Food Security/Climate:
Nutritional interventions are measures taken up to improve or resolve nutritional problems and diagnosis by providing education, advice, technology, or actual delivery of food the food components/nutrients of a specific meal or diet plan tailored to people’s needs (Andeal.org, 2014). There are several types of interventions such as behavioral, regulatory and staple food bio-fortification. Behavioral interventions are aimed at adjusting personal habits and practices such as encouraging breastfeeding, nutritional counseling in pregnancy, complementary feeding, and dietary advice to encourage weight loss in obese adults. Regulatory interventions, on the other hand, aim to regulate certain nutrition-related actions or activities with an impact on nutrition or with health outcomes. Examples of regulatory interventions include regulating the impact of marketing of processed non-alcoholic beverages and foods on children, and also marketing of breast-milk substitutes as complete alternatives to breastfeeding. Finally, staple food biofortification is a nutritional intervention aimed at improving the nutritional quality of food by increasing the micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) content. Bio-fortification can be done using modern biotechnology, conventional plant breeding, and basic agronomic practices (WHO, 2016).
Public Health Models (PHM) address health and social issues comprehensively by considering human factors, environment, the characteristics of causal factors, and then suggest the possible solutions/interventions. In this case, PHM models take on a population approach to disease prevention and health promotion. American public health models are often based on scientific research and behavioral change. These models have been widely adopted in various countries around the world and at times implemented as hybrid models. For example, in India, the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) is an organization in India that works to promote health care among the local population in India, provides training and education on health issues, and works on research to develop better health policies (Healthmarketinnovations.org, 2016). SEARCH uses a PHM model that focuses on community-based health facilities, scientific research, and behavioral change especially in regard to birth practices and infant care thus lowering the infant mortality rates in rural areas. These models borrow heavily from PHM models used in the United States such as the trans-theoretical, PATCH (Planned Approach to Community Health) and Social-Ecological models (ctb.ku.edu, 2016).
References:
Andeal.org. (2014). Nutrition Care Process (NCP) - Step 3: Nutrition Intervention (1st ed., p. 1). Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics - Evidence Analysis Library (ANDEAL). Retrieved from https://www.andeal.org/vault/2440/web/files/20140527-NI%20Snapshot.pdf
ctb.ku.edu. (2016). Chapter 2. Other Models for Promoting Community Health and Development | Section 7. Ten Essential Public Health Services. Community Tool Box (CTB). Retrieved 15 July 2016, from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/models-for-community-health-and-development/ten-essential-public-health-services/main
Healthmarketinnovations.org. (2016). Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH). Healthmarketinnovations.org. Retrieved 16 July 2016, from http://healthmarketinnovations.org/program/society-education-action-and-research-community-health-search
WHO. (2016). Nutrition interventions. World Health Organization (WHO) - e-Library of Evidence for Nutrition Actions (e-LENA). Retrieved 15 July 2016, from http://www.who.int/elena/intervention/en/
