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Objectives: In order to manage blood glucose levels in pregnancy, women need to know what and how much to eat, particularly for foods containing carbohydrate. The aim was to assess pregnant women's carbohydrate and standard serve size knowledge and examine whether health professionals provided nutrition education. Methods: Between July 2017 and April 2018 Australian pregnant women were recruited to complete an online survey, including a modified PedCarbQuiz carbohydrate knowledge questionnaire and an online buffet, where they selected images equivalent to one Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) standard serve size. Results: 186 pregnant women (mean age 30.9 years, SD = 4.7 years) 12–22 weeks gestation completed the survey. Participants achieved a median score of 27/36 for identification of carbohydrate-containing foods and a median score of 1/12 (range 0–11) for identification of grams of carbohydrate in specific portions. Participants achieved a median score of 14/22 (range 4–19) for identification of one AGHE standard serve of 11 carbohydrate-containing foods. Less than half (n = 92, 49.5%) received nutrition education from health professionals. Conclusions for Practice: Pregnant women had sub-optimal carbohydrate knowledge. This could contribute to impaired blood glucose concentrations and risk of adverse health outcomes in pregnancy. Opportunities for pregnant women to access nutrition advice from health professionals should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: While diet quality has declined globally, the promotion of cooking skills as a potential target to counter the decline has been proposed. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between food and cooking skills and diet quality in Australian adults. Methods: A sample of 910 Australian adults completed an online cross‐sectional survey to evaluate their level of cooking and food skills confidence, food related psychological variables, diet quality using the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS) and sociodemographic characteristics. Analysis of variance with post hoc analysis, Pearson's correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted using IBM SPSS V25, with statistical significance set at P <.05. Results: Older respondents and females reported higher levels of both cooking and food skills confidence compared to younger and male participants, all P <.001. Cooking and food skills confidence scores were highly correlated (r =.70, P <.001), but weakly correlated with ARFS (r =.22, P <.001; r =.31, P <.001, respectively). Participants with higher diet quality scores had greater cooking and food skills confidence and they consumed less takeaway food (P <.001 and P =.006, respectively). Sixteen percent of the variance in ARFS was accounted for, with age, sex, food creativity and food skills confidence contributing the most variability. Conclusions: Strategies to improve food skills confidence could potentially enhance diet quality and variety to a greater degree than focusing on cooking skills alone. However, development of both skills sets should be encouraged within education programs and targeted to differing aspects of diet quality. Tailoring interventions to specific population groups with low confidence in their skills, including younger adults and males, may facilitate individuals in making healthy food choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Robinson Research Institute of the University of Adelaide convened a multidisciplinary group of n = 33 clinicians, researchers and representatives of government organisations on the 2 October 2014 for a workshop entitled "Promoting fertility and healthy conception. How do we generate greater reproductive health awareness?" The key aim of the workshop was to assess the body of knowledge that informs clinical practice and government policy, and to identify questions and additional information needed by health practitioners and government representatives working in the field of reproductive health and to frame future research and policy. The workshop identified topics that fell mostly into three categories: lifestyle-related, societal and biological factors. The lifestyle topics included nutrition and diet, exercise, obesity, shift work and other factors deemed to be modifiable at the level of the individual. The societal topics included discussions of matters that are structural, and resistant to change by individuals, including specific ethical issues, social disadvantage, government and educational policies. The biological factors are intrinsic physical states of the individual, and included many factors where there is a dense body of scientific knowledge which may not be readily accessible in less academic language. This workshop thus provided an opportunity to identify further actions that could be undertaken to meet the needs of diverse organisations and groups of professionals with an interest in human fertility. Since so many factors in our social and biological environment can impact fertility and preconception health, it is imperative to involve many disciplines or levels of government or societal organisations that have not traditionally been involved in this area.