Analysis of nutritional environment assessment results and planning of interventions aiming to increase access to healthy foods

Abstract

This proposal was formulated as a result of a partnership between the Proponent Investigator and Prof. Joel Gittelsohn, from Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Prof. Gittelsohn is an important researcher in the field of Nutrition and Public Health, with large experience on developing interventions for prevention and control of obesity and other Non-Communicable Disease, specifically environmental interventions aiming to increase access of health foods. During the conduction of the project "Nutritional Environment Assessment in the city of Santos - AMBNUT Project" (Register n. 2009/01361-1), the Principal Investigator went to Johns Hopkins University as a Visiting Professor with a Fulbright Foundation Scholarship, under the Guidance of Prof. Gittelsohn (between September and December 2010). In this period it was possible to develop actions of mutual collaboration that had brought a lot of benefits to the AMBNUT project. However, due to delays in the field work the data collection was completed in July of 2011 and at the end of the Visiting Scholar period it was possible only to draft a general plan of analysis. Now with the complete and checked data sets it is possible to go deeper into the analysis, with a complete picture of the food and nutrition environment of the city of Santos. This proposal will make possible the visit of Prof. Gittelsonh and his intensive collaboration to: 1. AMBNUT project results analysis and production of scientific papers; 2. Planning if the intervention phase of the project; 3.Elaboration if grant proposal to ask for funds to the intervention project and 4. Meeting students and Professors from our research group and from other group in order to share his experience and findings of the interventions conducted in Baltimore and other communities of USA. (AU)