| CODE | FSN2013 | ||||||
| TITLE | Nutritional Epidemiology | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Epidemiology, as the cornerstone of public health, provides a quantitative approach to understanding health in populations. This study-unit introduces epidemiology, definitions, history, and role in public health, and integrates basic epidemiological principles such as study design, measures of disease frequency, causality, and measures of association, with an emphasis on nutritional epidemiology. Students will explore dietary assessment methods, biases, confounding factors, and the interpretation of data linking nutrition to health outcomes. Study-Unit Aims: - Foster students’ understanding of the foundational principles of epidemiology and their relevance to nutritional science; - Enable students to analyse the relationship between diet, nutrition, and population health usingepidemiological approaches; - Equip students with the capacity to design, interpret, and critically evaluate nutritional epidemiological research; - Support the development of skills to apply epidemiological evidence in informing public health policy and clinical practice. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Describe the foundational principles and key methods of epidemiology, with specific reference to nutritional epidemiology; - Explain core concepts including causality, measures of association, and study design (descriptive, analytical, and experimental); - Differentiate between and evaluate the strengths and limitations of common epidemiological study designs; - Analyse the role and applications of epidemiology in public health and clinical practice; - Define and compare dietary assessment methods and evaluate their application in nutritional research; - Recognise and appraise the use of nutritional biomarkers in dietary studies; - Identify and assess the impact of bias, random error, and confounding on epidemiological and nutritional research; - Interpret and critically evaluate epidemiological findings in the context of population health. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Critically evaluate epidemiological and nutritional research studies, considering study design, methodology, and interpretation of findings; - Design a basic epidemiological study addressing a nutrition-related question, selecting and justifying appropriate methods for dietary and health assessment; - Communicate findings from nutritional epidemiology research effectively, using clear, concise, and appropriate academic and professional formats; - Synthesise epidemiological evidence to develop informed recommendations for public health policy or clinical practice. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Panagiotakos, D. (Ed.). (2021). Population-based nutrition epidemiology. MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-0019-5. (Open access eBook) - Willett, W. (2012). Nutritional epidemiology (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Panagiotakos, D. (Ed.). (2021). Population-based nutrition epidemiology. MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-0019-5. (Open access eBook) |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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