Food and health from the public health perspective

21 April 2021

An unhealthy diet is one of the leading  causes of death and disease worldwide. While measuring diet and assessing its relationship with health outcomes is challenging, nutritional epidemiological studies provide crucial evidence to improve diet and health in any population.

In addition to some key general concepts of nutritional epidemiology and public health nutrition, this presentation introduced a specific study which examined traditional dietary habits and their relationship with mortality in Eastern Europe. While cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality rates in Eastern European countries are among the highest in the world, it's unclear as to how local diet contributes to these unfavourable trends. A cross-disciplinary collaboration between sociologists, historians and epidemiologists was set up to define traditional diet in this region, and data from the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors in Eastern Europe (HAPIEE) cohort study was used to examine its link with mortality.

Speaker:

Dr Denes Stefler, Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London

Chair:

Professor Yolanda Eraso, Director of Centre for Primary Health and Social Care

 

Pots with various grains in them

Photo credit: Mike via Pexels

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