Public health nutrition

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health:

Lists of organisations and resources

Government, university, institutes

Other organisations

Journals

National reports and manifestos

Other material

Nutritional epidemiology

Food security

Public health organisations on the web

Extremely useful list of public health organisations, university public health departments and resources on the web. Not specifically nutrition related, but many of these are important sites for public health nutritionists.

American Public Health Association

Premier body in the USA for public health, it has a specific section for dietitians and for food and nutrition matters. The web site has information on the organisation, CME for dietitians and links to relevant sites.

DARE: NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

From the Univ.of York NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination a searchable data base in which "systematic reviews are identified from a variety of sources and assessed according to a set of quality criteria". The results of a search is a listing of hyperlinked records which describe the reviews - mostly journal articles but some others as well - in structured terms which may or may not include the outcome. There is also a health economics analysis data base.

Association for Schools of Public Health in the European Region

Long list of them but only physical addresses and no Internet information.

Prevention Yellow Pages

"A worldwide directory of programs, research, references and resources dedicated to the prevention of youth problems and the promotion of nurturing children". There are some nutrition related documents.

Queensland University of Technology: Public Health Resources on the Internet

Good annotated list of public health resources, including nutrition ones with an emphasis on food safety and Ausrtalian resources, although there are plenty of international ones as well.

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Public health organisations: government, university, institutes

American Public Health Association

Information on the association, legislative issues, news and publications.

Australian Food and Nutrition Monitoring Unit

This coordinated effort of several Australian universities has a web site with an excellent set of linked documents relating to nutrition status within Australia, both data and methods.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Branch of the CDC, focussing specifically on chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and preventive strategies such as exercise and nutrition. For the latter they have a Nutrition and Physical Activity Communications Team, although there is not much material on the web site about this as yet.

National Center for Health Statistics

News releases, reports, Fedstats, surveys and data collection systems, including anthropometry and nutrition surveys, such as NHANES

NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition

Teaching centre set up by University of Sydney Human Nutrition Unit, the web site has a variety of publications, including lecture notes from a course on public health nutrition, reports on various elements of nutrition monitoring.

SIGNAL : Strategic Inter-Governmental Nutrition Alliance (

"national partnership of government health authorities formed to coordinate action to improve the nutritional health of Australians." Web site has information on national nutrition strategies, newsletter FoodChain, information on members, as well as nutrition resources and links.

USDA: Food and Consumer Service

A major force in the US government in school nutrition and the campaign against hunger in American schools. "The Food and Consumer Service administers the nutrition assistance programs of the U.S.Department of Agriculture. FCS's goals are to provide needy people with access to a more nutritious diet, to improve the eating habits of the nation's children, and to stabilize farm prices through the distribution of surplus foods."

The web site has information on such projects as:

• Food Stamp Program
• Child Nutrition Programs
• WIC Program
• Food Distribution
• Team Nutrition
• Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.

In addition to all this, there is an Office of Analysis, Nutrition,and Evaluation, that produces program reports.

WHO Collaborating Centres in Nutrition

Explanation of the program and a list of the insitutions.Some are national nutrition institutes, others are universities.

Australia: Victorian Health Department: Public Health Branch

A range of activities described and documents on-line. This includes a number of food and nutrition documents.

Australia: Menzies School Of Health Research

Have strong thread in population and public health nutrition research and teaching.

Public Health Dpt, Western Australia

Some focus on public health nutrition, including alcohol abuse, folate and general lay nutrition information leaflets

Canada: National Institute of Nutrition

Information on the organisation and on public health nutrition in Canada. Sections on consumer trends, access to several newsletters, scientific reports and educational resources. Has a subject index. There are still some technical bugs to iron out in this site, but it has much promise.

Centre for International Health

Specialise in international collaborative research, including nutritional research. The web site is concentrated on organisational more than project details, although there is another web page with brief details of some of the nutrition research projects.

Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama

Organisation doing public health and epidemiological work as collaborative effort of governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Site in Spanish and English versions have organisational and project information.

Finland: National Public Health Institute (Kansanterveyslaitos)

This body is responsibile for public health nutrition in Finland. The web site is mainly in Finnish, but there is a summary of a report on the Finnish National Nutrition Surveillance System.

Indonesia: Regional Centre for Community Nutrition (TROPMED)

"multi-disciplinary, post-graduate unit of University of Indonesia under the jurisdiction of the Indonesian Government's Ministry of Education and Culture" Offer post-graduate degrees in nutrition and community nutrition.

NZ Ministry of Health: Public Health Group

Responsible for a lot of NZ's national food policy, this web site has access to a number of full text .pdf format reports on nutrition and health guidelines, including for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Japan: National Institute of Health and Nutrition

Organisational information and a few links about this national research body in Japan. It has divisions in food science, clinical nutrition, health promotion and applied food research.

Pan American Health Organization

Technical information, country health profile, publications, library services and links. There is a special food and nutrition section and an electronic network on nutrition called NutriInfo at

Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases

Provides electronic communication (email, satellite etc.) "to create a global system of early detection and timely response to disease outbreaks."

Sweden: Center for Nutrition and Toxicology,

The Center is a mainly research institution which forms part of the Karolinska Institutet, and is within the Department of Biosciences. It also engages in public health nutrition teaching.

Thailand: Research Institute for Health Sciences

There is a nutritoin and dietary services division, but no information about it on this web page.

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Other public health organisations

Asia Pacific Public Health Nutrition Association

Information on the Association, its membership and projects, plus a quite lengthy newsletter.

Demographic and Health Surveys

A commercial organisation that has USAID funding to conduct population and nutrition surveys, mainly in the developing world. The data is downloadable, but some requires registration. The web sites also has news, and country specific reports and publications that can be ordered in hard copy.

International Clinical Epidemiology Network

"We are dedicated to improving the health of the people by promoting clinical practice based on the best evidence of effectiveness and the efficient use of resources. We achieve this through a network of physicians, statisticians and social scientists throughout the world who work together to build and sustain institutional capacity for excellence and relevance in research and medical education"

International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency

A kind of home page for this WHO affiliated group which works world wide on the elimination of iodine deficiency. The site has press releases, links, bibliography and version in Spanish and French. There is another site for this organisation at: Univ.of Virginia

Public Health Association of Australia

Has an official policy on food and health. Also this web site links to their journal, the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

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Other public health material

Pick of the crop Demographic and Health Surveys Data sets from an USAID-funded organisation that conducts population and nutrition surveys in the developing world. The data is downloadable, but some requires registration. The web sites also has news, and country specific reports and publications that can be ordered in hard copy. Africa Nutrition Database Initiative Remarkable effort, but not apparently updated recently, to supply graphs and tables on various nutrition and health parameters for African countries.

Eat Well Tasmania

A project of the Tasmanian Nutrition Promotion Task Force, this web site has some general nutrition and public health information, information about the project etc. As of 12/98 it had not been updated for over a year.

Dole 5 A Day

Material for students, teachers, retailers and media on the theme of five daily serves of vegetables and fruits.

Food and Nutrition in Local Government

Woolongong Univeristy: "the findings of research undertaken during 1995 and 1996 into local government and the food and nutrition system".

Information Technologies in food and nutrition

Papers from a conference held by the International Foundation for Science, outline a lot of useful information on public health and other nutrition research, and food composition work being done in Europe, including some of the smaller and Eastern European countries such as Estonia, Hungary, Poland etc. and in other regions of the world such as Japan, Africa, West Indies, Thailand etc.

Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board Reports

Series of reports on various matters of public health, food safety, RDIs and other aspects of nutrition. Most of them can be read on-line through the excellent National Academy Press `Reading Room'.

Titles include:

• Dietary Reference Intakes: Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Biotin, and Choline
  
• Assessing Readiness in Military Women: The Relationship to Body Composition, Nutrition, and Health of Military Women
  
• Ensuring Safe Food From Production to Consumption
  
• Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D and Fluoride
  
• Emerging Technologies for Nutrition Research: Potential for Assessing Military Performance Capability
  
• Food Chemicals Codex: First Supplement to the Fourth Edition
  
• Vitamin C Fortification and Food Aid Commodities
  
• Food Chemicals Codex, 4th Edition
  
• WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria: A Scientific Assessment
  Consideration of the Nutrition Components of the Sick Child Initiative
  
• Estimating Mean Per Capita Energy Requirements for Planning Emergency Food Aid Rations
  
• Not Eating Enough: Overcoming Underconsumption of Military Operational Rations
  
• Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs
  Committee on Military Nutrition Research Activity Report 1992-1994
  
• Food Components to Enhance Performance: An Evaluation of Potential Performance-Enhancing Food Components for Operational Rations
  
• How Should the Recommended Dietary Allowances Be Revised?
  
• Nutrition Surveys and Surveillance Activities in Russia and the Newly Independent States
  
• Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences: Research Challenges and the Next Generation of Investigators
• An Assessment of the NIH Women's Health Initiative
  
• Iron Deficiency Anemia: Recommended Guidelines for the Prevention, Detection, and Management Among U.S. Children and Women of Childbearing Age
  
• Nutritional Needs in Hot Environments: Applications for Military Personnel in Field Operations
  
• Body Composition and Physical Performance: Applications for the Military Services
  
• Eat for Life: The Food and Nutrition Board's Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease
  
• Food Labeling: Toward National Uniformity
  
• Nutrition During Pregnancy and Lactation: An Implementation Guide
  
• Nutrition Issues in Developing Countries--Part I: Diarrheal Diseases; Part II: Diet and Activity During Pregnancy and Lactation
  
• Nutrition Services in Perinatal Care, Second Edition
  
• Improving America's Diet and Health: From Recommendations to Action
  
• Nutrition During Lactation
  
• Seafood Safety
  
• Nutrition During Pregnancy: Weight Gain and Nutrient Supplements
  
• Nutrition Labeling: Issues and Directions for the 1990s

Knowledge Management in Health Services

Course material by Laura Larsen, with some material on Internet knowledge management.

Native American nutrition

Perspective on nutritional problems of Native Americans, as well as lots of material on their traditional foods. The site author expresses a personal view which makes the site all the more interesting.

Nutrition Intervention Resource Center

Interesting page on nutrition intervention resources on the Internet. Although the list is not long, the sites are placed in the contect of an explanation of what the issues in nutrition intervention area.

The Practitioner's Guide to Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Nutrition Interventions (1996).

PDF format document from National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health. The document "presents a tool for learning about cost-effectiveness analysis and developing skills in planning and carrying out evaluations that assess the cost-effectiveness of competing alternatives in nutrition-related activities. The author presents general information about cost-effectiveness, a step-by-step model, and examples of cost-effectiveness analysis applied in the field of nutrition. It was prepared for and with the assistance of members of the Maternal and Child Health Interorganizational Nutrition Group, which is a partnership of national professional and voluntary organizations and federal agencies."

Shape Up America!

"A public health initiative of the Koop Foundation, a non-profit corporation. Headed by C. Everett Koop, M.D., the former Surgeon General of the United States. Launched in December 1994 to combat the rising rates of obesity in America." This site is a very well constructed and illustrated one focussing on healthy diet and exercise. It has sections which allow you to calculate your own BMI, to assess your fitness level,and to find out about different types of physical activity. There are also press releases, health professional informationand a variety of downloadable documents, including a nicely illustrated guide to healthy eating.

University of Pennsylvania: nutrition education and prevention course syllabus

Mainly brief description of objective and requirements of various course components, but with some outline of content, e.g. medical and surgical nutrition assessment checklist.

WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria: A Scientific Assessment

Institute of Medicine (Food Nutrition Board) report on risk criteria used in Women Infants and Children nutrition supplement program (from National Academy Press).

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