NNEK24001U Public Health Nutrition: National and International Perspectives

Volume 2024/2025
Content

Populations around the world are exposed to nutrition-related health problems emerging from unbalanced diets at different life stages, in many settings accelerated by climate change. Short- or long-term exposure to sub-optimal nutrition is fueling the risk of individuals  not achieving their physiological life potentials and ultimately experienc possibly avoidable nutrient-related diseases and early death.

Public health nutrition apply nutrition science to develop programs and policies that promote optimal nutrition and health. In this course, we offer an overview of relevant public health approaches to promotion of optimal health and well-being at the population level, particularly for high-risk and vulnerable sub-groups. The course addresses appropriate frameworks for planning nutritional health promotion programs and provides an overview of different policies and programs in play for the development, implementation and evaluation of public health initiatives in the area of nutrition and diets. The complexity and needs to include environmental, sustainable, and behavioral factors in the planning and conduction of interventions in Public Health Nutrition will be addressed. In this course, we’ll use a problem-based learning approach with engaging real-world examples on e.g. the approach in developing nutrient supplementation programs, nutrient profile and health claim regulations, school feeding interventions and meal-on-wheels-programs, development and implementation of meaningful healthy and sustainable dietary guidelines, and evaluation and integration of such programs at national and international level.

Learning Outcome

Students will obtain a solid understanding of the key concepts, frameworks and assessment tools in public health nutrition and will through case studies develop a critical and knowledge-based approach to enable them to conduct public health nutrition projects and programs. Students will obtain insights to public health strategies, policies and practices in relation to nutritional and dietary challenges at local, national and international level. Students will become aware of the potentials and future role for nutrition as central to public health issues. They will obtain a solid understanding of potential obstacles and a solid toolbox of techniques on how to achieve the desired goals when using nutrition to solve public health problems.

Knowledge:

  • Describe comparatively major public health nutrition issues at a national and international level.
  • Name the major determinants for the different public health issues related to nutrition at a national and international level.
  • Describe stakeholders, policies and programs in a public health nutrition context.
  • Know about relevant strategies how to tackle public health challenges by means of nutrition.


Skills:

  • Develop strategies how UN’s sustainability goals and the green agenda can be implemented in public health nutrition approaches.
  • Distinguish between tools and programs available in public health nutrition with regard to nutrient and dietary disparities.
  • Design structured intervention programs using nutrition as a tool to promote public health.

Competences:

  • Discuss policies available in public health nutrition with regard to nutrient and dietary challenges  
  • Reflect on and discuss in a culturally sensitive way priorities in similarities and differences of public health approaches at a local and global level by means of nutrition
  • Critically develop, evaluate, discuss, and implement public health approaches facing nutrition and dietary challenges
  • Develop and collaboratively suggest alternative, culturally sensitive, and potentially more effective public health nutrition strategies and actions to specific nutrition and dietary challenges

Course literature will be announced at study start on the course’s Absalon page.

Knowledge and skills in basic human nutrition and academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree are recommended.
Lectures, theoretical exercises, group work, presentations and discussions in plenum.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 45
  • Preparation
  • 127
  • Theory exercises
  • 30
  • Exam
  • 4
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Collective

Peer feedback at an opponent’s seminar.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 minutes under invigilation
Type of assessment details
Questions relating to the learning outcomes of the course.
Exam registration requirements

Active participation in the group work seminar as presenter and opponent. Approved group work report.

Aid
Without aids
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Internal grading. More assessors.
Re-exam

Same as ordinary exam.

If the student has been active at an opponent seminar without submission and approval of a group report, a new individual report must be submitted and approved 3 weeks before re-examination.

If the student has not participated in the opponent's seminar during the course, the student must submit a written feed-back to other group reports 3 weeks before re-examination.

 

Criteria for exam assesment

Please see ”Learning Outcome”