Dietary assessment and prescription

Question 1

Nutritional assessment

Answer 1

Assesses the adequacy of energy and nutrient intake

Question 2

Dietary assessment

Answer 2

Assesses the intakes of foods, energy and nutrients.

Question 3

How do you perform a nutritional assessment?

Answer 3

Antrhopometric assessment.
Biochemical measures (laboratory tests): blood, urine
Physical symptoms (clinical methods): looking for signs of malnutrition.
Intake assessment (estimated energy and nutrient intakes): compare with EAR and RDI

Question 4

How do you perform a dietary assessment?

Answer 4

Quantitative estimation of intakes: complex and time consuming, average intake of many foods and composition of each food.
Qualitative assessment: ask simple questions about food habits. If following dietary guidelines, assume diet is probably adequate.

Question 5

What are antrhopometric measures in the general population?

Answer 5

BMI
Waist circumference
Mid-arm circumference
SKin fold thickness
Head circumference
Head/chest ratio
Hip/waist ratio

Question 6

Advantages of anthropometry

Answer 6

Objective
Reproducible
Non-expensive and needs minimal training

Question 7

Limitations of anthropometry

Answer 7

Inter-observer errors
Limited nutritional diagnosis
Arbitrary statistical cut-off levels for what considered as abnormal values (BMI)

Question 8

Advantage of biochemical method

Answer 8

Useful in detecting early changes
Precise, accurate and reproducible
As a validation tool

Question 9

Limitations of biochemical methods

Answer 9

Time consuming
Expensive
They cannot be applied on large scales
Needs trained personnel and facilities

Question 10

Clinical method advantages

Answer 10

Fast and easy to perform
Inexpensive
Non-invasive

Question 11

Clinical method limitations

Answer 11

Does not detect early cases

Question 12

Clinical signs of nutritional deficiency

Answer 12

Mouth: bleeding and spongy gums (vitamin C, A, K, folic acid and niacin)
Nails: tranverse lines = protein deficiency
Skin: pallor = folic acid, iron, B12 deficiency
Thyroid gland: goitre = reliable sign of iodine deficiency
Joints and bones: rickets = vitamin D, scurvy = vitamin C

Question 13

What are some dietary assessment tool?

Answer 13

24 hours recall or 7 day food record
Dietary history
Food frequency

Question 14

What is a dietary history and what are the pro’s and con’s?

Answer 14

Involves interview cross references with a 24 hour food recall.
Pros: highly accurate.
Cons: expensive and time consuming.