Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), comprising mainly of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancers and diabetes, are the leading causes of death globally. To a large extent, NCDs are caused by lifestyle factors including unhealthy dietary intake, lack of physical activity and sedentary behaviours. Appropriate measures and methods are required to study relations of such lifestyle behaviours and NCDs. This includes the use of valid tools and methods to measure dietary intake and physical activity, and suitable study designs and analytical techniques to analyse the data.

The primary aim of the course is to translate up-to-date knowledge and skills on the measurement and epidemiology of dietary behaviours, physical activity and sedentary behaviours. This includes definitions, tools and methods to assess and handle data, conceptual frameworks and epidemiology of these lifestyle behaviours in relation to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Methods to assess dietary intake include questionnaires, biomarkers and digital food records and those for physical activity and sedentary behaviour include self-reported methods and objective measurement techniques. The relations between individual-level and environmental level determinants of lifestyle behaviours and health outcomes, such as CVD, obesity and diabetes will be discussed.

The course comprises of lectures, debate sessions and practicals. Lecturers will introduce the topics and provide the state of current knowledge. In practical afternoon sessions, students will work in small groups in a variety of forms, including group work, discussions and data interpretation and calculation.

The following topics will be covered:

• Patterns of nutrition, physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviours, and their health consequences
  • Population patterns (e.g., changes in physical activity and dietary behaviours over time, socio-economic patterning)
  • Specific subpopulations (e.g., elderly, adolescents, migrant subgroups)
  • Relations with health outcomes (obesity, type 2 diabetes, CVD, cancers, depression)
• Measurement of lifestyle behaviours in epidemiology
  • Measurement tools (e.g., 24h recalls, biomarkers, accelerometry, doubly-labelled water)
  • Clinimetric properties (e.g., validity and reliability of tools)
  • Practical aspects (e.g., participant burden, time/financial investment)
  • Handling of data (e.g., deciding on cut-points and other operationalisation steps from raw data to usable variables)
• Analysis of nutritional and physical activity data
  • Study designs (e.g., experimental vs. observational)
  • Principles and procedures of covariate adjustment (e.g., energy-adjustment for dietary intake)
  • Statistical analysis (e.g., principal component analysis, confounding, moderation)
• Determinants of lifestyle behaviours
  • Individual-and environmental level determinants of lifestyle behaviours – measurement and relations with dietary intake and physical activity (e.g. self-determination, fast-food environment, walkability)
  • Social environment – measurement and relations with dietary intake and physical activity (e.g. neighbourhood social capital)
  • Other types of environmental determinants (e.g., economic- and policy environments).

1. The student understands how physical activity, sedentary behaviour and dietary intake influence NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancers and diabetes.
2. The student is aware of the different measurement tools to assess dietary behaviours and physical activity and sleep and is aware of advantages and disadvantages of each tool
3. The student knows how to handle nutritional, physical activity, sleep and sedentary behaviour data collected in population studies
4. The student knows how to analyse these data collected in population studies.
5. The student is aware of the main types of individual-level and environmental-level determinants of dietary behaviours, physical activity and sedentary behaviours.

Target audience

The course is meant for researchers working in academia, governmental institutions or industry who want to learn how the lifestyle factors ‘physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep and dietary intake’ influence non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers and type II diabetes. The course will not focus on other lifestyle factors such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, substance abuse, among others.

Course prerequisites

Attendants are expected to have at least basic knowledge of epidemiological and statistical methods (i.e. study designs and analysis techniques).

Course material

The course materials (lectures, assignments, feedback of the assignments etc) are available on Canvas, our digital learning environment. The documents will remain available on Canvas for at least one year.

In order to do the computer practicals, you will need SPSS. If you do not have SPSS installed yet, you can purchase it through Surfspot at a very reasonable price. Another option is to use IBM’s trial version: SPSS Software | IBM.

The final assessment is facultative and will consist of a written exam. The costs are euro 160, – per examination or re-examination.

You can register for the exam on the Exams page. Registration will close 3 weeks prior to the exam.

Please note that you need to pass the exam in order to receive credits (EC).

A certificate of participation will be granted to all students who have attended at least 80% of the classes. The number of contact hours will be stated on the certificate.

Only for Dutch medical specialists!

On the final day of the course, you need to sign the attendance list if you wish to obtain KNMG accreditation credits (PE-points).

To qualify for these credits, there is an attendance requirement of 100%.