ESDN Primary Care

Nutrition is a human right as explained in Alma-Ata and Astana Declarations. Primary Health Care (PHC) provides essential first-line care in a community setting. The implementation of action plans in the field of Nutrition plays essential role at this level of care, as it has the mission of developing primary and secondary prevention, empowering individuals, families and communities and respond to the needs of people throughout their lives. Diet and nutrition need to become a central part of the clinical and scientific discourse in PHC institutions and local health administrations.

Mission and Vision

Our mission is to promote the crucial role of the dietitian in PHC and to support member Associations in developing the role that PHC dietitians have in improving nutritional health and well-being, in the prevention and treatment of diseases according to scientific evidence and in reducing inequalities in Europe.

This will be achieved through:

  • Sharing and learning from dietetic practices in PHC across Europe
  • Supporting the highest quality of dietetic education, research activity and partnership
  • Developing, supporting, and delivering dietetic research programs in the area of
    Nutrition in PHC to further develop the evidence basis for practice
  • Developing and designating evidence based proposals, guidelines, reports and position
    statements, to support the highest quality of professional dietetic practice in PHC
  • Engaging with decision and policy makers at local, national and European levels.
  • Updating and developing role statement and briefing papers for the role of the dietitian
    in PHC.
  • Developing advanced competence statements for dietitians working in PHC

Who we are

Isabel Monteiro, RD; PhD Committee Lead

Superior Advisor Dietitian in PHC – Northern Regional Health Administration, Ministry of Health, Portugal

Invited Assistant Professor – University Institute of Health Sciences, CESPU, Portugal

Chairman of the Fiscal Council of the APN (Portuguese Association of Nutrition)

Specialist in Community Nutrition and Public Health (Order of Nutritionists)

Specialist in the career of Higher Health Technicians (Ministry of Health)

Teresa Maia, RD Committee member

Advisor Dietitian in PHC – Northern Regional Health Administration, Ministry of Health, Portugal

Specialist in Clinical Nutrition (title awarded by the Order of Nutritionists)

Specialist in the career of Higher Health Technicians (title awarded by the Ministry of Health)

Lea Polak, RD Committee member

Dietitian in PHC at Diëtheek Amstelveen in The Netherlands

Special interest in healthy nutrition and lifestyle before conception