A accomplished puzzle tells a narrative extra successfully than any particular person piece might by itself, however every bit is critical to finish the picture. That’s an analogy for a way the Global Nutrition and Health Atlas—a public useful resource with diet-related well being info for greater than 190 nations spanning throughout 30 years—works. The GNHA has hundreds of contributors, and when extra items are added, the image turns into clearer.
Powered by researchers on the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts and Nestlé Research, the GNHA homes massive quantities of information that researchers, college students, practitioners, and well being policymakers can use of their work.
“When researchers and policymakers have entry to a fuller image of dietary patterns, gaps in nutrient consumption, environmental affect, consuming habits and dietary necessities for kids and infants,” says Elena Naumova, chair of the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science on the Friedman School, “they’ve a greater thought of what and the place sources have to be deployed to advertise wholesome diet.”
The GNHA was created to foster cross-collaboration in creating a extra full response to urgent international diet challenges, reminiscent of entry to nutritious and inexpensive meals, diet training, and sustainable meals methods.
Its information and visualizations can be utilized to design tailor-made, evidence-based interventions and inform coverage modifications or useful resource distribution. Ultimately, these mixed efforts at particular person, neighborhood, and coverage ranges can have a optimistic ripple impact on the diet and well being statuses of individuals all through the world, says Naumova.
Tufts Now spoke with Naumova to study extra concerning the Atlas’s genesis, gaps in information, and the database’s position in future diet analysis.
Tufts Now: What prompted the creation of the Global Nutrition and Health Atlas?
Elena Naumova: We needed the GNHA to be each a device of analysis and public service empowerment. Vast information units can be found on-line, nonetheless, they are often exhausting to search out or obscure. To handle these challenges, we created one location that incorporates pertinent well being information and permits for it to be introduced in a visually fascinating means.
The website is a repository for over 1,000 metrics belonging to 6 dimensions: demographics, dietary consumption, dietary standing, well being standing, well being economics, and meals sustainability. The information included is wide-ranging, extremely detailed, validated, and publicly obtainable. Not solely is it vital to supply top quality information, but additionally to offer instruments for correct evaluation and utility.
To empower the general public, the platform affords coaching and case research for information utilization. Our hope is that by selling information entry and coaching, there’s higher room for cross-collaboration and progressive interdisciplinary analysis alternatives amongst a wide range of customers.
Gathering this information in a single place might help us overcome a few of the challenges in making knowledgeable suggestions for wholesome diets and diet. When researchers and policymakers have entry to a fuller image of dietary patterns, gaps in nutrient consumption, environmental affect, consuming habits and dietary necessities for kids and infants, and the variety of well being care amenities in a area, for instance, they’ve a greater thought of what and the place sources have to be deployed to advertise wholesome diet.
Where does the info come from?
Our focus is to attract information from respected sources which are examined by time and its customers. The GNHA curates information from greater than 15 public databases, such because the World Bank, World Health Organization, United Nations, and Dietary Household Survey, and inside sources like Nestlé, the Global Dietary Database, and the Global Burden of Disease.
The information may be accessed both as collective metadata or by particular indicators, timespan, and nation/ area of curiosity. As a world database, it is a place to acquire diet and well being info, in addition to deposit your personal information.
Missing information is an issue that usually accompanies massive information units. How does the Atlas confront this subject?
Missing information is a major problem regardless of how massive the info set. Because it’s a typical subject, we’re dedicated to transparency and information high quality assurance. Data solely comes from established and credible public sources, and it’s reviewed previous to being added to the platform. All information is accompanied by well-documented metadata that incorporates info on how a lot of it’s lacking, a glossary of phrases and their definitions, and hyperlinks to the unique supply.
We additionally should needless to say sometimes with massive, international information units, some voices get misplaced within the dialog. In some nations, information assortment is difficult due to useful resource limitations, value, and upkeep concerns. If lacking information can’t be addressed, it’s important at a minimal to boost consciousness concerning the subject and preserve transparency and parity.
How do you envision this device enhancing diet analysis and, doubtlessly, a few of the six dimensions tracked within the GHNA, reminiscent of dietary standing or meals sustainability?
Data from the GNHA can consider in addition to examine indicators at nation, area, and international ranges, both to one another or over time. Studying these relationships can inform us as researchers what indicators have improved and the place future interventions could have to be focused.
A serious element of enhancing diet analysis is training, and the platform’s instructional advantages are two-fold. First, it affords the following wave of researchers, college students, and policymakers a chance to study from information visualization. Graphic or pictorial representations can simplify advanced information units and convey info in a fast, environment friendly method. That can immediate stronger and simpler interdisciplinary approaches to time-sensitive considerations reminiscent of malnutrition, diet-related illnesses, and maternal well being.
Moreover, visualizations can reveal patterns or developments that in any other case couldn’t be captured. Many of us are visible learners and seeing information by way of a colourful show could make it extra understandable. From a coverage and intervention perspective, it permits for understanding of what researchers and policymakers have been doing proper, and the place we have to enhance.
As researchers, we’re hopeful that future tasks and interventions will use the GNHA. We additionally welcome and stay up for others’ contributions. As a dynamic information repository, the platform continues to hunt new information inside its present dimensions and collect info for brand new disciplines which can be built-in.
https://now.tufts.edu/articles/filling-map-better-nutrition
