Preventive Nutrition - Interventions, e-Health and m-Health, 7.5 credits

A Bachelor's degree or a professional degree equivalent to a Swedish Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits in biomedicine, biology, cellular and molecular biology, pharmaceutics, chemistry, medicine, nutrition, biotechnology, or the equivalent. And proficiency in English equivalent to English B/English 6.

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to: 

• critically analyze and discuss intervention studies in terms of study design, theoretical basis, statistics, ethics, and interpretation of results with special emphasis on e-Health and m-Health interventions
• apply a method compiling scientific data in the field of interventional studies (especially e-Health and m-Health), and evaluate the results based on their research question and summarise this in a written literature review (mini-review)
• design and plan an e-Health and m-Health intervention based on existing evidence and theories of behavioural change and apply the steps according to a chosen methodological model (project plan och mini-review)
• identify and suggest different funding opportunities for different types of research projects and health promotion initiatives and also be familiar with the structure of such an application.

This course aims to give the student a deeper understanding and knowledge in intervention studies in the field of nutrition and physical activity, especially interventions delivered through internet (e-Health) or mobile phone technology (m-Health). This course will cover study planning, study design (randomized controlled trials), and evaluation (data analyses and interpretation of results). The students will write a project plan for an intervention study which will include the following three phases: planning, implementation and evaluation. The students will present their project plans and will also be opponents on another groups project plan. During the course, how to develop the components of an intervention as well as how to evaluate whether it was effective or not will be discussed. This course will also cover behavior change models and techniques (for example motivational interviewing) as well as knowledge on how to develop interventions utilizing internet and mobile phone technology. The course also deals with different funding opportunities for research projects and health promotion initiatives and how such an application is structured.

This course consists of seminars, group work, lectures, exercises and discussions and opposing on another groups project plan. 

The examination consists of oral and written assignments, graded Pass/Fail, and group work and an individual written assignment, graded Pass with distinction/Pass/Fail. The grading criteria for all examinations are given in the study guide.

If a submitted examination assignment does not meet the criteria for Pass, the assignment may be complemented to grade Pass. The course director provides instructions for what needs to be completed in order for the assignment to obtain grade Pass. In the case of failed results, the assignment may be submitted a maximum of five more times. If the student has completed six failed examinations, no further examination opportunities will be given for that assignment. The date of submission of a complemented assignment is determined by the course coordinator.

In cases where the examination assignment is divided into different parts that are graded separately, and one or more of the parts do not meet the criteria for Pass, that part or parts of the assignment may be complemented to grade Pass. The final grade is determined by a weighing of all the approved parts. The principle of weighing is given in the grading criteria.

If a submitted examination assignment deviates so strongly from the instructions that the task needs to be redone completely, the new submission will not count as a complemented assignment, but as a new submission that can be graded according to the entire grade scale.

A student who has failed two examinations for a course or part of a course, is entitled to have another examiner appointed unless special reasons speak against it.

Compulsory participation:
Assignments and seminars are mandatory. The course director assesses if and, in that case, how absence from compulsory parts can be compensated. Before the student has participated in all compulsory parts or compensated absence according with the course director's instructions, the student's results will not be registrated in LADOK. Absence from a compulsory activity may result in that the student cannot compensate absence until the next time the course is given.

After each course occasion there will be total six occasions for the examination within a two-year perios from the end of the course.

The course language is English.

A course evaluatioon will be conducted according to guidelines decided by the Board of Higher Education at KI.

Oral evaluation will be carried out during the course.