Dietitians of Canada

Dietitians in monitoring and surveillance

Background

According to the Webster's Dictionary, monitoring is "to watch, check or observe for a special purpose." The World Health Organization defines surveillance as a "systematic ongoing collection, collation and analysis of data and the timely dissemination of information to those who need to know so that action can be taken."

Dietitians monitor the growth and development of children and the health of clients and communities to identify nutrition-related problems. Food and nutrition surveillance is a key element for identifying nutrition problems and determining if the policies, programs, and services that have been put in place are having an impact.

Position

Dietitians support the use of standardized tools for monitoring the growth and development of children and the health of clients and communities.

Accessible and regularly available nutrition and health surveillance data is required to support evidence-based decision making and effective health and nutrition policies and initiatives.

• Dietitians of Canada led a partnership with other health professionals to modify the World Health Organization Growth Charts for children for use in Canada.
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• In almost every initiative dietitians are involved in, from advocating for a reduction in the sodium consumption of Canadians, to eliminating trans-fats from the Canadian diet, to food security for all Canadians, surveillance is called for as part of the solution. Canada needs to have a robust health and nutrition surveillance system including the Canadian Community Health Survey.
• Due to concerns about the malnutrition of hospital and long term care facility patients, Dietitians of Canada has joined the international community to lead a process in Canada called nutritionDay. NutritionDay is a 1-day cross sectional audit designed to collect information that will help hospitals improve how they identify patients that may be at risk of malnutrition. The goal is to improve the nutritional care of all patients.
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