COMMUNITY
NUTRITION
INTRODUCTION
Community nutrition is the science related to
practical application of the nutritional
knowledge in the field to identify and solve
nutritional problems of population groups in
community.
DEFINITION
Community health
Community health is concerned with the health
problems among different groups of population
and includes both identification of nutritional
and health problems and causes and prevention
as well as control of diseases.
Community nutrition
Community nutrition is the study of assessing
food and nutrition situation in terms of
identification of food and nutrition problems,
causative factors and possible solutions both for
prevention and cure of the problems.
CONCEPT OF NUTRITION AND ITS
RELATION TO HEALTH
Nutrition is a scientific discipline which
essentially deals with food and the related
issues.
If the right food is not consumed in right
quantities by a person it results in
malnutrition.
Under nutrition means inadequate intake
of right food.
'Nutritional status' is a condition of'
health of an individual as influenced by the
utilization of foods consumed.
ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITIONAL
STATUS
Assessment of
Nutritional Status -
The interpretation
of the nutritional
status to
determine whether
an individual or a
community is well
nourished or
malnourished
NEED FOR ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITIONAL
STATUS
To discover facts and guiding actions intended
to improve nutrition and health.
To measure the magnitude and epidemiology
of malnutrition.
To identify the type of malnutrition.
To determine the demographic groups at risk
of becoming malnourished
METHODS OF NUTRITIONAL ASSESSMENT
DIRECT METHODS:- INDIRECT
Anthropometry METHODS:-
Biochemical and Laboratory Vital health statistics
estimation Ecological factors
Biophysical or radiological assessment
examination
Dietary survey
Functional assessment
DIRECT METHOD
Anthropometry
Nutritional anthropometry is the tool concerned with the
measurement of the physical dimensions
1. Body
Weight
using beam
or lever
actuated
scales, Salter
Weighing
Scale and
spring
balance.
2. Height
using
Infantometer,
Anthropometer
or stadiometer
3. Head
Circumference
measured using a
measuring tape
made of fibre
glass around the
head
4. Chest
Circumference
A narrow, flexible
and non-
stretchable fibre
glass tape
5. MID- UPPER ARM
CIRCUMFERENCE
6. SUBCUTANEOUS BODY FAT
MEASUREMENT BY SKIN FOLD
CALLIPERS
DIET SURVEY
Types of Diet Survey
1. Qualitative approach stress on the
study about the qualitative approach
towards food like the type of foods
consumed, opinion and attitude to foods,
cultural implications on food and food
practices under special physiological
conditions like pregnancy, lactation,
infancy and old age.
2. Quantitative approach,
attempts to quantify the foods
and beverage in terms of amount
consumed and obtaining the
relative nutritive value.
Comparison of nutrient intake with
RDA provides a measure of
adequacy or inadequacy of foods
consumed in a particular region.
COMPONENTS OF
COMMUNITY NUTRITION:
Community Diagnosis
•Food,nutrition and health problems are
combined to diagnose the causative factors.
Action plan of nutrition surveillance.
Health information collected will help to plan
suitable actions to over come these problems.
Evaluation of Action
Evaluating the results will show whether the
bad practices and also the right behaviours
which keep people healthy.
MEAL PLANNING
GUIDELINES FOR MEAL
PLANNING
1. Food should be in accordance with the
requirements of individual or the family.
2.It is necessary to consider time saving
in meal planning. Time planning should
not be ignored while meal planning. Some
techniques of time saving are as under.
Make plan for weekly meal planning.
Keep kitchen tidy.
Make bulk purchase of food for
patients/individuals.
CONT…
3. In meal planning the diet may be divided
as follows:
Day’s first meal – breakfast
Second meal – lunch
Third meal – afternoon tea
Fourth meal – supper/dinner
4. It is advantageous to make daily and
weekly meal planning.
5. Separate planning should be made for
holidays, festivals and special occasions.
MERITS OF MEAL PLANNING
Availability of meals to individual/every
family member as per his requirement.
Saving of time.
Gainful use of labour.
Economy.
Variety in meals.
Freedom from unnecessary hassles.
Developing the sense of meal discipline
or formation or formation of good dietary
BALANCE DIET
Balanced diet means a diet which
provides all the nutrients in sufficient
quantities to the body. For long and
healthy life, balanced diet is essential.
PRINCIPAL OF BEALANCE DIET
The balance diet must include some of the under
mentioned food items:
Staple food: wheat, rice, millets, carbohydrate
providing vegetables (like potato) and fruits
(banana) etc.
Extra protein food: pluses, legumes, fleshy
fruits, milk products, meat, fish, eggs etc.
Protective food: green leafy and other
vegetables, fruits etc.
Fats and sugar: in every meal, cooking oil or
some amount of ghee and for providing
Cont…
Balanced diet should provide protean which
should comprise 15 to 20% of the daily energy
requirement.
Fat should not exceed 20 to 30% of daily
energy requirement among the total calories.
Rest of the energy, should come from
carbohydrates. This should including sufficient
quantity of fibrous food.
Balance diet must provide all vitamin and
minerals and water in sufficient quantity.
All factors e.g. age, sex, rituals, beliefs
working considered while planning abalance
NUTRITION EDUCATION
The basic objective of nutrition
education is to raise the health status
of the person, the family and the
community
Objectives and need of the
nutrition education are as follows:
To avoid bad habits
To explain the technique of balanced diet based
on the availability and the income limits
To inform about food substitutes changes and
modification in diet
To educate about the effect of various cooking
method on the nutrients
To tell about the symptoms of deficiency diseases
and measures of prevention
To underline the nutritional requirements of the
vulnerable group (children, pregnancy, lactation
Opportunities for nutrition
education-
During home visits
During conduction of special clinic,
postnatal clinic, pre school clinic etc
While conducting school health
programme
With patients and their attendants in
“outdoor and indoor clinics”
In ladies clubs meetings, during
nutrition demonstration
Method of nutrition
education
Individual nutrition education
For men
Cooking demonstration
role playing, nutrition drama, puppet
show, etc
NATIONAL NUTRITION POLICY
In 1993 the govt of India adopted a
national nutrition policy (NNP) which aims
at the eradication of malnutrition and to
achieve high standard of nutrition in the
community through multi sect oral policy
:
The feature of NNP are as follows:
Working policy-
This is multi-sector and includes nutritional
solution and development policy
Direct measures-
To utilise the nutrition education imparted
to mothers under integrated child
development services(ICDS)
To approach adolescent boys/girls
Better coverage of pregnant women
To prevent vitamin A deficiency and making
available iodine deficiency disorders control
programmes to all
FOOD AND NUTRITION BOARD-
The food and nutrition
board was formed in
1964 under the ministry
of agriculture to bring
variety in the dietary
habits with the dual
objective of reducing the
demand of food grains
and to make individual
diet more nutritious
Activities of food and nutrition board-
Education and training in nutrition
Nutrition demonstration programmes
Training in domestic preservation of
fruits and vegetables
nutrition education
To observe nutrition weeks(1-7
September)
To observe world food day (16 October)
To observe world breast feeding week(1-
7 august)
Development and enhancement of
nutritive foods
Fortification of food
Food analysis
Research and development
National nutrition policy and its
implementation
ROLE OF COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSE IN
COMMUNITY NUTRITION PROGRAMME
Promoting breastfeeding practices and
providing essential care during neonatal
period
Nutrition education and counselling on
personal hygiene, hand washing
practices, environmental sanitation, safe
water, prevention of accident, prevention
of communicable diseases
Nutritional counselling and guidance
It is necessary to plan different
diets for different patients
considering the physical and
mental condition of the patient
and his social and cultural
background
