Tags
GPH
Admissions requirements
Recommended: Biology and/or Chemistry (at LUC or highschool)
Description
Public health nutrition is a multidisciplinary area of expertise. To solve global problems in nutrition and health, physiological and biomedical aspects as well as the social and behavioral context are important to take into consideration. This course will focus on understanding the main function and determinants of diet and its relationship with major global public health challenges (eg. infectious diseases, cancer and cardiovascular disease).
Also, the course will focus on translating evidence from epidemiological research to public health policies and health promotion programmes, both at the local, national and international level. It will address common study designs and methods to evaluate the role of nutrition in public health as well as intervention programs addressing nutrition (e.g., behavior, food choice) and/or its societal context (eg. food policies, legislation of food fortification, and food supply at work and schools).
Course objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
Summarize the metabolism and function of basic nutrients
Describe causes and consequences of malnutrition (i.e. considering under-nutrition, over-nutrition as well as obesity).
Interpret the relation between nutrition and infectious diseases (i.e. HIV and malaria) and non-communicable diseases (i.e. cancer and cardiovascular disease).
Recognize biological, environmental and psychological factors related to nutrition.
Critically interpret results from nutritional epidemiological studies.
Translate scientific findings on nutrition and health into dietary recommendations and public health policies.
Timetable
Once available, timetables will be published here.
Mode of instruction
Lectures
Debates (eg. about food fortification)
Exercises (eg. about dietary data collection and energy expenditure)
Journal club (eg. about recent scientific findings on nutrition & health)
Nutritional assessment laboratory (eg. body composition measurements).
Assessment
Individual letter about food fortification (20%)
Poster presentations (15%)
Written group assignment: Systematic review about a topic in nutrition and health (30%, individual performance will be reflected)
In-class participation (5%)
Written exam (30%)
Blackboard
There will be a Blackboard site available for this course. Students will be enrolled at least one week before the start of classes.
Reading list
Michael J. Gibney, Barrie M. Margetts, John M. Kearney , Lenore Arab. Public Health Nutrition. The Nutrition Society. 2015 (e-book).
Registration
This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Curriculum Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Jessica Kiefte-de Jong, j.c.kiefte@luc.leidenuniv.nl.