HNE-33903 Assessment of Nutritional Status (DL)

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Basic and applied nutrition

Continuation courses:

The DL-MSc-specializations have a fixed schedule during the pilot-phase

Contents:

Note: This course has a maximum number of participants. The deadline for registration is one week earlier than usual. See Academic Year.(http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Education-Programmes/Current-Students/Agenda-Calendar-Academic-Year.htm) -> Registration for Courses.
Note: The period mentioned below is the period in which this course starts. For the exact academic weeks see the courseplanning on www.wur.eu/schedule.

Nutritional status is determined by a complex interaction between food intake and utilization of nutrients by the body on the one hand, and susceptibility -either inborn or acquired- on the other hand. Intake and susceptibility are influenced by lifestyle, health condition, and socio-economic and cultural circumstances. Assessment of nutritional status is based on anthropometric and body composition data , and on biochemical, clinical, dietary and energy expenditure information. To make a proper assessment of nutritional status it is required to understand the methods that are used in nutritional assessment and also how accuracy and precision of the methods determine its usefulness for assessing nutritional status at the individual or group level. Understanding of errors related to the collection and analysis of human specimen are reviewed as well.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- understand methods that can be used to quantify body composition, energy expenditure, or physical activity;
- interpret and discuss methods that can be used to quantify body composition, energy expenditure, or physical activity for a given research question;
- describe and discuss the requirements of biomarkers of intake and understand how errors related to the collection and analysis of specimen influence the validity.

Activities:

Studying clips, studying literature, individual and group assignments with peer-review.

Examination:

Will be announced.

Literature:

- Selected chapters from : Willett W. Nutritional Epidemiology, 3nd edition. Oxford Un. Press, 2013. - Gibson RS. Principles of Nutritional Assessment. Chapter 1: Introduction. Second edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005; except par 1.4.9-1.4.15.