Public Health Nutrition MSc

This module provides an in-depth exploration of the fundamentals of nutrition, equipping you with the skills to critically evaluate key concepts, research data, and scientific arguments in the field. You’ll examine essential, conditionally essential, and non-essential nutrients, as well as gene-nutrient interactions and the impact of beneficial non-nutrients. A key focus is on dietary reference values, their sources, uses, and limitations, alongside an investigation into food sources of nutrients, toxins, and anti-nutrients. You’ll also explore how food production, supply, and preparation influence nutrient composition, as well as the digestion, absorption, and metabolic fate of nutrients. Understanding the role of diet across the lifespan, alongside mechanisms like energy balance, nutrient storage, homeostasis, and immunity, will provide a strong foundation for applying nutritional knowledge in health and disease. This module develops your ability to analyse and apply nutrition science, an essential competency for careers in nutrition, research, and public health.

Module Content:

1. Nutrients, including water and alcohol

• Essential nutrients
• Conditionally essential nutrients
• Dispensable (non-essential) nutrients
• Beneficial non-nutrients
• Gene-nutrient interactions

2. Reference values: their sources, uses and limitations

• Dietary reference values
• Safe Upper Levels

3. Food sources:

• Of nutrients
• Of other constituents of food
• Toxins
• Anti-nutrients

4. How food production, supply, and  preparation can determine chemical composition and content of dietary nutrients and other constituents

5. Digestion and absorption of nutrients

• Metabolic fate of nutrients / end products of nutrient metabolism
• Biological effects of inert ingesta

6. Role of diet, nutrition and foods across the lifespan

7. Key functions of the body

• Control of food intake
• Bioavailability of nutrients
• Energy balance and nutrient balance
• Nutrient turnover and storage
• Homeostasis and homeorrhesis
• Adaptation and its limits
• Diet and immunity

This module dives into the critical connections between nutrition and health, exploring how diet shapes the risk and prevention of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. You’ll investigate nutritional epidemiology and public health, examining how food choices and eating behaviours differ across populations. The role of scientific advisory committees and regulatory agencies will be unpacked, revealing how policies influence what we eat. Most importantly, this module equips you with the skills to analyse and apply evidence-based dietary strategies to improve health outcomes. By understanding healthy eating recommendations and the science behind them, you’ll be prepared to navigate emerging nutrition challenges and contribute to public health initiatives. Whether you aim to work in healthcare, policy making, or nutrition research, this module provides essential expertise for making a real-world impact on diet-related health issues.

Module Content:

1. Emerging concerns in nutrition and health

2. Dietary factors in the aetiology and prevention of chronic diseases (eg. cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes).

3. Nutritional epidemiology and public health.

4. Nutrition needs of different groups, including eating behaviour and food choice.

5. Role of scientific advisory committees and regulatory agencies.

6. Healthy eating recommendations for the general public.

This module explores the dynamic and multidisciplinary field of public health promotion and policy, emphasising the critical evaluation of current developments, strategies, and research-driven approaches. You’ll examine food, nutrition, and health policies, both nationally and internationally, assessing their implications for practice and public health outcomes. A key focus is on policy planning, health surveillance, and determinants of health, as well as addressing inequalities in health and disease, including the links to food sustainability and environmental factors. You’ll also gain insight into health promotion theories and models, such as social marketing, behaviour change, and empowerment strategies, and learn how to apply these to nutrition interventions and community health initiatives. The module equips you with the ability to evaluate public health frameworks, assess policy effectiveness, and develop evidence-based health promotion strategies, preparing you for careers in public health nutrition, nutrition policy, and health advocacy.

The module aims to provide the student with:

1. a knowledge and systematic understanding of public food, nutrition and health policy, including the international influences on public policy formation in national governments, with implications for practice
2. an understanding of the re-orientation of public health services, current frameworks, standards and outcome measures in order to enable them to evaluate these 
3. the ability to critically assess implications of policy on health promotion and maintenance at a community level
4. an understanding of the different approaches to health promotion and application of these in relation to nutrition interventions
5. an enhanced understanding of health promotion theory and develop and evaluation practice in health promotion
6. an understaing of social marketing, market segmentation and how to apply this into practice in support of health promotion

Module Content:

• Public Health, Health surveillance, health policy and health improvement – goals and practice
• Overview of national and European food policies in the context of GATT and the WTO; Parallel aspects of food, social, environment and transport policy
• Overview of roles and legal context of national and European nutrition policies and action plans; Policy and strategy development and implementation
• Theory and practice of policy planning, within an international context, including the nature and significance of goals and targets
• Determinants of health
• Inequalities in health and disease – including links to food sustainability
• Definition, theories and models of health promotion: health beliefs, behaviour change, social marketing, empowerment, education
• Evaluation of health promotion practice

This module provides an opportunity to conduct independent research, allowing you to contribute to the growing body of knowledge in your field of study. Working closely with a supervisor and research coordinator, you will design and execute a research project that aligns with your academic discipline. This involves identifying a research question, reviewing existing literature, selecting appropriate methodologies, and analysing data to generate meaningful insights. Through this process, you’ll develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and research skills, essential for academic and professional success. The module emphasises independent inquiry and evidence-based analysis, preparing you to engage with real-world challenges in your chosen field. By the end, you’ll have completed a rigorous, well-structured research project, demonstrating your ability to contribute valuable findings to your discipline—an essential competency for further study, professional research, or industry application.

This module delves into the sociological and psychological influences on nutrition and health behaviours, equipping you with essential skills for public health nutrition and dietetics. You’ll explore key psychological theories, including social cognition models, motivation, and personality factors, to understand how people make food choices. A strong focus is placed on behaviour change strategies, such as motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural techniques, and health promotion methods, which are critical for improving dietary habits and public health outcomes. The sociology of food and eating is also examined, covering cultural, religious, and socio-economic factors that shape nutrition patterns. Additionally, you’ll gain insights into public health policy, health inequalities, and population-level intervention strategies in areas like smoking, alcohol, and physical activity. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to analyse behavioural and social factors influencing nutrition and apply this knowledge to health improvement initiatives both in the UK and internationally.

Content includes:

• Review of psychological and sociological contributions to health and lifestyle (CC3c)
• Introduction to health psychology, specifically examining factors that affect health behaviours (social cognition models of health, personality factors, motivation, interpersonal communication and group dynamics) (CC3c)
• Historical principles of behavioural change and the modern development of health promotion and health education strategies
• Practical skills in behavioural change including counselling skills, motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioural techniques, health promotion, and health education
• Psychology of eating behaviour in both normal and disordered eating.
• Human body functions relating for example energy unbalance, impact of physical activity, disease, control of appetite and consequences of deficiency. (CC1a, CC1e, CC1i)
• Socio-cultural factors related to food and eating. Introduction to the sociology of food and eating; symbolic factors of food and consumption, food as a value system, religious and cultural roles in society (CC3d). Non-material factors affecting food choice and its interaction with lifestyle patterns (CC3c, CC3e)
• Impact of class, ethnicity, income level and social expectation in food choice (CC3c, CC3e). Modifying effects of household composition, gender, socio-cultural expectation and ethnicity
• Overview of public health, health inequalities, nutrition and health policy and programme planning for populations (including smoking, alcohol and physical activity)

This dynamic module explores how public health and nutrition intersect to create healthier communities both in the UK and internationally. You’ll examine how policy, programme planning, and healthcare systems shape public health nutrition, with a focus on government ministries, UN agencies, and NGOs.  (CC3a) These elements differ in that each addresses a different context for the application of professional skills. Policy and planning pathway covers issues relevant to public health contexts, such as government ministries, UN organisations, and non-governmental organisations. (CC3a) The health care focus covers issue relevant to the context of a food and health care systems. For both aspects underpinning knowledge in statistics, epidemiology, research methods, methods of nutritional assessment and programme design introduced in earlier modules are further developed with the focus of health surveillance, health improvement and health protection. (CC4b, CC4f)   This module addresses the major nutritional problems that influence the health, survival, and developmental capacity of populations in developing societies. (CC1i, CC1j). The content covers approaches implemented at the household, community, national, and international levels to improve nutritional status. The module develops knowledge of the theory and practice aspects of community development and community participatory aspects of practice for communities of interest and smaller geographically defined communities (e.g. travellers). (CC3d, CC3e) 

• Institutions and stakeholders in health improvement planning, implementing and monitoring and evaluation action plans and programmes (CC1l, CC3b, CC3g)
• Community development; ­ Power and empowerment (CC3f)
• Methodology, nutritional assessment, uses and comparative analyses of surveillance of nutrition, diet and lifestyle including physical activity and built environment (CC1a, CC1d, CC1e, CC2c, CC3e, CC4b).
• Use of nutritional assessment (anthropometric, biochemical, clinical, dietary, physiological and functional methods including use of nutritional analysis software) (CC1d, CC1e, CC1g, CC1k, CC1m, CC3c, CC3i, CC4a, CC4e)
• Ethics of food and nutrition human rights and promoting inclusion and food & nutrition security (CC1l, CC2e, CC3c, CC5e)
• Lobbying and networking at community, national and European levels (CC1q, CC4h)
• Collaborative Practice (CC1n)
• International Perspectives on Practice (CC4f)

This module provides a dynamic, seminar-based learning experience, bridging practical public health nutrition with academic theory. Through interactive discussions and portfolio development, you’ll refine your professional skills, communication abilities, and critical thinking in the context of real-world public health challenges. Seminar topics will evolve from aspects of the core modules delivered, emphasising integration with and application to public health nutrition. The development of communication and learning skills and a portfolio will be key features of the module. Students will be introduced to the standards of public health and the Public Health Career Skills Framework. In addition the role and work of other relevant professional bodies including Nutrition Society, Health Professions Council and Faculty of Public Health. Professional conduct of a Public Health Nutritionist will be addressed relating this to codes of ethics as relevant.

This programme will expose the students to a range of subject expertise and opinion on skills and topics that relate to the areas that surround public health nutrition. The programme will allow for additional input (over and above the main curriculum) from external experts on specialist areas and in particular those areas of emerging interest. It is not possible to define an exact "content" for this programme. We hope that the programme will entail a significant degree of reactivity - to enable emerging issues to be addressed in their contemporary context.

This is a non-credit bearing module.  

This module provides a comprehensive foundation in research methods and data analysis, equipping you with the skills to design, conduct, and interpret scientific research. You’ll explore different research types—analytical, descriptive, experimental, and qualitative—while mastering key concepts like hypotheses, variables, sampling, and measurement reliability. Learn how to collect and analyse data effectively, from experimental designs and surveys to case studies and qualitative research techniques. A strong emphasis on ethical research practices ensures you understand the responsibilities of scientific inquiry. You’ll also gain hands-on experience with SPSS software, learning to establish databases, transform variables, and apply statistical tests like ANOVA, t-tests, and chi-square analyses. By the end of the module, you’ll be able to critically evaluate research, apply statistical techniques, and use data-driven insights to inform decision-making—essential skills for careers in academia, healthcare, and scientific research.