Course
Exposure Assessment in Nutrition Research
Advanced Course: Exposure Assessment in Nutrition Research, 4th edition
Background
One of the main objectives of nutrition research is to provide scientific evidence for the role of diet in human health and disease. High quality dietary assessment methods and biomarkers are 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 the validity of dietary assessment methods are important to allow proper inference from such studies. Consequently, researchers should master 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 welcomes PhD candidates and postdocs as well as participants from industry and research centres.
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;
- Has insight in sources of measurement errors, consequences for exposure assessment, impact on 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. Also, discussions on exposure assessment in the participant’s own research will be part of the programme.
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 bias, intake related bias, person-specific bias, day-to-day-variation, instrumental bias).
- Statistical methodology to estimate usual intake and uncertainty in dietary assessment.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09.00-09.45 | Welcome and intro-duction participants and staff -Anouk Geelen | Modelling long-term intake using short-term measurements -Kevin Dodd | The OPEN biomarker study : evaluating the structure of dietary measurement error -Kevin Dodd | Regression calibration for univariate dietary exposures -Kevin Dodd | Energy-adjustment -Pieter van ’t Veer |
| 09.45-10.30 | -continued | Reporting nutritional epidemiology and dietary assessment -Anouk Geelen | Dietary monitoring: evaluation of energy and nutrient intake -Marga Ocké | Handling measurement error in confounding variables -Hendriek Boshuizen | Regression calibration for multivariate dietary exposures - Kevin Dodd |
| 10.30-11.00 | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break |
| 11.00-13.00 | Course content -Anouk Geelen Dietary assessment methods -Jeanne de Vries | E-learning: 1A/1B | E-learning: 1B/2A | E-learning: 2A/2B | Assignment ‘take home messages’ |
| 13.00-14.00 | Lunch break | Lunch break | Lunch break | Lunch break | Lunch break |
| 14.00-14.45 | Assignment dietary assessment methods -Jeanne de Vries | Biomarkers -Paul Hulshof | Assignment ‘Validation Studies Pooling Project’ -Pieter van ’t Veer | Innovations in dietary assessment -Anouk Geelen | Assignment ‘take home messages’ |
| 14.45-15.30 | Feedback dietary assessment methods -Jeanne de Vries | Innovative biomarkers -Edith Feskens | -continued | RICHFIELDS -Marcus Maringer | Closure: future perspectives -Pieter van’t Veer -Kevin Dodd |
| 15.30-16.00 | Break | Break | Break | Break | --- |
| 16.00-18.00 | E-learning: intro/1A | E-learning: 1B | E-learning: 2A | E-learning: 2B | --- |
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Organisation
Course coordinators
- Dr. Anouk Geelen, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
- Eva Oudshoorn-Gijsbertsen, Graduate School VLAG
Other faculty
- Dr. Kevin Dodd, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, US
- Dr. Anouk Geelen, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, course leader
- Ir. Paul Hulshof, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
- Prof. Pieter van 't Veer, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
- Dr. Jeanne de Vries, Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University
Date & duration
The course will be held from from 29 August – 2 September 2016.
Study load
The study load of this course is 1.5 ECTS credits.
Language
The course language will be English.
Contact information
For more information please contact: Mrs. Eva Oudshoorn
The Graduate School VLAG
PO Box 17
6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 317 485310
Email: Eva.Oudshoorn@wur.nl
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 organization has blocked a number of hotel rooms at Hotel and Conference Centre “Hof van Wageningen” for course participants, but only until 15 July 2016. Accommodation costs are € 75, - (single room; incl. breakfast, excl. tax) per night. You can visit: http://www.hofvanwageningen.nl/ for more information. Hotel room reservation is handled by "Hof van Wageningen". Participants have to book their own hotel room by sending an email: info@hofvanwageningen.nl (do not book your room via the Hof van Wageningen website). Please mention booking code EXPO16.
Registration & course fee
The number of participants to the course is limited to 30. The final registration date is 29 July 2016. Registrations are accepted in the order in which the course fee payment is received.
| Industry / For-Profit | € 2000 |
| University staff / Non-Profit organisations | € 750 |
| PhD candidates | € 500 |
| VLAG PhD candidates | € 300 |
The course fee includes materials, coffee/tea during breaks, lunches and one dinner but does not cover accommodation.
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, 29 July 2016. After this date the charge will be 25% of the course fee paid or due. Substitutions may be made at any time.