Curricular Unit:			Code:
Nutritional Epidemiology			845ENUT
Year:	Level:	Course:	Credits:
3	Undergraduate	Nutrition Sciences	3 ects
Learning Period:		Language of Instruction:	Total Hours:
		Portuguese/English	39
Learning Outcomes of the Curricular Unit:
To investigate the contribution of diet on nutritional status and the onset of disease and death. Develop critical thinking in order to properly consider the issues and propose appropriate solutions. Develop skills to make in their daily practice, take advantage of recently published information on health benefit and welfare of the individual or the population itself.
Syllabus:
Epidemiologic methods in nutrition - Measurement of exposure and outcome. Particular aspects of the measurement of consumption. Nature of variation in food intake. Assessment of food intake. Assessment of intake in the distant past. The use of informers substitutes. Importance of evaluating the total energy intake. The total energy intake in the data analysis. Biological markers of dietary intake. Study of the validity and reproducibility. Sensitivity, specificity and predictive value. Association in nutrition. Bias, confounding and effect modifying variables. Effects and solutions. Gene-nutrient interactions in nutritional epidemiology. Ethical issues in nutritional epidemiology. Monitoring and nutritional surveillance. The role of epidemiological studies in determining the causal relationships between diet and disease.
Demonstration of the Syllabus Coherence with the Curricular Unit's Objectives:
The syllabus aimed at achieving the desired objectives. All objectives have one correspondent content in the syllabus.
Teaching Methodologies (Including Evaluation):
For the methods of teaching and learning, the theoretical-practical sessions focus the discussion initiated by several "stimulus material" in several plans, including “one-to-one” types and “brainstorming", and methods of analysis and problem solving. In the practical sessions the teacher will proceed with the matters raised in previous sessions, expanding them to the exercises and activities of problem solving, or will proceed with further discussions, also providing space for students to analyze and question things that have not understood, and tutorial work. Focus is thus the active participation of students, the "face-to-face" contact type, and activities with very specific objectives, which include discussion of certain topics and issues, analyzes, reviews, problem solving and decision making. Continuous assessment (oral exposition and mini-tests).
Demonstration of the Coherence between the Teaching Methodologies and the Learning Outcomes:
The syllabus aimed at achieving the desired objectives. All objectives have one correspondent content in the syllabus.
Reading:
• Nutritional Epidemiology - Walter Willett - Monographs in Epidemiology and Biostatistics - vol. 30 - Oxford University Pres - 2nd Ed. Oxford, 1998. • Design Concepts in Nutritional Epidemiology - B.M. Margetts and Michael Nelson - Oxford University Press – 2nd Ed. Oxford, 1997. • Epidemiology. An Introduction. Rothman KJ. Oxford University Press. Oxford, 2002. • A Dictionary of Epidemiology - J.M. Last -Oxford University Press – 4th Ed. Oxford, 2001.