HEC Approved

MPhil Human Nutrition

Nutritional science is now a field of growing importance in many aspects of healthcare, lifestyle, industry and policy development. Improved nutritional status is also key to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) as it directly contributes to productivity, poverty reduction and economic development by improving physical and psychological health; thus, laying the foundation of stable, secure and peaceful societies.

The primary goal of establishing department of Human Nutrition at KMU is to improve nutritional status of the people of Pakistan in General and KP in particular through cutting-edge research, education and outreach programs. The department aims to focus on research targeted at understanding local nutritional problems and develop cost-effective nutritional strategies. This department also aims to be the national leader in producing highly skilled nutrition graduates from a diverse background to overcome the scarcity of skilled human resource in this field.

Our MPhil Human Nutrition program is the most appropriate qualification for future nutrition professionals. Department of Human Nutrition at KMU aims to provide an MPhil program which is both educationally sound and directly relevant to future needs of the country in the field of nutritional sciences. The overall aim is to produce quality nutrition professionals with vision, knowledge, and creativity and leadership skills to improve the quality of nutritional care in the region and country as a whole.

Our vision

To be a national center of excellence in Human Nutrition research and education.

Our Mission

To implement research, education, and outreach programs designed to promote nutritional status that enhances human health.

Specialty Courses in MPhil Human Nutrition

Fundamentals of Human Nutrition: The course will provide broader understanding of the subject of human nutrition and importance of macro and micronutrients in human health. The course will detail dietary sources of the important macro and micronutrients and classification of foods into different groups based on nutrient composition and production (organic vs non-organic, genetically modified). Methods for estimation of energy requirement and adequate intake levels of important macro & micronutrients in life cycle will be described, and the current recommended/adequate intake levels will be discussed.

Maternal Infant, Young Child & Adolescent Nutrition (MICAN): This course introduces students to nutritional assessment, nutrient requirement as well as special needs of mother, infant, young children and adolescents. The students will learn about increased nutritional needs in pregnancy, strategies to increase nutrient intake, promotion of healthy eating and consequences of malnutrition in pregnancy; importance of breast feeding including early initiation, colostrum provision to newborns, exclusive breast feeding and continued breastfeeding; introduction of complimentary foods after six months, nutrient requirement for young children and adolescents and strategies to promote adequate nutrient intake among children and adolescents.

Nutrition Counseling & Communication Skills: This course aimed to increase the effectiveness of nutrition counselors as facilitators of behavioral change in the nutritional management of patients. The term “nutrition counselor” refers to dietitians/nutritionist and will involve other health professionals-medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, or behavioral therapists-who interact with nutritionist/dietitians.

Nutrition Interventions: This course focusses on strategies to promote balanced diet and ensure adequate nutrient intake. The students will learn about at-risk groups e.g. pregnant and lactating women and young child, and how inadequate dietary intake can lead to poor health outcomes in these groups, which can be prevented through several interventions. These interventions including supplementation, fortification, and diversification of intake will be learned and discussed.

Clinical nutrition: This course focuses on nutritional aspects of clinical diseases by integrating student existing knowledge of biochemistry and physiology. Nutrition related clinical disorders are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality across the globe especially in the developing countries. Clinical nutrition is concerned with the role of nutrition in disease treatment and prevention.

Nutritional epidemiology: The course will introduce students to the common concepts of epidemiology to understand relationship between food intake and health outcomes. The course will give an overview of measures of disease frequencies and associations, common research designs in nutritional epidemiology, and causal inferences. It will also provide in-depth understanding of data-handling of several types of nutritional data including food composition, anthropometric and dietary intake data along with other exposure/lifestyle variables. Use of existing food composition tables will be demonstrated for assessment of macro as well as micro-nutrient intakes. WHO Anthro and Anthro-plus will be used for analysis of anthropometric data. Use of statistical software R and SAS will be demonstrated. For practice, different datasets will be analyzed using these softwares to investigate association between dietary intake and health outcomes. Students are expected to have basic statistical knowledge and should be comfortable with running linear and logistic regression models.

Community and Public Health Nutrition: While good nutrition is key for promoting one’s health throughout life, it is not always enough to target the individuals. Most of the time, we need to adopt top-down approach that means devising policies and programs to encourage, promote and adopt healthy eating behavior on population level. Only then will we be able to reduce nutrition related disparities and promote good nutrition for everyone. It is therefore necessary to pay more attention to nutrition in context of public health. The course on community and public health nutrition provides basic understanding and advance knowledge about community based nutritional research, programs and policies in Pakistan. 

In addition to theoretical lectures and workshops, Journal club sessions, focus will be placed on mentoring session for scholars to enhance their research skills. Different learning methods would be incorporated so that scholars will have the opportunity to develop and deliver teaching to both small and large student groups. A portfolio of theoretical knowledge, observations, and practical experiences will be collected at the conclusion of the academic year. The program will incorporate training as a component of practical learning, enabling students to gain hands-on experience in relevant research, clinical, and community-based settings.