Cumming School of Medicine Research & Publications
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Browsing Cumming School of Medicine Research & Publications by Author "Aghajafari, Fariba"
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Item Open Access Both Mother and Infant Require a Vitamin D Supplement to Ensure That Infants' Vitamin D Status Meets Current Guidelines(MDPI, 2018-03-29) Aghajafari, FaribaWe examined the association between maternal vitamin D intake during breastfeeding with their infants' vitamin D status in infants who did or did not receive vitamin D supplements to determine whether infant supplementation was sufficient. Using plasma from a subset of breastfed infants in the APrON (Alberta Pregnant Outcomes and Nutrition) cohort, vitamin D status was measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Maternal and infants' dietary data were obtained from APrON's dietary questionnaires. The median maternal vitamin D intake was 665 International Units (IU)/day, while 25% reported intakes below the recommended 400 IU/day. Of the 224 infants in the cohort, 72% were exclusively breastfed, and 90% were receiving vitamin D supplements. Infants' median 25(OH)D was 96.0 nmol/L (interquartile ranges (IQR) 77.6-116.2), and 25% had 25(OH)D < 75 nmol/L. An adjusted linear regression model showed that, with a 100 IU increase in maternal vitamin D intake, infants' 25(OH)D increased by 0.9 nmol/L controlling for race, season, mid-pregnancy maternal 25(OH)D, birthweight, and whether the infant received daily vitamin D supplement (β = 0.008, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.002, 0.13). These results suggest that, to ensure infant optimal vitamin D status, not only do infants require a supplement, but women also need to meet current recommended vitamin D intake during breastfeeding.Item Open Access Vaccination Navigation, Access, and Hesitancy Among Refugees in Calgary, AB: A Scoping Review Protocol(2022-08-07) Aghajafari, Fariba; Ness, Alyssa; McClurg, Caitlin; Wall, Laurent; Pooladi-Darvish, ArshyaBackground: The COVID-19 vaccines provide between 80—95% protection against the disease and to reach herd immunity, between 70-83% of the population needs to be vaccinated. Access, as well as hesitancy, to vaccine can affect reaching this target. Refugees and new immigrants are at higher risk of being infected with COVID-191,3, and they may have inequitable access to vaccine. To overcome the inequity to access vaccine and addressing hesitancy in refugees and new immigrants, various outreach programs have been implemented globally 2,3,4,5,6. Objectives: The aim of this scoping review is to explore the model of delivery of Covid-19 vaccination and other common infectious disease vaccinations in newcomers and refugee populations. Method: Articles will be included if they were published in the year 2000 or later, focused on vaccine or immunization delivery, programs, initiatives, or policies among refugees, immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers or newcomers; or addressed vaccine hesitancy; and occurred during epidemic or endemic times. Study designs included in this scoping review will be randomized controlled trials or observational studies. MEDLINE, Ovid Healthstar, OVID Embase, OVID Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Science Direct, Academic Search Complete, Google Scholar, Social Work Abstracts, and JSTOR databases were searched using controlled vocabulary terms and keywords for the following concepts: Covid-19 and major immunizations generally administered on a schedule, vaccines OR immunizations, refugees, asylum seekers, newcomers and immigrants. Grey literature was searched using Google’s site search feature for relevant news articles or social media, as well as non-government organization (NGO) and intergovernmental organization (IGO) websites for information specific to those organizations. Articles from academic databases will be exported to COVIDENCE followed by two rounds of screening, including the initial title/abstract review, followed by full text screening. Conflicts will be resolved by the Primary Investigator. Grey Literature will be collected in an excel spreadsheet and included to inform the background and discussion.Item Open Access Vitamin D Deficiency and Antenatal and Postpartum Depression: A Systematic Review(MDPI, 2018-04-12) Aghajafari, Fariba; Letourneau, Nicole Lyn; Mahinpey, Newsha; Cosic, Nela; Giesbrecht, G. F.Vitamin D has been implicated in antenatal depression (AD) and postpartum depression (PPD) in many studies; however, results have been inconsistent due to the complexity of this association. We searched the MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and Maternity and Infant Care databases for literature addressing associations between vitamin D and AD and PPD. Two independent authors reviewed titles and abstracts of the search results and selected studies for full review. Data were extracted, and a quality rating was done using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) on the selected studies. A total of 239 studies were identified; 14 were included in the review. The quality assessment of the included studies ranged from moderate to high. Of the studies on PPD, five of nine (55%) showed a significant association between vitamin D and PPD. Five of seven (71%) studies on AD showed a significant association with vitamin D status. As the included studies used different effect estimates and statistical analyses to report the association, it was not possible to transform the existing data into one single effect measure to employ meta-analytic techniques. While results of this systematic review vary, they indicate a significant association between vitamin D status and AD and PD.