Food and nutrition in the Family Health Strategy in five Brazilian cities

Abstract

This work is part of a national study seeking to understand the difficulties and the potential for overcoming the challenges faced in the quest to improve food and nutrition campaigns developed under the aegis of the Family Health Strategy. It is examined from the standpoint of professional teams of the Family Health Strategy and Family Health Support Centers of five major Brazilian cities. A qualitative approach was used to design a multiple case approach and the technique of focus groups was conducted to collect data. The instrument used was a semi-structured pre-tested and validated script with two leading questions. The Collective Subject Discourse technique was used for data analysis, based on which the synthesized discourses were created using the Qualiquantisoft program. Sixty health professionals from various training areas were interviewed, including dietitians, nurses and physicians. The results showed that the difficulties encountered for the provision of food and nutrition campaigns and the lack of professionals in this area have hampered compliance with the principles of comprehensiveness, universality and resolubility of health care.