[Nutrition programs and levels of health care]

Population health and nutrition situations present different degrees of complexity which must be met with different degrees of technological complexity. This can be accomplished by organizing, in a progressive way, the resources of the health service system to constitute different levels of attention. In this paper, the concept of levels of attention of the health service system is analyzed on the basis of the aforementioned ideas, and comments are made on the increasing administrative complexity required to keep pace with the increasing technological complexity. Mention is made of the criteria which must be taken into account in order to select nutrition activities to be performed in the health sector and the way in which these activities must conform to the different levels, according to their degree of specialization and complexity. Special reference is made of experiences where the basic or primary level activities involving community participation are particularly important. Finally, the incorporation of nutrition as a part of the attention routine at the various levels is discussed; here, the importance of the necessary mechanisms for coordination and support among the various levels is stressed.