Analysis of the insertion of nutritionists in Postgraduate Programs in Collective Health: identities, trajectories and position-taking

Abstract

Nutrition began its constitution as an independent profession in the 1930s. It has achieved the status of  higher education in 1967. With the emergence of the  Collective Health Space in the 1970s, it was verified  the construction of an area of Food and Nutrition in Collective Health. To what extent does this insertion correspond to an integration into the Collective Health Space or does it persists as a subspace  articulated to it?  The indicators used  were: main area of activity, doctoral area, research  lines and publications, among others. Among the 944  professors, 42 were nutritionists (4.4%). Of these,  47.6% indicated Collective Health and 42.9% indicated Nutrition as the first activity area. Nutrition and Food  was referred as the first line of research by 40.5%; and Epidemiology by 14.3%. The topic of the thesis was  Epidemiology for 42.9%, followed by Evaluation  (14.3%) and Social Sciences (11.9%). These findings  are indicative that, although nutritionists have a place  in the Collective Health Space, their positioning  evidences strategies of belonging to the field of  origin.