Kirang Kim

Objectives: This narrative review examined how person-centered nutrition assessment and care could be embedded in Korea’s Community Integrated Care system for older adults and persons with disabilities and proposed a ‘From Policy to Fork’ framework linking statutory assessment, service action, coordinated follow-up, and actual food intake.Methods: This narrative review and conceptual policy synthesis drew on Korean laws and implementation documents, international guidelines, literature on assessment-tool development and validation, and Korean community nutrition studies identified through PubMed, the Korea Citation Index, Google Scholar, and official repositories through August 2026. The synthesis focused on integrated care, healthy aging and disability equity, malnutrition and frailty assessment, eating and feeding barriers, foodservice infrastructure, digital health, and implementation science.Results: Korea’s 2026 Community Integrated Care framework creates an explicit statutory basis for considering nutritional status and a policy pathway for the phased expansion of home-visit nutrition. However, nutrition remains inadequately operationalized as an accountable, cross-cutting function across municipal care pathways, particularly for persons with disabilities. Existing validated instruments cover complementary domains but do not constitute a unified cross-sector assessment framework spanning aging and disability. A staged architecture is therefore proposed: a brief common core screen; triggered modules for malnutrition, frailty, sarcopenia, dysphagia, sensory or mealtime behavior, communication, and environmental barriers; cause-based service matching; and closed-loop monitoring of recommendation, delivery, use, and outcome, with revision of the care plan where indicated. In this architecture, assessment links statutory recognition of nutritional status to accountable service action.Conclusion: Nutrition could function as a core operational domain of community integrated care rather than solely as nutrition education or meal delivery. Existing dietitian-led foodservice infrastructure and standard nutrition-management algorithms provide a foundation, but field-validated assessment modules, explicit accountability, service maps, and human-governed digital tools may need to be developed and evaluated. The proposed ‘From Policy to Fork’ framework is offered as a conceptual model requiring empirical validation, with the ultimate goal of enabling safe, adequate, culturally appropriate, and sustained eating.

Objectives: This study analyzed the current evaluation indicators used for early childhood programs by the Center for Children’s and Social Welfare Foodservice Management (CCFSM) in South Korea and developed a logic model-based performance evaluation framework to improve the system through outcome-oriented assessment.Methods: The study comprised four stages. First, existing on-site evaluation indicators were mapped onto a logic model framework to assess their suitability for evaluating program effectiveness. Second, focus group interviews were conducted with stakeholders and experts to examine their understanding of, and perceived limitations in, the current evaluation system. Third, new outcome indicators were developed using checklist items for hygiene, safety, and nutrition management implemented across centers, and program effectiveness was evaluated using these indicators. Fourth, additional indicators were developed to assess the effectiveness of child-targeted nutrition and dietary education programs, and their practical applicability was examined.Results: The current evaluation indicators focused primarily on structural (input) and process measures, with limited emphasis on outcomes reflecting the ultimate program goals. Few indicators directly assessed improvements in children’s health and dietary behaviors, and existing outcome measures relied largely on subjective satisfaction surveys completed by facility directors and parents. Based on the logic model, the proposed outcome indicators included, in the mid-term, improvements in hygiene, safety, and healthy eating practices scores, and, in the long-term, reductions in foodborne illness and food allergy incidents, increased fruit and vegetable intake, and decreased sodium and sugar intake.Conclusion: The findings highlight the need to transition the CCFSM evaluation system toward a performance-oriented framework. A logic model-based evaluation system would improve accountability and better align evaluation practices with policy objectives, whereas phased implementation would help minimize operational burden on practitioners.

Objective: Although healthy dietary habits established in early childhood are critical for lifelong health, most previous studies have relied predominantly on parental proxy reports rather than children’s self-perceptions. This study compared preschoolers’ self-perceived healthy dietary practices with their parents’ evaluations and examined discrepancies between them.Methods: This study included 243 preschoolers aged 2 to 7 years and their parents, recruited from daycare centers in Cheonan, South Korea. Data were collected using the validated, structured, self-administered Healthy Eating Practice Questionnaire, which assessed nutrition and hygiene. Mean Healthy Eating Practice Scores were compared between preschoolers and their parents using paired t-tests, and stratified analyses were conducted by sex and age.Results: Preschoolers rated their healthy dietary practices significantly higher than their parents did (P<0.001). The discrepancy was greater for nutrition than for hygiene, with hygiene ratings more consistent. This domain-specific pattern was consistent across sexes and age groups. When stratified by sex and age, preschooler-parent Healthy Eating Practice Score differences were significantly higher in boys than in girls (25.0±21.0 vs. 20.0±14.9, respectively; P=0.035).Conclusion: Discrepancies between preschoolers’ self-perceptions and their parents’ evaluations suggest that incorporating both perspectives is essential for accurately assessing children’s dietary practices. These findings support the development of dual-perspective dietary assessment and education strategies in early childhood.

황지윤, et al. J Nutr Health. 2026 Apr;59(2):93-114. https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2026.59.2.93

최슬기, et al. J Nutr Health. 2026 Apr;59(2):176-191. https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2026.59.2.176

Background/Objectives: Frailty represents a critical aging-related condition, but evidence on how different sources of vitamin C relate to frailty risk remains limited. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relationship between frailty risk and sources of vitamin C intake (dietary, including fruit and vegetable (FV) vs. supplemental) among Korean adults. Method: We analyzed data from 9478 adults in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES 2018–2019). Frailty was assessed using a modified Fried phenotype. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for frailty according to vitamin C intake source. Results: More than 60% of participants had inadequate FV intake. Significant associations were observed primarily in women. Increased FV intake (OR = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.264–0.731, comparing the highest intake group (fourth quartile, Q4) vs. the lowest intake group (first quartile, Q1)) for dietary vitamin C intake (OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.393–0.914, Q4 vs. Q1) and vitamin C intake from FV (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.348–0.851, Q4 vs. Q1), was significantly associated with a lower risk of frailty. Women with inadequate FV intake had a higher risk of frailty (OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.34–3.16) compared to those with adequate intake, regardless of vitamin C supplement use. In contrast, vitamin C supplementation was not significantly associated with frailty risk in either men or women. Conclusion: A higher intake of FV and dietary vitamin C, but not supplemental vitamin C, was associated with a lower risk of frailty, particularly among women. These findings suggest that improving overall diet quality through increased FV consumption may be more effective for frailty prevention than relying on single-nutrient supplementation.

Objectives: This study analyzes the status of nutrition education media among Korean older adults based on the transtheoretical model (TTM) and their food literacy to propose effective strategies for the development and utilization of educational media.Methods: A literature review was conducted using The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) protocol. The literature search was performed using government and local government agency websites, as well as those of affiliated institutions, health and nutrition-related academic societies, and academic search engines. A total of 144 studies were identified, and after a cross-evaluation by two reviewers based on the literature selection criteria, 73 studies were included in the final analysis.Results: Among the types of nutrition education media, card news had the highest proportion, followed by video media. The development and distribution of nutrition education media for older adults were primarily carried out by government and local government agencies, as well as related affiliated institutions, accounting for 80.8% (n = 59) of the total. When nutrition education topics in the media were categorized according to the stages of behavior change in the TTM, the largest proportion, 64.6% (n = 61), was applicable to the precontemplation and contemplation stages. When categorized by food literacy domains, all topics fell under the categories of nutrition and safety.Conclusion: Nutrition education media for older adults were found to be primarily focused on knowledge acquisition and information delivery, making them mostly applicable to the precontemplation and contemplation stages of behavior change. The concept of food literacy addressed in the different types of media was limited to the domains of nutrition and safety, with no content covering the cultural and relational domains or the social and ecological domains. For tailored nutrition education, it is necessary to develop diverse educational materials that comprehensively reflect each stage of the TTM and all aspects of food literacy.

이수진, et al. J Nutr Health. 2025 Oct;58(5):498-516. https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2025.58.5.498