Intro to Nutrition Assessment

Question 1

What is nutrition assessment?

Answer 1

• Evaluating nutrition status by collecting and interpreting data to make decisions regarding nutrition-related health issues.

Question 2

Why assess nutritional status of individuals and populations?

Answer 2

• Individuals: to give individualized nutritional advice to promote the health and longevity of the person
• Populations: to monitor the health of a population (e.g., to monitor the effectiveness of micronutritient supplement programs)
• Determine risk of deficiency/excess: global
• Identify at-risk individuals & subpopulations
• Inform public health policy

Question 3

Describe the ‘A’ method.

Answer 3

Anthropometric - measurements of the physical body

Question 4

Describe the ‘B’ method.

Answer 4

Biochemical: measurements of blood, fluids, tissues; both functional and static measures; used to confirm clinical assessment; used to detect sub-clinical deficiency

Question 5

Describe the ‘C’ method.

Answer 5

Clinical: medical history; physical exam; signs & symptoms

Question 6

Describe the ‘D’ method.

Answer 6

Dietary: measure food intake; interpret results with caution; commonly used tools = 24 hour recall; food record; FFQ

Question 7

Describe the ‘E’ method.

Answer 7

Environmental: factors related to external environment

e.g., social; economic; culture; religion; education; material resources; accessibility to safe food

Question 8

How does nutrition assessment fit into the bigger picture?

Answer 8

Large scale external environmental factors:
* Droughts
* Geological difficulties (e.g., regions of the world that are more severely affected by climate change; hard to grow crops)
* Natural disasters (e.g., flooding; wildfires)
* Poverty
* War and conflict
* Access to clean water
* Food safety issues, hygiene & sanitation
* Transportation costs
* Food production issues (e.g., monocultures depleting soil health)
* Unsafe water

Need to undertake appropriate and culturally appropriate measures to reach the goal of improving people’s nutritional (and general) health status.

Question 9

Nutrition assessment is clinically focussed.
True or False?

Answer 9

False.

Question 10

Nutrition assessments are conducted by dieticians only.
True or False?

Answer 10

False.

Question 11

Results obtained from nutrition assessment can guide changes to health policy.
True or False?

Answer 11

True.

Question 12

A specific indicator is sufficient to conduct a nutrition assessment.
True or False?

Answer 12

False.