OPPORTUNITIES IN

COMMUNITY NUTRITION
September 5th, 2022
Stacia Whittaker, MPH, RDN
Learning Objectives

1. Describe the three arenas of community nutrition

practice.

2. Explain how community nutrition practice fits into the

larger realm of public health.

3. Describe the three types of prevention efforts.

Learning Objectives

4. List three major health objectives for the nation and explain why each is
important.

5. Outline the educational requirements, practice settings, and roles and

responsibilities of community nutritionists.

6. Explain why entrepreneurship is important to the practice of community

nutrition.
Community Nutritionists Face Many
Challenges in Practice
 The challenge of improving the nutritional status of
different kinds of people.

 The challenge of influencing lawmakers and other key

citizens.

 The challenge of studying the scientific literature.

 The challenge of mastering new technologies.

 Successful community nutritionists are flexible,

innovative, and versatile.
The Concept of Community

• A community is a grouping of people who reside in a

specific locality and who interact and connect through
a definite social structure.
• Four components of a community include:
• People
• A location in space
• Social interaction
• Shared values

• Communities can be defined on different scales,

global, national, regional, and local
The Concept of Community

• Opportunities in Community Nutrition

• The focus of community nutrition includes people, policy,

and programs.

• People who benefit from community nutrition programs are

found in a variety of community settings.

• A policy is a course of action chosen by public authorities

to address a given problem and they are accomplished
through laws, regulations, and programs.
The Concept of Community

Programs are instruments used by community

nutritionists to seek behavior changes that improve
nutritional status and health.
Public Health & Community Interventions

• Public health focuses on protecting and promoting

people’s health through actions of society.

• The scope of public health includes infectious diseases,

such as AIDS and tuberculosis, and chronic diseases,
such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer, that kill 7 of
every 10 Americans each year.
Leading Causes of Death
• United States 2016
• Latin American & Caribbean 2016
• Barbados 2016
The Concept of HEALTH

• The proper definition of health focuses on the

interaction of humans among themselves and with
their environment.

• A constellation of factors influence health, including

individual factors, lifestyle factors, working conditions,
social networks, community services, and national
health policies.
Health Promotion
• Health promotion focuses on changing human behaviour
and lifestyle to move towards a state of optimal health

• There are three types of prevention efforts and three

levels of the intervention
• Primary prevention aims to control risk factors and prevent disease

• Secondary prevention focuses on detecting disease early through

screening and other forms of risk appraisal

• Tertiary prevention aims to treat and rehabilitate people who have

experience an illness or injury
 Health Objectives
Nations differ in how they formulate health objectives for their
peoples to achieve behavior change.

A document released by Health Canada presents a new

vision for promoting health and preventing disease by
advocating a balance between individual and societal
responsibilities for health.

The health objectives for the peoples of the United States

are published in Healthy People 2010: Understanding and
Improving Health.
 Healthy People in Healthy Communities

• This document includes two broad goals and 467 specific,

measurable targets or objectives to be achieved by the year
2010.

• Goal 1 is to increase quality and years of healthy life.

• Goal 2 is to eliminate health disparities.

Healthy People in Healthy Communities

Many nutrition-related activities are essential to this initiative

because four of the leading causes of death in the United
States are related to dietary imbalance and excess.

Coronary heart disease.

Some types of cancer.

Stroke.

Diabetes mellitus
Healthy People in Healthy Communities

• Each objective has a target for specific improvements to

be achieved by the year 2010.

• The surveillance and data tracking systems of Healthy

People 2010 will collect, analyze, interpret, disseminate,
and make use of health data to understand the nation’s
health status and plan prevention programs.
Healthy People 2010: Progress Report

• The average life expectancy at birth is 77 years, and death

rates for heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer
have declined.

• Health disparities remain evident among Americans, with

significant differences between whites and minorities in
mortality, morbidity, health insurance coverage, and the
use of health services.
Life Expectancies
 Community Nutrition Practice
• Community nutritionists have numerous job responsibilities
although there are common themes that emerge.

• Data gathering about the community itself or about the

people who use or implement community-based programs
or services.

• Issues involving policy, program management, and how to

use scarce resources.

• Determining whether nutrition programs and services are

reaching the right audience with the right messages and
having the desired effect.
Community Nutrition Practice

• Community versus Public Health Nutrition

• Community nutrition is not considered to be synonymous

with public health nutrition as defined in this textbook.

• Community nutrition is the broader of the two terms and

includes any nutrition program whose target is the
community.

• Public health nutrition refers to those community-based

programs conducted by a government agency.
Educational Requirement

• Minimum requirements include a

bachelor’s degree in community
nutrition, foods and nutrition, or
dietetics from an accredited college
or university.

• Most community positions require

registration as a dietitian by the
American Dietetic Association.
Licensure of Nutrition Professional

• In some states the term nutritionist is not legally defined.

• Licensure of nutrition professionals is designed to protect

the public, control malpractice, and ensure minimum
standards of practice.

• As of 2004, 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto

Rico had enacted some form of licensure law.
Licensure of Nutrition Professional
There are many advantages of licensure:
• Americans are accustomed to identifying licensed health professionals.

• The initials L.D. assure consumers, health professionals, and insurance

companies that persons providing nutrition services meet the specified
professional standards.

• Practice settings for community nutritionists are numerous and include

worksites, universities, health organizations, day care centers, fitness
centers, food companies, and hospital outpatient facilities.
Roles & Responsibilities
• Roles and responsibilities
for community nutritionists
include educator, counselor,
advocate, coordinator, ideas
generator, facilitator, and
supervisor.

• Community nutritionists are

increasingly expected to
manage projects,
resources, and people.
 Entrepreneurship in Community Nutrition

• Entrepreneurship is the creation of something of

value through the creation of organization.

• Organization refers to the orchestration of the

materials, people, and capital required to deliver
a product or service.
Entrepreneurs & Intrapreneurs
• Entrepreneurs are change agents who share
common personality traits.
• They are achievers and set high goals for
themselves.
• They work hard, are good organizers, enjoy
nurturing a project to completion, and accept
responsibility for their ventures.
• They strive for excellence and are reward
oriented.
• These qualities also describe an intrapreneur
whose job is located within an organization.
Entrepreneurship in Community Nutrition

• Business competencies expected of community

nutritionists include:
• Perform organizational and strategic planning.
• Develop and implement a business or operating plan.
• Supervise procurement of resources.
• Manage the integration of financial, human, physical,
and materials resources.
• Supervise coordination of services.
• Supervise marketing functions.
Entrepreneurship in Community Nutrition

• To change people’s eating habits community

nutritionists must be entrepreneurs who use
new ways of reaching desired target groups.
Emerging Issues in Community Nutrition

• Should your state government restore benefits to all legal

immigrants residing in the state?

• If you were employed as a school food service director,

what would you recommend to your school administrators
and state legislators in order to foster a school nutrition
environment that would support healthful eating?
Emerging Issues in Community Nutrition

• If you were responding to a proposed rule in the Federal

Register, would you favor giving the FDA more power in
this area?

• Given the current state of research, should the nutrition

education materials used for clients in your
organization’s heart disease risk-reduction program be
changed to reflect plasma homocysteine levels as a
CHD risk factor?
Population Growth

• Another 50 to 80 million people will probably

have been added to the U.S. population.
• The population and labor force will continue to
diversify, as immigration continues to account
for a sizable part of the population growth.
• The growing diversity of food choices is likely to
echo the increasing diversity of the population.
Between 1980 & 2020

• Hispanic population will have grown from 6.5% to 18% of

the population

• Blacks from 11.6% to 12.9%

• Asian or Pacific Islanders from 1.5 to 5 %

• whites will have declined from 79.9% to 62.5%

 By Year

• The world’s population will have grown by about 2.2

billion people.
• The number of people over 65 years of age will
have grown from 35 million in 2000 to 54 million.
• People aged 65–74 will have increased from 6 to
10% of the population.
• Those aged 75 and older will have increased from 6
to 7%.
Cost of Health Care $$$$
• Spending on health care will rise.
 Social & Economic Trends for Community Nutrition

• A worldwide increase in the educational level of the

workforce is anticipated.

• The aging of the population, coupled with a more

ethnically diverse society, will challenge community
nutritionists to develop new products and services
 Social & Economic Trends for Community
Nutrition
• An Aging Population
• The aging population will likely place many
demands on health care services, home care
services, and food assistance programs – as will
the millions of people who lack health insurance.
• Generational Diversity
• Age diversity in the workplace now includes five
distinct groups with differences in workplace
values, lifestyle and social values, motivation,
communication styles, and technical competence.
Social & Economic Trends for Community
Nutrition

• Increasing Demands for Nutrition and Health

Care Services
• Increasing Ethnic Diversity
• Challenges of the Twenty-First Century Lifestyle
• The World Health Organization describes obesity
as “an escalating epidemic” and one of the
greatest neglected public health problems of our
time.
 Social & Economic Trends for Community
Nutrition

• Watchwords for the Future

• Change, innovation, creativity, community, and
entrepreneurship are watchwords that herald the
beginnings of a new century.
• Unprecedented global social change is occurring in
which the world is growing smaller.