Who is the nutrition workforce in the Western Cape?
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2011
TITLE AUTHOR(S): H.Goeiman, D.Labadarios, N.P.Steyn
KEYWORDS: FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR, FOOD AND NUTRITION, WEIGHT MANAGEMENT, WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 6941
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/3677
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/3677
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to determine the current nutrition staffing profile of the Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP) in Department of Health in the Western Cape, and establish whether it is adequate to meet the objectives of the INP. Method: Self-administered questionnaires compiled in English were used as the main data collection instrument for nutrition staff in districts and at hospitals (n = 647). Eight individual questionnaires, one per staff category, were developed and utilised in the study. Results: Foodservice workers were the largest group of nutrition personnel (n = 509; 79%), followed by dieticians (n = 64; 10%), managers (n = 31; 5%), auxiliary workers (n = 28; 4%), and administrative workers (n = 15; 2%). Sixty-two per cent of the nutrition workforce was located in urban areas and 38% in rural districts. Hospital and district dieticians experienced common problems, as well as specific differences. Regarding problems, both categories referred to limited resources, inadequate number of available posts, and lack of acknowledgement and support from administrative and supply chain management. District dieticians were also hampered by lack of space for consultations, poor referrals from doctors, insufficient posts for nutrition advisers, and difficulty in communicating with Xhosa-speaking patients. Hospital dieticians were hampered by insufficient interaction with district dieticians and lack of dieticians for specialised units. They also mentioned that poor salaries were affecting morale. Recommendations such as additional posts for dieticians, improved conditions of service and salaries, increased advocacy for nutrition, and a number of human resources recommendations were made, and should be considered if the INP objectives are to be met.-
Related Research Outputs:
- What's in the lunchbox?: dietary behaviour of learners from disadvantaged schools in the Western Cape, South Africa
- Presentation and interpretation of food intake data: factors affecting comparability across studies
- A review of school nutrition interventions globally as an evidence base for the development of the Healthkick Programme in the Western Cape, South Africa
- How diverse is the diet of adult South Africans?
- Prevalence of obesity and associated factors in South Africans 50 years and older
- Overweight and obesity and associated factors among school-aged adolescents in Ghana and Uganda
- What's in the lunchbox?
- Factors which influence the consumption of street foods and fast foods in South Africa: a national survey
- Prevalence of obesity and associated factors in South Africans 50 years and older
- Overweight and obesity and associated factors among school-aged adolescents in Ghana and Uganda
- Protocol for the modeling the epidemiologic transition study: a longitudinal observational study of energy balance and change in body weight, diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk
- Association of body weight and physical activity with blood pressure in a rural population in the Dikgale village of Limpopo province in South Africa
- Size at birth, weight gain in infancy and childhood, and adult diabetes risk in five low- or middle-income country birth cohorts
- "Healthkick": formative assessment of the health environment in low-resource primary schools in the Western Cape province of South Africa
- Urbanisation and the nutrition transition: a comparison of diet and weight status of South African and Kenyan women
- The nutrition transition and adequacy of the diet of pregnant women in Kenya
- The dilemma of sugar-sweetened beverages
- Stunting, overweight and obesity in the very young: two sides of the coin
- You are what you eat and you eat what you can afford
- Overweight and obesity and associated factors among school-aged adolescents in Thailand