College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Strategy and Institutional Excellence, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU), Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Front Public Health. 2022 Nov 7;10:1038726. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1038726. eCollection 2022.
School nutrition programs impact the intellectual, social, and emotional development of school children, as well as their future risk of developing Non-Communicable Diseases. While many stakeholders are involved in the development, implementation, and evaluation of school nutrition programs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, little is known about the complementarity among those stakeholders, and the means to upscale school nutrition programs while ensuring effective, efficient, and equitable implementation. Accordingly, this study aims at exploring the perceptions of a diverse group of stakeholders, positioned at differing levels of the public health and education ecosystems in the United Arab Emirates, in relation to current guidelines and practices around the planning, implementation, and evaluation of school nutrition programs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The current study relied on a qualitative design, based on semi-structured key informant interviews. A total of 29 interviews were carried out. Those interviewees included leaders and directors from different institutions, decision- and policy- makers, nutritionists and dieticians, school nurses and nurse managers, and school principals and vice principals. All stakeholders were interviewed by the research team. Data was transcribed, and then thematically analyzed using the health systems' model as an analytic framework.
The thematic analysis of interview data identified five interrelated themes. The first theme relates to the limited coordination across regulatory local and federal entities, and the multiplicity of guidelines issued by the different stakeholders. The challenges around the human and financial resourcing of school nutrition programs constituted the second theme. The third theme was the weakly coordinated implementation efforts. The fourth theme was the need for better performance measurement, and the fifth theme flagged the need for improved inclusiveness for health needs and cultural preferences of the diverse student body in Dubai (given that there are citizens from more than 200 nationalities co-existing in Dubai).
This study emphasizes that all the involved stakeholders need to better collaborate to upscale the school nutrition program in Dubai. This will require the formation of a unified governing body, which would identify and develop a single stream of resources, and sets in place a reliable, all encapsulating and equitable implementation plan along with an overarching monitoring and evaluation framework.
学校营养计划不仅影响学童的智力、社交和情感发展，还影响他们未来罹患非传染性疾病的风险。在阿拉伯联合酋长国迪拜，许多利益攸关方参与了学校营养计划的制定、实施和评估，但对于这些利益攸关方之间的互补性，以及在确保有效、高效和公平实施的同时扩大学校营养计划规模的方法，人们知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在探讨阿联酋不同公共卫生和教育领域利益攸关方的观点，这些利益攸关方处于不同的层级，涉及到阿联酋迪拜当前规划、实施和评估学校营养计划的现行准则和做法。
本研究采用基于半结构化关键知情人访谈的定性设计。共进行了 29 次访谈。这些受访者包括来自不同机构的领导人和主管、决策和政策制定者、营养师和饮食学家、学校护士和护士长以及学校校长和副校长。所有利益攸关方均由研究团队进行访谈。研究团队对访谈数据进行了转录，然后使用卫生系统模型作为分析框架进行了主题分析。
对访谈数据的主题分析确定了五个相互关联的主题。第一个主题涉及到监管地方和联邦实体之间的协调有限，以及不同利益攸关方发布的多重准则。第二个主题是学校营养计划的人力资源和财政资源方面的挑战。第三个主题是协调执行工作不力。第四个主题是需要更好的绩效衡量，第五个主题是需要提高包容性，以满足迪拜多样化学生群体的健康需求和文化偏好（因为在迪拜有 200 多个国家的公民共存）。
本研究强调，所有参与的利益攸关方都需要更好地合作，以扩大迪拜的学校营养计划。这将需要成立一个统一的管理机构，该机构将确定和开发单一的资源流，并制定可靠、全面、公平的实施计划以及全面的监测和评估框架。
