Public health nutrition practice in Canada: a situational assessment.

OBJECTIVE: Renewed focus on public health has brought about considerable interest in workforce development among public health nutrition professionals in Canada. The present article describes a situational assessment of public health nutrition practice in Canada that will be used to guide future workforce development efforts. METHODS: A situational assessment is a planning approach that considers strengths and opportunities as well as needs and challenges, and emphasizes stakeholder participation. This situational assessment consisted of four components: a systematic review of literature on public health nutrition workforce issues; key informant interviews; a PEEST (political, economic, environmental, social, technological) factor analysis; and a consensus meeting. FINDINGS: Information gathered from these sources identified key nutrition and health concerns of the population; the need to define public health nutrition practice, roles and functions; demand for increased training, education and leadership opportunities; inconsistent qualification requirements across the country; and the desire for a common vision among practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the situational assessment were used to create a three-year public health nutrition workforce development strategy. Specific objectives of the strategy are to define public health nutrition practice in Canada, develop competencies, collaborate with other disciplines, and begin to establish a new professional group or leadership structure to promote and enhance public health nutrition practice. The process of conducting the situational assessment not only provided valuable information for planning purposes, but also served as an effective mechanism for engaging stakeholders and building consensus.

Vegetable and fruit food frequency questionnaire serves as a proxy for quantified intake.

BACKGROUND: Public health practitioners need valid tools to survey trends in dietary intake. The Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) includes an optional six-item vegetable and fruit intake food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) module. Our objectives were 1) to compare reported vegetable and fruit consumption from the FFQ to quantified servings (portions) defined by Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating and ascertained by a reference method, and 2) to compare the FFQ with the reference method for their classification of the proportion of respondents consuming five or more servings of vegetables and fruit per day. METHODS: Dietitians administered 24-hour recalls to each of 174 adult respondents who had completed the FFQ as part of the RRFSS. Recalls were conducted over the telephone on three separate occasions using an adaptation of the multiple pass method. RESULTS: The mean total intake of vegetables and fruit for the group was 4.6 times/day from the FFQ versus 4.8 servings/day from the recalls (paired t-test; p = 0.92). Thirty-seven percent of respondents were classified as consuming five or more times/day by the FFQ versus 35% by the 24-hour recall servings. CONCLUSION: The FFQ tool can be used as a proxy for quantified intake of vegetable and fruit consumption.