Assessment of Nutritional Status

The courses of Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health are interesting for professionals who are conducting or using nutritional and/or health/disease research among various research target groups like patients, elderly or f.i. regional populations. It is also suitable for teachers in nutrition and/or health education, policy makers of (inter)national organisations or governments, managers of food or pharma industries that develop specific (medical) nutrition for target groups and the courses are furthermore open to anyone who wants to engage a career in the work field of nutritional epidemiology and public health.

Prerequisite knowledge:

To be able to pass the Master level online exam it is wise to start this course with a BSc level in a nutritional or health related education with a good background in statistics.

• Explain what intake/status biomarkers are, how you can interpret biomarker data, and how they are applied in nutrition science
• Recognize different types of nutritional biomarkers
• Explain and recognize errors and mistakes in biomarker analysis
• Explain and recognize how laboratory quality control is optimized and monitored during all phases of laboratory analysis
• Critically evaluate literature about nutritional biomarkers and formulate a biomarker strategy for a human study
• Recognize and explain principles of methods that can be used to measure body composition, energy expenditure, and physical activity in a given situation, and interpret it’s data

Nutritional status is determined by a complex interaction between food intake and the use of nutrients by the body on the one hand, and susceptibility (either inborn or acquired) on the other hand. Both food intake and acquired susceptibility are influenced by lifestyle factors, socioeconomic and cultural circumstances. Nutritional assessment is the interpretation of information of anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, dietary, and exercise data to determine nutritional status (from under- to over nutrition) in subjects and populations. To make a proper assessment of nutritional status you need to understand how this can be determined. Therefore, this online master's course focuses on methodology that is used to obtain anthropometric and body composition data, energy expenditure & physical activity data, and information on biomarkers of status and intake. The choice and application of assessment methods, and their advantages and disadvantages when studying a certain research question is addressed during this course. Assessment and evaluation of dietary intake methods are not discussed in this course.

Activities

This course is an online course at master level that you follow in a cohort. Learners participate at different time points and from different time zones, as most learners also have a job. The programme therefor offers learning activities that allow you to supervised self-study at your own pace, with deadlines for assignments, and can include knowledge clips, e-learning modules, online individual and group exercises and assignments, online discussions, and in some courses occasionally live question hours through MS Teams at specific dates and times. There are no online live classes. The exam has a fixed date.

This course is quite time-intensive and requires approximately 20 hours per week for the average participant. There are assignments with deadlines.

Literature

+Selected chapters from: Willett W. 'Nutritional Epidemiology', 3nd edition. Oxford Un. Press, 2013.

+Selected chapters from: Lovegrove J. 'Nutrition Research Methodologies', 1st edition, Wiley Blackwell, 2015.

Upon successful completion - passing the exam -, a digital Micro-credentials certificate (EduBadge) with 3 study credits (ECTS) is issued. The EduBadge certifies the learning outcomes of short-term learning experiences, marking the quality of a course.

+Assignment portfolio: a collection of assignments that are made during the course. This includes assignments on theory and applications, as well as a literature study and design of a biomarker protocol. The portfolio also contains critical reflections on the assignments.

+Off-campus online exam with remote proctoring.

Participation in the exam is optional. If you decide not to participate in the exam, you do not qualify for a certificate and/or micro-credential.