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Ensuring diets of children aged 6–23 months meet recommended guidance is crucial for growth and development and for the prevention of malnutrition including stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies. Despite some improvement, indicators related to undernutrition and overnutrition fall short of global targets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that consist of low‐ and middle‐income countries witnessing political and social changes and a nutrition transition. This research aims at reviewing the situation related to the diets of children aged 6–23 months in five selected countries in the MENA region, examining factors affecting complementary feeding and providing recommendations for guiding effective strategies to improve it. The study triangulated data on complementary feeding status and predictors from semistructured interviews with 30 key informants, and multivariable analysis of household surveys in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, State of Palestine and Sudan including data on refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. There remain considerable gaps in complementary feeding differing noticeably among geographic areas. Findings from qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that maternal factors, including maternal education and age, household level factors such as paternal education and wealth, community‐level factors (culture and geographic location), and utilization of health services, were associated with minimum dietary diversity (MDD), minimum meal frequency (MMF) and minimum acceptable diet (MAD) at varied levels in the five countries. Interventions to improve complementary feeding practices should include actions tailored to the needs of the population at multiple levels including at the caregiver's level, household, service use, community and policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evaluation of the association between treatment satisfaction and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) may enable health‐care providers to understand the issues that influence quality of life and to recognize the aspects of hypertension treatment that need improvement to enhance the long‐term treatment outcomes. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between HRQoL and treatment satisfaction in a sample of Palestinian hypertensive patients. Methods: A cross‐sectional study was conducted, adopting the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication (TSQM 1.4) for the assessment of treatment satisfaction and using the European Quality of Life scale (EQ‐5D‐5L) for the assessment of HRQoL. Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to describe socio‐demographic and disease‐related characteristics of the patients. All analyses were performed using SPSS v 15.0. Results: Four hundred and ten hypertensive patients were enrolled in the study. This study findings indicate a positive correlation between all satisfaction domains and HRQoL. Significant differences were observed between this study variables (P < 0.001). After adjustment for covariates using multiple linear regression, an increase of one point in the global satisfaction scale was associated with a 0.16 increase in EQ‐5D index scores (r = 0.16; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Patients with reportedly higher satisfaction scores have reported relatively higher EQ‐5D‐5L index values. These study findings could be helpful in clinical practice, mainly in the early treatment of hypertensive patients, at a point where improving treatment satisfaction and HRQoL is still possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]