Body Composition Measurement
Growth and development
Nutritional Assessment
Background
Jimma University Clinical and Nutrition Research Center (JUCAN) was established in 2008 in collaboration between Jimma University and University of Copenhagen in the area of nutrition. JUCAN allowed a strong partnership between the two universities and helped JU to establish a state-of-the-art research facility on body composition and other nutritional assessments.
Under JUCAN, several high quality research projects on priority health and nutrition issues, relevant nationally and internationally, have been conducted. Among others the ARTFood study, a nutritional trial among adults with HIV infection, is a very good example which produced scientific articles on high ranking peer-reviewed journals. Moreover, based on the ARTFood trial, a policy brief has been submitted to the Ministry of Health and a follow up study is under preparation in order to translate the findings in to policy and practice.
Other studies are also on progress including a birth cohort focused mainly on infant anthropometry and body composition (iABC). The cohort is serving as platform to generate unique data to look at the relationship between early-life body composition growth patterns and risk markers of metabolic disease in early childhood and beyond. Similarly, exciting studies are in progress, including determination of cause of preterm mortality (SIP), the predictive value of the appetite test among children with severe acute malnutrition and a validation of point-of-care test for detection of Cryptosporidium in stool from children with diarrhea. More studies are in the pipeline and will be operational under JUCAN arena shortly.
JUCAN promoted a strong partnership with a number of universities and institutions, which increased visibility of Jimma University and knowledge exchange with the international scientific community. The strong partnership that JUCAN established has allowed creating a globally competitive research facility and expertise in Jimma to conduct advanced nutritional and clinical research.
Mission
- Foster nutrition and clinical research to contribute to the understanding of malnutrition, infectious diseases and chronic diseases of public health importance.
- To contribute to the development and evaluation of new and improved methods and tools for the prevention, treatment and control of malnutrition and important infectious diseases
- Provide long and short term training opportunity for young Ethiopians to produce future independent researchers
Vision
Provide leadership in generating scientific evidence for setting policies related to improved control of malnutrition, infectious and chronic diseases in Jimma, in Ethiopia and internationally