What is NutriSTEP^®?

• Valid and reliable 17-item questionnaires for parents and caregivers of toddlers (18-35 months) and preschoolers (3-5 years) to assess nutritional risk.
• After completing the questionnaires, the resulting risk scores can guide your clinical decision making by:
  • Identifying children at low risk who require no immediate follow-up
  • Identifying children at moderate risk whose families would benefit from key health messages and resources
  • Identifying children at high risk whose families would benefit from further assessment and treatment support from a health care provider
• Accompanying parent education resources are available at: UnlockFood.ca.
• Referrals to relevant community services can be a valuable adjunct to supporting your clients.  Referral map templates are available in the NutriSTEP^® Implementation Toolkit (2015).
• NutriSTEP^® has undergone extensive testing and research.  See Research.  

What is Nutri-eSTEP and can I use this in my practice?

• The Nutri-eSTEP platform is an interactive tool on this website. 
• Parents complete the 17-item questionnaire online and then receive immediate feedback messages based on their responses to the NutriSTEP^® questions, but no risk score is calculated.
• Parents can print their own results to themselves; however, we are not able to provide an individual’s results to your practice.  Only parents can provide you with a copy of results they received. With appropriate resources, opportunities can exist to obtain the required permissions, define the data report templates, and provide standardized aggregate reports that would be valuable for provincial governments, as well as local health departments.
• For more information, see About NutriSTEP^® 

How can I implement NutriSTEP^® into my practice?

There are a number of options, electronic as well as paper-based.

• In the waiting room:
  • Use a patient-facing electronic form on your waiting room tablet (saves time as parents complete in the waiting room)
  • Use a parent-administered paper copy (flexible to meet your patient and practice needs)
• In the examination room:
  • Use an electronic form in your EMR (virtual charting and real-time risk score)

Why use NutriSTEP^® in my practice?

• NutriSTEP^® provides an opportunity to start the conversation about nutrition risk topics.
• NutriSTEP^® provides clear, concise and consistent evidence-based clinical guidance.
• NutriSTEP^® supports interdisciplinary care.
• Ultimately, NutriSTEP^® improves overall quality of care and nutrition management of young children and their families in your practice.