Community Nutrition
Course Description
• This course provides analysis of assessment, prevention and
treatment of nutritional health risks and promotion of healthy
nutrition in communities. It details the factors influencing nutritional
status of a community, strategies at community level, program
planning, monitoring and evaluation and nutrition surveillance
methods. The practical components include assessment of
community needs, planning interventions, and nutrition and dietary
assessment methods at community level.
Course Objectives
• Describe concepts and principles of nutritional programme development
and evaluation.
• Identify key government organisations and non-government organisations
involved in food and nutrition.
• Describe community nutrition interventions in Namibia and the region.
• Discuss policies and legislation in Namibia and their implications for public
health and nutrition.
• Design nutrition outreach activities.
Course content
• Basic epidemiological concepts and nutritional surveillance methods with
emphasis on anthropometry and dietary surveillance
• Factors influencing nutritional status in a community and epidemiology of
nutrition related problems in Namibia
• Needs assessment and options for interventions, excluding illness
management and or therapeutic interventions.
• Communication and education strategies
• Nutritional programme development.
Course content
Study Unit 1 Concept of the community; nutrition problems,
factors influencing nutritional status
Study Unit 2 Key components of community based nutrition
program
Study Unit 3 Nutrition Education and counselling
Study Unit 4 Development of government policies on food and
nutrition
Study Unit 5 Assessing nutrition status; nutrition surveillance
Text books and reference materials
•Temple, N. J., & Steyn, N. (Eds.). (2016). Community Nutrition for Developing Countries.
Athabasca University Press and UNISA Press.
• Blackwell, W., Buttriss JL., Welch, AA., Kearney, JM,. & Lanham, SA. (2017). Public Health
Nutrition. 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Recommended Learning Resources
• Nnakwe, N. (2012). Community nutrition: planning health promotion and disease prevention.
Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
• Steyn, NP. & Temple, N. (2008). Community Nutrition Textbook for South Africa: A Rights-
Based Approach. 1st Edition. South African Medical Research Council: Tygerberg, South Africa.
• Das, S. (2016). Textbook of Community Nutrition. Academic Publishers.
Assessment and evaluation
Assessment Weight Subminimum Required
Test 1 25 % 50 %
Test 2 35 % 50 %
Exam 40% 50 %
Final Marks and notes The relevant submini-mum MUST be
achieved in all above areas in order to
100% pass the course.
What is community nutrition
• is a discipline that strives to help prevent disease and improve the health,
nutrition, and well-being of individuals and groups within communities.
• It focuses on the delivery of nutrition services in the areas where people
live and work.
• These communities may be defined by their setting, such as a village,
school, or workplace, or they may consist of groups who have common
health concerns, such as breast-feeding mothers.
• Community nutrition programmes are often sponsored by government
agencies, but they may also involve international bodies such as the
World Health Organization (WHO).
• Community nutritionists are engaged in the direct delivery of
nutrition services in the community.
• Community nutritionists develop policies and programs that help
people improve their eating patterns and health.
• Community nutritionists are involved with many forms of nutrition
education. Examples are:
✓conducting individual or group counselling;
✓running short courses;
✓training personnel;
✓assisting with national campaigns and promotions or setting up local ones.
✓Apart from their own role as educators, community nutritionists need to
recognize the need for education in all nutrition-related interventions and
be able to advise as to the best approaches for long-term success.
• Community nutrition has three focus areas.
1. People
2. Policy
3. Programs
• As an example, low-income pregnant women benefit from nutritious
foods, nutrition counseling, and breastfeeding support provided by
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC), which is supported by federal policy that authorizes a
specific amount of funds each year for the program.
• People: These are individuals who benefit from community nutrition programs and
services. These may include; young single mothers on public assistance,
immigrants, college graduates, pregnant teenagers with iron-deficiency anemia.
• They are found in worksites, schools, community centers, health clinics, churches,
apartment buildings—virtually any community setting. Through community
nutrition programs and services, these individuals and their families have access to
food in times of need or learn skills that improve their eating patterns.
• It is the community nutritionist who identifies a group of people with an unmet
nutritional need; gathers information about the group’s socioeconomic
background, ethnicity, religion, geographical location, and cultural food patterns;
and then develops a program or service tailored to the needs of this group.
• Policy: is a key component of community nutrition practice.
• Policy is a course of action chosen by public authorities to address a given problem. Policy
is what governments and organizations intend to accomplish through their laws,
regulations, and programs.
• How does policy apply to the practice of community nutrition?
-Consider a situation in which a group of community nutritionists address low breastfeeding
rates in their community. Community nutritionists can advocate for enacting of a law on use
of breastmilk substitutes (regulations on the code of marketing breastmilk substitutes).
• Community nutritionists are involved in policy when they write letters to their state
legislators, lobby Congress to secure expanded Medicare coverage for medical nutrition
therapy, advise their municipal governments about food banks and soup kitchens, and use
the results of research to influence policymakers.
• Many aspects of the community nutritionist’s job involve policy issues.
• Programs: Programs are the instruments used by community nutritionists to
seek behavior changes that improve nutrition status and health. They are wide-
ranging and varied. They may target small groups of people such as children
with developmental disabilities in schools or teenagers living in a Windhoek
residential home or they may target large groups, such as all adults with high
blood cholesterol concentrations.
• Community nutrition programs have one desired outcome: behavior change.
• Examples of nutrition programs
1. Population based program such as vitamin A supplementation during child
health days.
2. Localised program such as prevention of malnutrition in children and mothers
in Opuwo
Community concept
Community
• A community is a grouping of people who reside in a specific locality and who interact
and connect through a definite social structure to fulfil a wide range of daily needs.
• A group of people who are located in a particular space, have shared values, and interact
within a social system.
• Is not always circumscribed by a city limits sign or zoning laws.
• Example include; the academic community, the immigrant community, church
community.
• In the health arena, communities tend to be segmented around particular wellness,
disease or risk factors, Black men with high blood pressure, children infected with HIV.
Common interest communities
• Members of a national professional organization e.g Academy of
Nutrition and Dietetics, Namibia Medical Association
• Members of churches
• Disabled individuals scattered throughout a large city
• Members of Human Nutrition Degree Program
• Teenage mothers
Community has 4 components.
1. People
2. Allocation in space
3. Social interaction
4. Shared values
