Indicators of food and water security in an Arctic Health context - results from an international workshop discussion

• Published in: International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Main Authors: Nilsson, Lena Maria, Berner, James, Dudarev, Alexey A., Mulvad, Gert, Odland, Jon Øyvind, Parkinson, Alan, Rautio, Arja, Tikhonov, Constantine, Evengård, Birgitta
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CoAction Publishing 2013
• Subjects: VDP::Medical disciplines: 700::Health sciences: 800::Community medicine; Social medicine: 801; VDP::Medisinske Fag: 700::Helsefag: 800::Samfunnsmedisin; sosialmedisin: 801; Arctic; AMAP; Arctic Council; Circumpolar Health; Food security; Human health; International Journal of Circumpolar Health
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10037/6068; https://doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v72i0.21530

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.