A Survey of the Model Nutrition Services in Community Health Centers

Kye, Seung Hee; Shin, Ae Ja

Abstract

The Korean government enacted the National Health Promotion Act in January, 1995 and proclaimed its regulations and rules in September 1995, which became the basis of the national health policy. The health promotion programs consist of education for health, prevention of diseases, improvement of nutrition, and practice of healthy life style as defined in that Act. The Community Health Act was amended in 1995, which included implementing nutrition services in community health centers. The purpose of this report is to summerize the nutrition services conducted in 32 community health centers. the main nutritional activities were as follows : 1) nutritional guidance by counseling and education for pregnant or lactating women, infants, preschool children, and those with chronic diseases, 2) collection, analysis, and interpretation of data collected from the community, on background conditions and target population for the assessment of community needs, 3) evaluation of nutritional status of population in the community 4) nutritional guidance for mass feeding in different institution including schools and welfare institutions. In order to meet the government's expectations and desires, the community health centers have made continuous efforts to put nutritional activities into practice in the community. However, there are constraints, such as relative staff shortages, lack of funds, and information which hampers the nutritional activities.