Module 1: Major Public Health Nutrition Issues Today 1
Looking Ahead: The Global Challenges As the world becomes more connected, the nature of disease will also become globalized Some of the products and lifestyle habits exported to developing countries will have a negative health impact Increases in development and trade that lead to prosperity will have a positive effect on health in many countries 2
Looking Ahead: The Global Challenges More of the world s citizens will live in urban environments rather than rural ones Environmental issues such as climate control and degradation will affect the global community Healthy child development still remains a global challenge that none of us can afford to neglect New information and communication technologies will help governments and others make more effective decisions for health 3
Challenges Ahead Habitats unrelenting increases in urbanization and rural deprivation Families massive shifts in structures, responsibilities and roles Work major new patterns, working conditions Communities changing culture and social structure Ageing progressive lengthening of life span and dependency Violence rising aggression, conflicts, victims and refugees Health inequities increasing inequities in health within and between regions in the countries 4
Challenges Ahead Markets sharp movements toward consumerism and privatization of services Food consumption shift to fast food and instant food products Communication revolutionary changes in information transfer and learning 5
Other Concerns Bio-terrorism International travel/migration/mobility Porous borders Weak surveillance systems 6
New Opportunities Globalization opens up new opportunities to improve health and reduce transnational health risks, these opportunities include: Enhanced information and communications technology, and Improved mechanisms for global governance and the sharing of experiences 7
Opportunity for Health Promotion The world changes faster and the stage is set for health promotion to bring about better partnership and effective actions for health promotion at the national as well as global level. 8
Competing public health nutrition issues Nutrition is essential throughout life cycle.
Priority health and nutrition issues What are some nutrition issues that ARE priority issues in your region? If you are a health worker, choose ones that are important to your own organization. What are some nutrition issues that are NOT priorities for your organization? 10
Setting priorities Why are some nutrition issues given priority and others not? Why do organizations set priorities? How do we choose? What SELECTION CRITERIA are you using? 11
Priority setting Refer to Handout 1 12
Selecting priority public health issues 1. Prevalence is the problem widely experienced? 2. Severity what are the costs in terms of life expectancy, mortality, morbidity or quality-of-life, and economic costs to the community? 3. Selectivity does it affect one group in particular, and does that group suffer other disadvantages or entail to future burdens? 4. Amenability to intervention is it known that interventions have succeeded with this problem? 5. What other organizations are doing if other organisations already cover this well, then we should look at working on other issues; what your organization can do? 13
Panel 1: Series key messages (LANCET series executive summary, 2008) In poor countries, maternal and child undernutrition is the underlying cause of more than one-third (3.5 million) of all child deaths under the age of 5 years preventable through effective nutrition interventions operating at scale Pregnancy to age 24 months is the critical window of opportunity for the delivery of nutrition interventions. Effective interventions are available to reduce underweight, stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, and child deaths ie. breastfeeding counseling, appropriate complementary feeding, and vitamin A and zinc potential for reducing child deaths and future disease burden related to under-nutrition interventions to reduce iron and iodine important for maternal survival and for children s cognitive development, educability, and future economic productivity
Challenges (LANCET series executive summary, 2008) Challenge 1: getting nutrition on the national agenda Challenge 2: doing the right things Challenge 3: not doing the wrong things Challenge 4: acting at scale Challenge 5: reaching those in need Challenge 6: data for nutrition decision making Challenge 7: building strategic and operational capacity
Exercise: data analysis using several national surveys Review and clarify variable list (study Handout 2) Identify variables which show health/nutrition problems Determine the type of analysis to be carried out Conduct a simple validation of the variables to be used Work within the assigned group (or in pair) to examine the proposed analysis Look into the trend over time and the comparison between national and selected province Discuss the results of the analysis and perform prioritization exercise to select which health/nutritional problems you want to discuss (refer to Handout 1) Present the results of the discussion in Powerpoint Presentation