Ateneo - UPO

The course aims to provide the physiopathological basis of diseases linked to incorrect nutrition and the statistical and epidemiological basis for understanding scientific research in the field of nutritional epidemiology. Furthermore, the concepts of disease cause and primary prevention will be described as well as the prevention interventions and research into evidence of effectiveness. Finally, the relationships between nutrition, health and the environment will be also shown.

Slides presented in class and scientific articles proposed by teachers, George Pounis Analysis in nutrition research: Principles of statistical methodology and interpretation of results Academic Press European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) guidelines

To be able to: - discuss the relationship between nutrition and disease - identify health conditions that need to be referred to a physician - discuss the role of diet determinants of health and actively participate in prevention activities - discuss the interplay between dietary behaviours and environment - critically read a scientific paper on nutritional epidemiology - search the scientific literature to identify useful articles

Basics of epidemiology, medical statistics and human nutrition

Lectures, reading and discussion of scientific articles, search for scientific articles in bibliographic databases

Students with disabilities, DSA, BES, once they have contacted the University Staff, can contact the teacher in charge of the course in relation to the declination of the exam methods, regarding the teaching aspects.

The exam of the integrated course "Impact of diet on human health" consists of 34 questions (10 multiple choice questions for the modules: Promotion of healthy diet and disease prevention, Introduction to statistical and epidemiological methods and endocrine and metabolic disease and 4 (3 open and 1 closed) for the nutrition in internal medicine: implication for health and disease module) Sufficiency will be achieved if the student correctly answers 60% of the exam questions of the entire integrated course

- Descriptive statistics - Basis of probability - Introduction to statistical inference - Chi-square test T-test for independent and paired samples - Study designs (controlled and randomized clinical trials, cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies) - Disease frequency and association measures - Data collection and definition of exposure in nutritional epidemiology studies (food, food groups, nutrients, a priori diet, a posteriori diet) - The origins of scientific research on health and the causes of diseases - The main objectives of scientific research - The natural history of disease - Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention - Universal, selective and indicated prevention - Health promotion - Concepts of disease determinants and risk factor - Measures of association - Concepts and measures of the impact of a prevention intervention - The Global Burden of Disease project - Role and need for evidence of effectiveness - Sources of evidence: Medline and the Cochrane library - Role of coverage on the impact of prevention - Systematic reviews and meta-analyses: How to conduct a review and formulate a PICO question - The path from evidence production to practice - Public health guidelines - Choices that promote health - Nutrition and physical activity: WHO guidelines - Mediterranean diet -Plant Based Diet - Planetary Diet hypertension and DASH diet - fatty liver disease - cirrhosis - chronic kidney disease - unintentional weight loss - chronic abdominal pain (IBD vs IBD and low FODMAP diet) - celiac disease - VLCKD - General notions on the organization of the endocrine system and in relation to external factors including the effect of polluting agents, infective organisms, social factors, and working shifts - The hypothalamic-pituitary system and diseases - tumorigenesis relating to environmental factors - the role of stress on epigenetic mechanisms - environmental endocrine disruptors and pituitary tumors - the effect of pituitary diseases on metabolism - Thyroid physiology, impact of iodine and nutraceuticals on thyroid function, thyroid dysfunctions and tumors, molecular mechanisms. - Adrenal hormones, hyper- and hypo-corticosurrenalism - Diabetes and its relation to the environment - pathophysiology of adipose tissue - brain control of feeding behavior - genetic and non genetic determinants of obesity - the metabolic syndrome - endocrine disruptors acting on metabolic homeostasis (obesogens).

Ability to understand the relationship between nutrition and the environment and the main chronic diseases, skills in researching evidence in scientific databases, skills in participating in preventive activities