Is your health agency interested in preventing chronic disease? There is growing evidence that nutrition and growth in early life—during pregnancy, infancy and childhood—has an impact on chronic disease in adulthood. When state and local public health departments take steps to ensure the nutritional health of mothers and children they invest in the future health of the communities they serve. This module, based on a life course framework, is designed to help public health leaders describe the role of maternal and child nutrition in population health and identify actions they can take to create equitable access to healthy foods and food environments. By the end of the module you will be able to use the life course framework to design effective nutrition initiatives to improve population health.

Objectives
After completing this module, participants should be able to:

• Describe the role of maternal and child health (MCH) nutrition in the lifelong health of the population.
• Access resources for assessment, assurance, and policy development for MCH nutrition.
• Identify ways to integrate MCH nutrition within state and local public health agencies.
• Apply the principles of the life course framework for population-based public health actions and initiatives.
• Intended Audience

The primary audiences for this module are public health practitioners, planners, and administrators.

Format
This HTML-based online module has interactive exercises (Flash-based) and should take approximately 75 minutes to complete.

Course Instructors
Donna B. Johnson, PhD, RD, University of Washington
Elizabeth Adams, PhD, RD, Oregon Health & Sciences University
Marion Taylor Baer, PhD, RD, UCLA
Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, PhD, RD, Colorado State University
Dena Herman, PhD, MPH, RD, UCLA

Original Posting Date
December 30, 2011

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