| Title: |
Nutrition and Public Health |
| Keywords: |
Nutrition
Measuring health status
Health Policy (incl. advocacy)
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| Country: |
United Kingdom
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| Course coordinator: |
Andrew Seal
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| Date start: |
2020-03-16 |
| Date end: |
2020-04-03 |
| About duration and dates: |
3 weeks & 2 days pre-reading, teaching takes place on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays |
| Classification: |
advanced optional
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| Mode of delivery: |
Face to face
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Course location:
Institute for Global Health |
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| ECTS credit points: |
6 ECTS credits
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SIT:
150 hours
(36 contact hours, 114 self-study hours)
30 hours lectures, 5 hours seminars/tutorials, 60 hours private reading, 38 hours essay/written assignment, 16 hours revision, 1 hours exam. For further information please see: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/igh/postgraduate/troped-optional |
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| Language: |
English
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Description:
At the end of the module students will be able:
- Outline and describe the importance of nutrition and malnutrition to global public health, the global prevalence of malnutrition, trends and future projections, the main stakeholders and players in international nutrition, and current global initiatives, such as the MDGs, which are aimed at addressing malnutrition
- Describe how nutrition interacts with other aspects of maternal and child health and gain awareness of the social, economic and cultural factors which impact on nutritional status
- Evaluate the different methods for collection of dietary intake data and their strengths and limitations for different purposes
- Interpret dietary requirement reference data with respect to populations and individuals and explain the basic nutritional physiology of key micronutrients and methods for their assessment
- Critically review current policy and practice relating to HIV/AIDS and nutrition/food security interventions and outline the process of planning and evaluating nutritional interventions within different scenarios
- Evaluate different approaches to food security and livelihood assessments
- Demonstrate practical skills in anthropometry, calculation of anthropometric indicators, and the measurement of haemoglobin
- Explain the design of nutritional surveys and use of the ENA statistical package for the analysis of survey data |
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Assessment Procedures:
The module is assessed using a multiple choice test and an essay.
The MCQ test comprises 20% of the module assessment and covers material considered to be core knowledge for anyone studying international public health nutrition at master’s level. Questions are derived from sessions throughout the course. Forty questions are included and a maximum time of 1.5 hours is allowed to complete the test.
The essay comprises 80% of the assessment mark and is a maximum of 2000 words. Students are presented with a choice of 4 questions that range across the material covered in the module but require additional individual research by the student in order to answer adequately.
Where a student fails a component of the assessment, if their overall mark is a pass (50%) the student does not need to resit or resubmit the failed component. |
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Content:
Nutrition is one of the major determinants of the health and wellbeing of children in all societies. Accurate understanding of the causes, prevalence and severity of nutritional problems is essential to designing effective programmes for the alleviation of malnutrition and its associated adverse effects on health and developmental outcomes.
This module provides students with an overview and examination of the public health importance of nutrition, the main determinants of malnutrition, including obesity, methods of nutritional assessment, and global and national policy and approaches to nutritional intervention in both developmental and emergency contexts. The main population groups we focus on are children although other groups are considered..
Sessions include:
- Nutritional requirements and measuring dietary intake
- Community based management of acute malnutrition
- Micronutrient malnutrition
- Nutrition policy
- Applying the UNICEF Nutrition Conceptual Framework in India
- Anthropometric Assessment
- Nutrition Surveys
- Interventions to improve infant feeding and cash transfer programmes
- HIV and nutrition
- Food security |
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Methods:
The module provides a varied and integrated approach to learning.
The learning methods employed during the module include lectures, group work, a computer practical, practical work and demonstrations. Moodle is used for providing copies of lecture notes and links to reference materials.
Lectures are used to provide the core knowledge and information. Understanding and application of knowledge and concepts is developed using group work, where different scenarios based on real world situations are presented to participants. Students are required to apply new knowledge and concepts to derive realistic plans for programme implementation.
Skills in data analysis are developed in a day of computer practical work where sample nutritional survey data sets are processed and analysed. Participants also undertake a practical in anthropometry; gaining hands-on experience of measuring and calculating the commonly used weight-for-height, height-for-age, BMI and mid upper arm circumference nutritional indicators. |
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Prerequisites:
English language proficiency
IELTS Standard level: Overall grade of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in each of the subtests.
TOEFL Standard level: Score of 94, plus 24/30 in the reading and writing subtests and 23/30 in the listening and speaking subtests.
For full details, see:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/general-entrance-requirement
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate-study/application-admission/english-language |
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Attendance:
12 - 30 including tropEd students |
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Selection:
The number of available tropEd places on each module in the academic year is normally determined in mid-October. TropEd applicants wishing to secure a place on modules can apply before this period and be placed on a waiting list for the module. Applicants who have paid the course fees will be notified as soon as it is confirmed if places are available on the module(s). Please note that applicants must pay the course fees in order to obtain a confirmed offer of a place on a module, and places are awarded on a first-paid, first-admitted basis. Full course fee refunds will be provided to paid-up applicants if there are not places on the module(s) for which they applied, or if the module is cancelled. |
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Major changes since initial accreditation:
No major changes made since last reaccredited. |
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Student evaluation:
Student evaluations are conducted using anonymous scoring and comment forms combined with an end-of-module open discussion. Feedback has been very positive.
Some examples of positive anonymous comments from the evaluation of the 2011-2012 module are given below:
- "Could we have another week of this module please?"
- "It is good that we focused on the Public health aspects of nutrition and evidence."
- "Enjoyed the course, enjoyed the computer sessions"
- "There is quite a lot to take in generally. But I’ve really enjoyed the course. Thank you."
See below for examples of how student feedback has been used to improve the module. |
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Lessons learned:
Students requested a longer time period to complete the module essay. The timeline has been adjusted to allow for this. Participants from a social science background sometimes found it hard to deal with some aspects of the course and so we emphasise extra support available to those students and any others who may need it; a basic background in nutrition science is covered on day one of the module to try and bring everyone to a suitable level to understand the following sessions. Lastly, following feedback on the computer software training sessions we have adjusted the amount of computer training as a compromise to address different participants requirements. |
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tropEd accreditation:
Accredited Berlin/Liverpool 1998. Re-accredited in Marseille 2004.Re-accredited in Paris, May 2008,October 2013 and in Berlin, October 2018. This accreditation is valid until October 2023. |
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Remarks:
Early registration recommended as the course is usually in high demand. |
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| Email Address: |
igh.adminpg@ucl.ac.uk |
| Date Of Record Creation: |
2012-01-12 01:17:21 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Of Record Release: |
2012-01-12 07:28:29 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Record Checked: |
2017-09-12 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Last Modified: |
2022-03-02 23:35:23 (W3C-DTF) |
