Public Health and Nutrition

Lecture by Mr. Usman

 Definitions and concepts
Nutrition
o study of food in relation to man, and study of man in relation to food
o science of food as it relates to optimal health and performance
o study of foods in relation to needs of living organisms
Human Nutrition
A scientific discipline concerned with the access and utilization of food and
nutrients for life, health, growth, development and well-being.
Scope of Human Nutrition
➢ Biological and metabolic nutrition
➢ Clinical nutrition
➢ Public health nutrition
 Public Health Definition
(Winslow, 1920)
• Public health is the science and art of preventing disease,
prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency
through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the
environment, the control of community infections, the
education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene,
the organization of medical and nursing service for the early
diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the
development social machinery which will ensure to every
individual in the community a standard of living adequate for
the maintenance of health
 Public health defined by WHO
• Public health is considered to be about the health of people
or communities, as opposed to individual health.it is
everyone's responsibility
• The concept of public health is not unique and has changed
over the years due to changes in the health status of the
population and determining situations of health
• This definition of public health is directly linked to the
wider definition of health, found in the preamble of the
constitution of the WHO (1948) where health is referred to
as “ a state of complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease.”
 Nutrition Needs
Nutrition is a fundamental pillar of human life, health and development
across the life span
❑ Fetal development
❑ Birth
❑ Infancy
❑ Childhood
❑ Adolescence
❑ Adulthood and old-age
Proper food and good nutrition is essential for
❑ Survival
❑ Physical growth
❑ Mental development
❑ Performance and productivity
 Public Health Nutrition
• Studies relationship between dietary intake and diseases
• Uses tools of nutritional epidemiology
• Knowledge for nutrition intervention to prevent disease
Malnutrition:-
A pathological state resulting from a relative or absolute
deficiency or excess of one or more essential nutrients, this state
being clinically manifested or detected only by biochemical,
anthropometric or physiological tests.
 Forms of Malnutrition
An isolated form of deficiency is rarity. Usually combinations of
nutrients are missed
Under nutrition:-
pathological state resulting from the consumption of an inadequate
quality/quantity over an extended period of time
Specific deficiency:-
The pathological state resulting from a relative/absolute deficiency
of an individual nutrient
Over nutrition:-
pathological state resulting from the consumption of an energy
excess, over an extended period of time
Imbalance:-
pathological state resulting from the disproportion of nutrients
 Examples
➢ Under nutrition: starvation, PEM kwashiorkor,
marasmus, marasmic-kwashiorkor and under weight
below the standard weight
➢ Over nutrition: Obesity, fluorosis, type-2 diabetes
➢ Specific deficiency diseases: vitamins and minerals e.g.
• Xerophthalmia
• Scurvy
• Rickets
• Pernicious anemia
• Goiter
• dwarfism
 Four major forms of malnutrition
1. PEM (Protein energy malnutrition)
2. IDA (iron deficiency anemia)
3. VAD (vitamin A- deficiency)
4. IDD (iodine deficiency)
 PEM
• Growth faltering/ development
• Children can recover their weights
• Stunting is irreversible
• Children below 30 months are most vulnerable(6-30) at risk
IDA
• Impairment of child growth and development
• Increase morbidity and mortality rates
• The main iron foliate deficiency
• Poor iron absorption from cereal base
• Blood loss from malaria, hookworm and schistosmiasis
 IDD
• Affects development of children at all stages
• Impairment of mental and intellectual functions
• In severe cases deafness and mutism
• Abortion and still birth rates
• Pre natal and infant mortality
VAD
• Increase morbidity and mortality in young children
• Main cause of blindness in childhood
• Vitamin A supplementation can reduce childhood mortality by
30%
Public Health Overview

2nd Lecture
 Key terms
• Clinical care
• Prevention
• Treatment
• Management of illness
• Preservation of mental and physical well-being through the
services offered by medical and allied health professions also
known as health care
Determinant factor:-
Factors that contribute to the generation of traits
 Continued…
Epidemic or outbreak:- occurrence in a community or
region of cases of an illness, specific health related event
clearly in excess of normal expectancy.
Endemic:- A disease that exists permanently in particular
regions or areas.
Pandemic:-spreading of disease throughout the world
Health outcomes:- result of medical condition that directly
effects the length or quality of a persons life.
 Public Health vision
• Public health is the combination of sciences, skills, and beliefs
that is directed to the maintenance and improvement of the
health of all the people through collective or social actions
• Public health is one of the efforts organized by society to
protect, promote, and restore the peoples health.
• Healthy people in healthy communities
• Promote physical and mental health
A Public Health System
Public Health Functions
 Public Health Functions(I)
• Surveillance, analysis and evaluation of populations health
status
• Monitor health status to identify population or community
health problems
• Diagnosis and investigate health problems health hazard in the
community
• Monitor environmental and health status to identify and solve
community environmental health problems
• Act as quickly possible with efficacy in solving and improving
these problems
 PUBLIC HEALTH FUNCTIONS
(II)
• Develop policies and plans that support individual and
community health efforts
• Once the health problems is identified public health seeks the
best interventions and strategies to solve the public health
problem and identify health and social agents that can be
carried out in the best way possible
Health promotion(III)
• This is a public health function that tries to promote public
health of the population educating in health from the different
health education and mass media facilities
 Disease prevention(IV)
• There are two strategies to address disease prevention
• First is high risk approach is aimed at individuals
particularly predisposed to an illness and individual prevention
manner is offered to them.
• Second is population approach this approach attempt to
control the factors of the population as a whole without
focusing on a specific collective matter.
 Levels of disease prevention
• There are three levels of prevention
Primary prevention: to intervene before a disease
appears
Secondary prevention: to intervene in pre-
symptomatic phases
Tertiary prevention: to intervene when the individual
is already ill. Try to mitigate the effects of disease
 Develop Effective plans(V)
• To develop effective programs and health facilities to protect
health the development and implementation of programs that
promote health improvement of the population as a whole,
with the condition that they are based on efficacy and scientific
evidence based and that they help to increase the populations
quality of life