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Background: Addressing the high prevalence of disease-related malnutrition (DRM) requires political will. The aim of this study is to define DRM as a health public policy issue from the point of view of the stakeholders. Methods: We conducted a qualitative phenomenological study consisting of grey data search and individual semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders (policy-makers, academics, and civil society organization representatives) from 17 Latin American countries. The analyzed themes reflected ideas repeatedly found across the interviews. Results: 26 respondents were interviewed (5 policy-makers, 18 academics, 3 civil society organizations representatives). The grey data research and interviews showed that Brazil and Costa Rica were the only countries in the Region that had developed a specific public health policy addressing DRM and nutrition care issues. The rest of the Latin American countries had a nutrition policy which neither addressed DRM specifically nor included nutrition care, with important heterogeneity existing in terms of national regulation of selected nutritional care categories. Stakeholder opinions allowed to identify heterogeneity in the understanding of the nature and causes of DRM, confusing DRM with malnutrition caused by food insecurity and lack of food availability. Policy in the field of clinical nutrition can be addresses from two approaches: interdisciplinarity and a human rights-based approach. Conclusion: DRM is an unaddressed problem by health policy. Due to internal and external factor related to the health systems DRM has not been able to become a public policy issue. The study highlights the need for the development of public policy in clinical nutrition aimed at improving access to nutrition care. © 2021 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Background: Addressing the high prevalence of disease-related malnutrition (DRM) requires political will. The aim of this study is to define DRM as a health public policy issue from the point of view of the stakeholders. Methods: We conducted a qualitative phenomenological study consisting of grey data search and individual semi-structured in-depth interviews with stakeholders (policy-makers, academics, and civil society organization representatives) from 17 Latin American countries. The analyzed themes reflected ideas repeatedly found across the interviews. Results: 26 respondents were interviewed (5 policy-makers, 18 academics, 3 civil society organizations representatives). The grey data research and interviews showed that Brazil and Costa Rica were the only countries in the Region that had developed a specific public health policy addressing DRM and nutrition care issues. The rest of the Latin American countries had a nutrition policy which neither addressed DRM specifically nor included nutrition care, with important heterogeneity existing in terms of national regulation of selected nutritional care categories. Stakeholder opinions allowed to identify heterogeneity in the understanding of the nature and causes of DRM, confusing DRM with malnutrition caused by food insecurity and lack of food availability. Policy in the field of clinical nutrition can be addresses from two approaches: interdisciplinarity and a human rights-based approach. Conclusion: DRM is an unaddressed problem by health policy. Due to internal and external factor related to the health systems DRM has not been able to become a public policy issue. The study highlights the need for the development of public policy in clinical nutrition aimed at improving access to nutrition care. © 2021 European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism

To mirror the World Hearth Federation’s initiative “My Heart, Your Heart”, the Colombian Heart Foundation developed a survey within the framework of the “Responsible Hearts” program, which pursues the objective of making people accountable for their heart’s health. The objective of this article is to describe the results of the survey conducted in September 2019.

Background The gap between the nutrition education provided to medical students and the nutrition competencies and attitudes needed for physicians to provide adequate nutrition care is a global concern. There is no universally accepted benchmark on nutrition competencies for doctors. The objective of this study was to establish, by expert consensus, the objectives of undergraduate nutrition medial education, the nutrition core competencies, and strategies for curriculum development in medical nutrition education. Methods We administered a Delphi survey to systematically gather the opinion of a panel of Latin American experts in nutrition. The survey questionnaire was constructed considering scientific literature by using a 5-point Likert scale. Consensus was defined as >70% agreement on the importance of an item (Likert scale 4 and 5). Results A four-round Delphi survey was conducted for this research. In the second, third, and fourth rounds, we validated a total of 130 competencies by consensus, which were distributed into four different thematic areas: (1) basic nutrition concepts, (2) public nutrition and nutrition prevention throughout the life cycle, (3) nutrition status and disease, and (4) nutrition care process. Conclusion The curricula for general physician education in medical school must include health promotion, prevention, and treatment of diseases related to nutrition. This goal can be reached by integrating ≤130 competencies into four different fundamental areas.