summary for nutrition assessnent

Summaries the basics of all surveys from the list; why they were done, and general findings. (please get the general gist of surveys, what was found, and what decision makers did to provide services to the public. Not huge summary)

For two of them only, learn five findings, then learn five programs/services that have emerged as a result.

The list:

Assessing the general population

1970s: Nutrition Canada

-Understanding of nutrition status

1990s: provincial nutrition surveys (e.g., NS) (conclusions document is on ACORN)

-2000s: Canadian Community Health Survey

Specialty surveys for targeted groups:

1990s: initiation of First Nations Inuit Health Survey

 – Evolved into First Nations Health Surveys and Inuit Health Survey

NutriSTEP: pre-schoolers and toddlers

SCREEN I and II: seniors (Canada)

-For senior nutrient student status.

DETERMINE: seniors (US)

Screening of vulnerable populations

Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST)

Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST)

Canadian Malnutrition Screening Tool (and the work of the CMTF)

Mini Nutrition Assessment (MNA)

look for any program/resource/service today and try to figure out what findings might have lead to it. Nothing that exists in terms of government initiatives was picked out of the air; everything that exists is there because of previous research findings. Rates of overweight, diabetes, heart disease have all been linked to poor intakes of F/V so a lot of programs/guidelines/policies have developed to promote these intakes as a result.

What I am suggesting is to work backward from programs to figure out what decision makers used in their decision making. 

Why do we have F/V promotion in school, daycares, and recreation programs? Because every survey that ever was done in Canada or a province or on a reserve indicated that intakes of these were poor and that increasing intakes would be protective against the chronic conditions. So, lots of effort has been put into making F/V available, appealing, cheap, tasty, fun, and to encourage kids/families to consume these at home.

This are two examples:  

If this idea of working backward to connect the dots between existing initiatives and previous survey findings causes you anxiety, don’t do it…continue to search for evidence on government websites that you can connect to what you already know about nutrition survey findings. This is not meant to be tricky or difficult. You all already knew about existing government nutrition programs and services owing to previous nutrition coursework or being a consumer of these services before you walked into the Nutrition Assessment class.

Another example…there exist webpages on provincial and federal government websites directed at food and nutrition issues of seniors? Why? Because risk of malnutrition is high for seniors (as demonstrated by use of SCREEN and the CMTF), and falls are connected to nutrition risk and falls are expensive in terms of using hospital resources so governments decided to do something about it. Having a webpage, regardless of its content, is useful for people to know that they are not alone in their struggles. The content may answer their questions or direct them to an appropriate service in their community. This is about the level of detail I am looking for. Nothing more. this is not an essay style exam; it is a short answer. 8 short answer questions and 2 charts, one for each survey you will learn in depth. For each, what are 5 findings, what are five services that were developed as a result? This equals 18%.