Nutrition and Dietetics

Dimitrios Simos has completed his MSc in Stress Science and Health Promotion at the Medical School of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, at the age of 32, and has already completed training on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at the same university. He is a new researcher in Department of Clinical Nutrition, Behaviour of eating and stress syndrome. His immediate plans are to investigate centers of control of appetite in the brain in relation to chronic anxiety as a PhD student.

Dietary behavior has been linked to various health\r\nproblems and its assessment is a crucial part of the pertinent\r\nresearch. In the Greek population, a tool for measuring dietary\r\nbehavior is missing. Self-Regulation Eating Behavior Questionnaire\r\n(SREBQ) is a self-administered scale that assesses the ability of a\r\nperson to change his/her eating behavior and food choices.\r\nAim: To validate the SREBQ in the Greek population.\r\nMethods: Firstly, the SREBQ was forward and backward translated\r\nand was administered in a pilot sample of few individuals. Next,\r\n89 obese participants (71.9% women, 46.3 ± 14 years old)\r\nanswered SREBQ. The psychometric properties tested were\r\nconstruct validity, predictive validity and internal reliability.\r\nResults: Principal component factor analyses confirmed the\r\nconstruct validity of SREBQ. The internal consistency was\r\nsatisfactory (Cronbach\'s alpha = 0.745). The mean score for this\r\nsample was 16.24 ± 16 (range 6-25). Currently working\r\nparticipants showed significantly less restraint than unemployed\r\n(p = 0.042). No other significant correlations were found with the\r\nvariables of the study. Overall, 78.3% and 88% of the sample\r\ndeclared that they were willing to avoid \"tempting foods\" and\r\nfollow a healthier diet, respectively

Horatiu Albu is a licensed physician of Cluj-Napoca University of Medicine and Pharmacy. He has completed his specializations (Family Medicine and Infectious Diseases) at the age of 32 from Bucharest University School of Medicine and his post-university studies in Molecular Oncology from Spanish National Cancer Research Centre - CNIO Madrid via Centro de Estudios Biosanitarios. With didactic collaboration in two Romanian universities of medicine and pharmacy, President of the Romanian Society of Orthomolecular Medicine and Scientific Advisor in the Scientific Department of Laboratorios Catalysis SL - Madrid, he is the coordinator of the dietary, nutrition, onconutrition and lifestyle counselling offices of several private medical centers in Bucharest (Columna,Dacia and Dr. Alb Medical Centers).

Oncology is a medical area where progress can improve the outcomes for patients, but the presence of malnutrition in cancer patients can limit the response to the best and most recent therapies.rnIn Western Europe, just over 30% of patients with cancer who were at risk of malnutrition actually received nutritional support (oral nutritional supplements and/ or parenteral nutrition and/ or enteral nutrition).rnIn Romania, far too little attention is paid to the timely detection and control of malnutrition, cachexia and neoplastic sarcopenia and our centre is trying to cover this gap by promoting and using the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism ESPEN recommendations.rnOur protocol follow a succession of several steps out of which we enumerate: nutritional risk screening for all patients from the beginning, dynamic evolution of the nutritional status parameters and calculation of GPS (Glasgow Prognostic Score), elaboration of individual nutritional intervention.rnThe roles of our staff are to give the patient the reasons and objectives for nutritional recommendations and to inform the patient/ family/ oncologist that the worsening of cachexia with increased inflammation already requires special nutritional adjustments, which cannot be made with regular foods.rn