Indicators of food and water security in an Arctic Health context--results from an international workshop discussion.
In August 2012, a literature search with the aim of describing indicators on food and water security in an Arctic health context was initialized in collaboration between the Arctic Human Health Expert Group, SDWG/AHHEG and the AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme within the Arctic Council) Human Health Assessment Group, AMAP/HHAG. In December 2012, workshop discussions were performed with representatives from both of these organizations, including 7 Arctic countries. The aim of this article is to describe the workshop discussions and the rational for the 12 indicators selected and the 9 rejected and to discuss the potential feasibility of these. Advantages and disadvantages of candidate indicators were listed. Informative value and costs for collecting were estimated separately on a 3-level scale: low, medium and high. Based on these reviews, the final selection of promoted and rejected indicators was performed and summarized in tables. Among 10 suggested indicators of food security, 6 were promoted: healthy weight, traditional food proportion in diet, monetary food costs, non-monetary food accessibility, food-borne diseases and food-related contaminants. Four were rejected: per-person dietary energy supply, food security modules, self-estimated food safety and healthy eating. Among 10 suggested indicators of water security, 6 were promoted: per-capita renewable water, accessibility of running water, waterborne diseases, drinking-water-related contaminants, authorized water quality assurance and water safety plans. Four were rejected: water consumption, types of water sources, periodic water shortages and household water costs.
Arctic Research Centre, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. lena.nilsson@nutrires.umu.se
Lena Maria
LM
Nilsson
James
J
Berner
Alexey A
AA
Dudarev
Gert
G
Mulvad
Jon Øyvind
JØ
Odland
Alan
A
Parkinson
Arja
A
Rautio
Constantine
C
Tikhonov
Birgitta
B
Evengård
D001110:Arctic Regions; D001835:Body Weight; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D059022:Food Safety; D005523:Food Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D014881:Water Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Arctic people; climate change; food security; indicators; public health; water security