XNB255 Nutritional Epidemiology

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Research studies generate the knowledge of food and nutrition used in professional practice, and this knowledge is continuously evolving. The ability to understand how new knowledge is generated is an essential skill that nutrition and dietetics professionals require throughout their career. Nutrition epidemiology and research skills are essential competencies for both Nutrition Science and Dietetics professionals. In this unit you will therefore develop an understanding of the methods for collection of diet and nutrition-related data and the statistical techniques that are used to draw conclusions from the data collected.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Apply the fundamental principles of nutritional epidemiology in an ethical and culturally competent manner, including study design, diet and nutrition data collection methods, and assessment of nutritional status in population groups. [XN43, XN45 CLO-1,4]
2. Describe strengths and limitations of nutrition-related data collections, including bias, confounding, and generalisability of research findings. [XN43, XN45 CLO-1,2]
3. Analyse data using appropriate statistical methods and report the findings for communication to others. [XN43, XN45 CLO-1,2]
4. Demonstrate academic and professional core skills including communication, critique, reflection, ethical practice, team work, collaboration and critical cultural consciousness. [XN43, XN45 CLO-4]

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit engages your learning through a theory-to-practice based learning approach. You will develop your knowledge of epidemiological and statistical methods during lectures and tutorial sessions that have a strong focus on real-life applications. In this unit you will build on the basic skills of understanding and presenting data developed in XNB148 Foundations of Nutrition Practice. The content of tutorials is designed to help you apply the theoretical knowledge in hands-on practical exercises. The exercises for the group work Assessment 2 are designed to scaffold your data analysis skills in preparation for the third, individual assessment. Tutorial sessions will prepare you for assessments items, and thus attendance and active participation is strongly recommended. The online Canvas site will augment your on-campus activities with self-directed study resources.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:

• A range of formative exercises will be carried out and discussed in class;
• Criteria sheet grading will be completed for all summative assessment;
• Comments on summative assessment work will be provided in addition to criteria sheet grading; and
• Generic comments of feedback will provided to the cohort via QUT Canvas and during class time.

Assessment

Overview

This unit incorporates both formative and summative assessment, with which you may assess your progress in the unit and the course.
Formative assessment includes activities and discussions during class time to assess your understanding of lecture content and your ability to apply this to real-life situations. This will assist you in identifying particular areas for improvement to support the completion of summative assessment items.

Summative assessment items will be centred around real-life examples of nutrition-focussed data collections. They will evaluate your understanding of how the statistical methods relate to study design, and will test your ability to carry out some basic statistical analyses correctly and interpret and evaluate the finding of these, as well as your ability to present your findings to an audience.
The Unit Canvas site provides details of the assessment tasks and the assessment criteria. Students are encouraged to check their work against the assessment criteria prior to submission, to ensure all aspects are completed.

Threshold Assessment Conditions
In this unit, for you to be eligible to receive a passing grade, threshold assessment conditions apply. If you do not achieve the pass level for an assessment task you are able to make one resubmission of this work for the minimum pass level, only when your achieved mark/grade is within 10% (or 1 grade) of the pass level for the assessment item. You are advised to seek feedback on your submission from the unit coordinator prior to resubmission.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Quiz

This assessment consists of a range of question types designed to test your ability to choose appropriate study designs for nutrition-focussed data collections, and your ability to identify suitable statistical methods, and understand the scientific method and core epidemiological and statistical principles. This assessment will have multiple parts spread throughout semester.

Assessment: Research design problem solving task

In a small group you will apply your knowledge about the design and interpretation of epidemiological studies by planning a nutrition focussed research study. You will be given a research question and your group will then plan and describe a research study that could address that question incorporating nutrition epidemiological principles. 

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Problem Solving Task

You will be provided with an epidemiological dataset to perform statistical analysis (using a statistical software package, typically used in practice by dietitians and nutritionists) and complete a series of structured questions to show your ability to perform and interpret statistical analysis.  You will then formulate your own research question using the same dataset, plan and complete further analysis and interpret the results which you will present in a written report. 

You will be supported in class to develop your research question and data analysis plan.  This assessment task is authentic, as you will be provided a real de-identified dataset, and replicates the types of analysis that a practitioner would perform. 

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit.