and vitamin D deficiencies among women of reproductive age. In the tribal regions of Palghar, Maharashtra, with DBT funding, she performed a randomised community trial to assess the effect of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) interventions to prevent diarrhoea and undernutrition among children.
Project: Comparison of nutrition transition in regions at different levels of urbanization in Maharashtra (India) and Johannesburg (South Africa): Africa and India share common public health issues such as undernutrition among children, poverty, widespread infections, rapid urbanization and increasing non-communicable diseases. In India, economic growth has contributed to meagre reduction in poverty, widening the gap between economic classes. Similar is the inequality in Africa which has not changed in the past two decades. With the AIMF grant, Angeline will study dietary patterns and double burden of malnutrition in both countries at different levels of urbanization along with Dr. Hema Kesa, Director of Food Evolution Research Laboratory, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr Kesa studies transition from indigenous foods.