A accomplished puzzle tells a narrative extra successfully than any particular person piece might by itself, however every bit is important 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 data for greater than 190 international locations spanning throughout 30 years—works. The GNHA has 1000’s 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 Analysis, 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 youngsters and infants,” says Elena Naumova, chair of the Division of Diet Epidemiology and Knowledge Science on the Friedman Faculty, “they’ve a greater concept of what and the place assets must be deployed to advertise wholesome diet.”
The GNHA was created to foster cross-collaboration in creating a extra full response to urgent world diet challenges, reminiscent of entry to nutritious and reasonably priced meals, diet schooling, and sustainable meals programs.
Its information and visualizations can be utilized to design tailor-made, evidence-based interventions and inform coverage modifications or useful resource distribution. In the end, these mixed efforts at particular person, group, 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 be taught 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 World Diet and Well being Atlas?
Elena Naumova: We wished the GNHA to be each a device of analysis and public service empowerment. Huge information units can be found on-line, nonetheless, they are often arduous to seek 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 method.
The location 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 accessible. Not solely is it vital to offer prime quality information, but in addition to provide instruments for correct evaluation and utility.
To empower the general public, the platform provides coaching and case research for information utilization. Our hope is that by selling information entry and coaching, there may be larger room for cross-collaboration and modern interdisciplinary analysis alternatives amongst quite a lot of customers.
Gathering this information in a single place may also 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 youngsters and infants, and the variety of well being care amenities in a area, for instance, they’ve a greater concept of what and the place assets must be deployed to advertise wholesome diet.
The place does the information come from?
Our focus is to attract information from respected sources which can be examined by time and its customers. The GNHA curates information from greater than 15 public databases, such because the World Financial institution, World Well being Group, United Nations, and Dietary Family Survey, and inner sources like Nestlé, the World Dietary Database, and the World Burden of Illness.
The information will be accessed both as collective metadata or by particular indicators, timespan, and nation/ area of curiosity. As a worldwide database, this can be a place to acquire diet and well being data, in addition to deposit your personal information.
Lacking information is an issue that sometimes accompanies massive information units. How does the Atlas confront this subject?
Lacking information is a significant issue irrespective of how massive the information set. As a result of it’s a standard subject, we’re dedicated to transparency and information high quality assurance. Knowledge 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 data on how a lot of it’s lacking, a glossary of phrases and their definitions, and hyperlinks to the unique supply.
We additionally should remember the fact that often with massive, world information units, some voices get misplaced within the dialog. In some international locations, information assortment is difficult due to useful resource limitations, value, and upkeep issues. 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 bettering diet analysis and, doubtlessly, a few of the six dimensions tracked within the GHNA, reminiscent of dietary standing or meals sustainability?
Knowledge from the GNHA can consider in addition to examine indicators at nation, area, and world ranges, both to one another or over time. Finding out these relationships can inform us as researchers what indicators have improved and the place future interventions might must be focused.
A serious element of bettering diet analysis is schooling, and the platform’s instructional advantages are two-fold. First, it provides the following wave of researchers, college students, and policymakers a chance to be taught from information visualization. Graphic or pictorial representations can simplify complicated information units and convey data in a fast, environment friendly method. That may immediate stronger and simpler interdisciplinary approaches to time-sensitive considerations reminiscent of malnutrition, diet-related illnesses, and maternal well being.
Furthermore, visualizations can reveal patterns or tendencies that in any other case couldn’t be captured. Many people are visible learners and seeing information by means 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 initiatives 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 data for brand spanking new disciplines which can be built-in.
