Tag: Data collection

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over two billion people worldwide suffer from some form of malnutrition, whether undernutrition or micronutrient deficiencies. The nutrition surveillance process is a vital, ongoing system used to collect, analyze, and interpret nutrition-relevant data to inform public health decisions and improve population health outcomes.

According to privacy laws like HIPAA and GDPR, sensitive health data, including nutritional information, requires explicit consent from individuals before collection and use. This critical first step, known as obtaining informed consent before collecting nutritional information, ensures legal compliance and upholds patient rights.

The World Food Programme (WFP) widely uses the Food Consumption Score (FCS) as a composite indicator to measure a household's food security status. It combines dietary diversity, food frequency, and the relative nutritional importance of different food groups to provide a comprehensive picture of consumption patterns.

According to the National Institutes of Health, food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) have been widely used in large-scale epidemiological studies since the 1990s to assess dietary intake. These questionnaires offer numerous advantages over other dietary assessment methods, primarily because they provide a simple, cost-effective way to capture long-term habitual diet over several months or even a year.

According to the National Cancer Institute, over one million dietary recalls have been collected since 2009 using the Automated Self-Administered 24-hour (ASA24) tool, highlighting its prevalence in research. A dietary recall is a comprehensive, structured interview used to gather detailed information about an individual's food and beverage consumption over a specified period, typically the previous 24 hours.

The 24-hour dietary recall is one of the most widely used methods for assessing an individual's diet, especially in large population-based surveys. This standardized interview process requires a trained interviewer to ask a respondent to recall all food and beverages consumed over the past 24 hours. The most effective and accurate way to conduct this process is through the multiple-pass method, which structures the conversation to minimize memory-based errors.

As of October 2025, the Poshan Tracker app is used by 1.34 million Anganwadi workers to serve over 104 million eligible beneficiaries. So, what data does Poshan Tracker collect? It's a comprehensive mobile-based application that captures real-time health and nutritional information across India.

Recent CDC reports and academic research highlight the critical importance of accurate body measurements for health assessments and product design. Obtaining reliable anthropometric data is essential for creating ergonomic products, assessing nutritional status, and ensuring accessibility in various environments for diverse populations.

Globally, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity are considered leading risk factors for various noncommunicable diseases, making robust nutrition research critically important. But uncovering the complex links between diet and health is a formidable scientific undertaking.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 148 million children under five were stunted in 2022 due to chronic undernutrition. Understanding the difference between nutrition surveillance and growth monitoring is crucial to effectively address these public health issues, as they operate on different scales and for distinct purposes.