Exposure Assessment in Nutrition Research 1st International Advanced Course 30 August - 3 September 2010 Wageningen, The Netherlands Organised by the Graduate School VLAG, in co-operation with the Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University

Introduction

Background
One of the main objectives of nutrition research is to provide scientific evidence to support understanding of the role of diet in human health and disease. Knowledge on the performance of dietary assessment methods and biomarkers is crucial to optimally design studies in this field. Nutrition research is often blamed for poor exposure assessment that might impair its usefulness. Therefore, studies that evaluate reproducibility and validity of dietary assessment methods are important to allow proper inference. Consequently, researchers must get insight in the concepts and principles underlying evaluation studies.

Target group
The course is meant for university graduates in biomedical sciences; nutrition, epidemiology etc. Knowledge on basic statistical concepts and methods (e.g. linear regression, paired t-test, correlation, ANOVA) and study designs is assumed. The course is focused on PhD students and post-docs as well as participants from the industry and research centres.

Course contents

Course aim
The course will address methodological aspects of exposure assessment in nutrition and related fields of biomedical research.
After participation the participant:

• Is able to make a well-informed choice from different methods of exposure assessment suitable for the research question of interest;
• Has insight in sources of measurement errors, consequences for exposure assessment and associations observed, and methods to account for these errors;
• Is able to design and analyse evaluation studies, and to quantitatively present and interpret their results;
• Is able to critically evaluate exposure assessment in nutrition and related fields of biomedical research.

Course design
The course consists of a series of lectures, supported by computer-assisted exercises, and discussion of a key paper with the faculty. Also, discussions on exposure assessment in the participant's own research will be part of the program.
The following topics will be addressed:

• State-of-the-art and recent developments in dietary assessment for different research questions and study designs, including issues relevant to collection of biomarkers in practice.
• Study designs for evaluation studies assessing validity and reproducibility, focusing on level of intake, nature of variation in diet, ability of ranking subjects, followed by the application of results in calibration of exposure and deattenuation of associations.
• Error models in exposure assessment, addressing systematic and random errors (group level, intake related bias, person-specific bias, day-to-day-variation, instrumental bias).
• Statistical methodology to estimate usual intake and uncertainty in dietary assessment.
• Dietary patterns and recommendations for a healthy diet.

Provisional programme
Download in pdf.

Organisation

Course coordinators

• Dr. A. Geelen, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
• Mrs. E.J.M. Oudshoorn-Gijsbertsen, Graduate School VLAG

Other faculty

• National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, US
  Dr. K.W. Dodd
  
• National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven
  Dr. H.C. Boshuizen
  
• Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
  Dr. M.C. Busstra
  Prof. E.J.M. Feskens
  Dr. A. Geelen
  Ir. P.J.M. Hulshof
  Prof. P. van't Veer
  Dr. J.H.M. de Vries

General information

Date & duration
The course will be held from 30 August - 3 September 2010.

Study load
The study load of this course is 1.5 ECTS credits.

Language
The course language will be English.

Location & accommodation
Lectures will be given at Wageningen University. Wageningen is located 5 kms from the train station of Ede-Wageningen. This railway station can be reached by train from the airport Schiphol in about one hour. The organisation has blocked a number of hotel rooms at "Hotel De Wageningsche Berg" for course participants, but only until 26 July 2010. Accommodation costs are € 60, - (single room; incl. breakfast, excl. tax) per night. You can visit: http://www.hoteldewageningseberg.nl/ for more information. Hotel room reservation is handled by "Hotel De Wageningsche Berg". Participants have to book their own hotel room by sending an e-mail: info@hoteldewageningscheberg.nl Please mention booking code EXPO 10.

Contact information
For more information please contact: Mrs. Eva Oudshoorn
The Graduate School VLAG
P.O. Box 8129
6700 EV Wageningen
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 317 485310
Fax: +31 317 483342
E-mail: Eva.Oudshoorn@wur.nl

Registration & course fee

The number of participants to the course is limited to 30. At this moment the course is fully booked. Registrations after Monday June 7 will automatically be placed on a waiting list.
Please register by completing the course registration form.
Note: to be able to fill in the course registration form, you need an account. To create an account, please click the link above. Don't forget to fill in the course registration form after creating your account.
The final registration date is 26 July 2010. Registrations are accepted in the order in which the course fee payment is received.
The course fee (which includes materials, coffee/tea during breaks, lunches and one dinner but does not cover accommodation) depends on the participant's affiliation:

Industry / For-Profit	€ 1300
University staff / Non-Profit organisations	€ 650
PhD students	€ 450
VLAG PhD students	€ 225

Applicants will be informed of acceptance of their registration within two weeks of the final registration date. They will then receive instructions for payment, a letter of acceptance and further course details. Cancellations may be made free of charge until, 26 July 2010. After this date the charge will be 25 % of the course fee paid or due. Substitutions may be made at any time.

Photos

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