Research Group Public Health Nutrition

‘Public Health Nutrition’ is one of the research groups within the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Ghent University. The unit was launched as an independent unit in 1998 to visualize and promote the importance of diet and nutrition as a major determinant of public health.

Expertise within the Research Group Public Health Nutrition can be summarized in two main research domains:

• Nutritional research in Belgium and in Europe is broadly looking at the methodology and public health impact of nutrients, foods, dietary patterns, dietary biomarkers and the overall eating behavior.
  • This encompasses research into predictors of diet and health like the role of the social / natural environment, psychophysiological constructs (stress, emotional eating, emotion regulation,…) and lifestyle factors (sleep, physical activity,…).
  • The main health endpoints are diet related disorders like obesity, cardiovascular disease, bone health, cognitive function, etc. Hence, it also includes explorative research into potentially mediating factors and processes like inflammation, gut microbiome, telomere research, and metabolomics profiles.
  • Research is in most instances population based, cross-sectional or longitudinal and sometimes interventional, and this across the life span (children to elderly).
• Community nutrition in low and middle income countries aims to promote collaborative research and training activities concerning human nutrition problems of low-income countries and to contribute in capacity building of research groups in nutrition and health. Research themes include maternal and child nutrition and health, infant and young child feeding, and assessment of underlying factors of malnutrition. Emphases are on:
  • To conduct basic and applied research on issues of human nutrition in low and middle income countries targeting the alleviation of malnutrition in all its forms among women and children, with a special focus on vulnerable social groups among low income households, villagers, immigrants, and marginalized ethnic groups.
  • To explore the potential of local food use to enhance the nutritional quality of complementary foods and to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in children.
  • To conduct and evaluate nutritional interventions targeting improved infant and young child feeding practices, women hygiene and nutrition and vulnerable groups’ nutrition and health.
  • To conduct and assess the effects of nutrition on cognitive development and on the immunity of the vulnerable groups in low income settings.
  • To assess the effect of migration, urbanization and transculturation on nutrition and health status in specific disadvantaged and low income populations.