Evaluation practices in the field of Food and Nutrition

Práticas avaliativas no campo da Alimentação e Nutrição

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to characterize and analyze the different existing methods for the evaluation of food and nutrition programs and services in Brazil, through a systematic review of the literature focused on complete articles published in national indexed journals. We searched the PubMed, MedLine and LILACS databases using the following search terms and Boolean operators: “evaluation and program”; “project”; “intervention”; “servisse”; “actions and nutrition”; “nutritional”. The research was restricted to articles written in Portuguese, English and Spanish and published between 2001 and 2015. Twenty-two studies were selected and the analysis indicates; most were carried out through quantitative approaches and external evaluations based on epidemiological theory; participatory evaluation strategies are still uncommon; Impact assessments and implementation were predominant; there is little diversity in terms of references to the theoretical framework in the field of evaluation of health care programs in the planning and execution of the evaluation processes analyzed. The results of this study indicate the need for a more comprehensive evaluation considering the complexity of the interventions evaluated using the theoretical-methodological apparatus available in the literature to understand the importance of the different perspectives of the agents involved in the evaluation processes.

Keywords:
Program evaluation; Nutrition policy; Nutrition, public health.