Getting MPH Programs in Nutrition
As the technologies available in medicine become increasingly more sophisticated, so do the requirements for the people hired to work with those technologies. For people interested in getting jobs within the public health care industry, that means that education is also becoming more important to those hiring to fill these positions.
Returning to college to earn a graduate degree that will increase qualifications for these sought after positions can be a great step towards preparing for a future healthcare career. Below are some examples of colleges and universities offering a Master of Public Health degree, which is a popular choice for such a position. Other information listed seeks to bring more information that will make it possible to become more familiar with the field and what these positions entail.
MPH Degree Programs in Nutrition
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University of Minnesota – MPH in Nutrition – This specialized degree option within the MPH provides additional training for those interested in careers with public health, but oriented towards health promotion, disease prevention, and nutrition interventions. For those interested in the global health system, the University of Minnesota provides opportunities for a experience with the Peace Corps as part of their degree requirements.
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University of Massachusetts UMass Online – MPH in Nutrition – The goal of this program is to combine the public health perspective with nutrition science in order to come up with the most effective programs possible. This online degree option provides flexibility for students to complete coursework at their own pace. On a part-time basis, this degree should be completed within three years.
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University of Liverpool – (Featured & Highly Recommended!) – MPH in Public Health – Want to study at a UK Non-Profit university without leaving your house? The University of Liverpool offers a fully accredited Online Masters in Public Health. Specialization tracks include Epidemiology, International Public Health, Management of Health Systems & Management. This program is ideal for those interested in pursuing a career in public health nutrition. Best for developed and developing country students.
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Whether you are a doctor, a dietician, pharmacist or lab technician, our programs are designed to help you expand your professional skill set and immediately apply what you’re learning in your career. In this short video, students, alumni, faculty and staff share their perspectives on how an Online MPH from UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences can help you reinvigorate your career.
Public Health Nutritionist Job Description
Curriculum and Courses for a MPH in Nutrition
The curriculum for this degree combination includes the core courses that make up the MPH degree, as well as the specialization courses that make up the Nutrition concentration. The courses that make up the core will be fairly consistent between different colleges and universities.
The Association of Schools of Public Health has outlined the five main areas of public health, which would be covered in the core courses of the MPH degree. These five main areas include:
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Biostatistics
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Environmental Health Services
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Epidemiology
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Health Policy Management
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Social and Behavioral Sciences
The courses for the specialization of nutrition will be similar between schools, but not the same. An example can be taken from a school curriculum to demonstrate the kinds of courses that might be involved. The program at the University of Minnesota can be looked at. Some examples of courses in the Nutrition segment of the program include:
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Nutrition and Chronic Diseases
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Nutrition Assessment
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Nutrition Epidemiology
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Nutrition and Aging
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Human Nutrition and Health
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Pathophysiology and Human Disease
Sample of Core Competencies
The core competencies of a public health nutrition specialist would involve the competencies acquired from the five areas of public health, as listed above, in addition to the competencies that come from the nutrition specialization.
A list of the competencies of a public health nutrition specialist has been established, initially by the UK and others since then. This list was published on the Nutrition Society of Australia web page. These ten key abilities should exist:
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Surveillance and assessment of the population’s health and well being
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Promote and protect the population’s health and well being
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Develop quality and risk management within an evaluative culture
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Collaborative work for health and well being
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Develop health programs and services and reduce inequalities
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Policy and strategy development and implementation to improve health and well being
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Work with and for communities to improve health and well being
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Strategic leadership for health and well being
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Research and development to improve health and well being
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Ethically managing self, people, and resources to improve health and well being
Nutrition Scholarships, Fellowships & Training
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The Laurel E. Zaks Global Public Health Nutrition MPH Scholarship – For students of the MPH degree at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. Named for a dietitian with a global career who wants to inspire others to seek careers caring for the global food supply.
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McLean Postdoctoral Fellowship in Enviornmental Nutrition – Provides experience for the fellow to develop a greater understanding of the interrelation between food, environment and public health. Course looks into the impact of the current food system and how the production, processing, distribution, and consumption of the food impacts the environment and public health.
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Marguerite Queneau Memorial Scholarship – University of Minnesota School of Public Health students are eligible for this scholarship. The scholarship supports research assistantships at the school’s Public Health Nutrition Program.
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CANFIT Scholarships – Applicants must be graduate students in nutrition or public health and must be of certain minority status, to include the following ethnicities: African-American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian-American, Pacific Islander or Latino/Hispanic descent.
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Center for Global Health Scholarship – This full scholarship is given to MPH students at Johns Hopkins University who are looking to work in public health and in an international aspect. The winners of this scholarship join the professionals working to create solutions to the threats to public health in developing countries.
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International Nutrition Foundation Short-Term Fellowships – These fellowships are for researchers interested in developing countries and provides opportunity for them to attend conferences and workshops on nutrition in the public health aspect.
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American Society for Nutrition Predoctoral Fellowships for Students in Nutrition Research – Applicants must be members of the ASN and complete a proposal as to the nutritional research that has been already completed. They review submissions and evaluate them on quality of work.
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Sarah Samuels Public Health Fellowship – This fellow position prepares nutrition students for futures as public health professionals by providing them with opportunities to operate under these conditions. The positions includes a three month internship with the California Food Policy Advocates in California.
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USAID Global Health Fellows II – With help from the Public Health Institute, this fellowship seeks to develop a diverse group of global health professionals. The goals and programs of the institute are part of what these professionals will be working with as they grow into positions of increasingly higher responsibility as their careers progress.
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Marilyn Gentry Fellowship Program – This fellowship is coordinated with the American Institute for Cancer Research and aims to encourage those current students to pursue careers in the field of nutrition as it deals with cancer. Programs aim to focus on cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship.
Top Nutrition Journals
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Public Health Nutrition – Peers review these international articles that contain research and scholarly works to improve understanding of nutrition and its relationship to public health around the globe. Applies to those working with public health, health promotion specialists, and those coordinating that material to create practical solutions to eliminate public health concerns.
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Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition – Quarterly journal that reports current developments all areas of public health and its relationship to nutrition. The preference of the journal is to analyze data and conditions as they work in developing countries, although there is no rule against stories being included that refer to developed countries.
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International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health – Covers research and scientific developments in food safety, nutrition, and dietetics. Desires to broaden the consideration of health equity on public health in order to improve health outcomes.
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Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition – Considered a leading journal on the study of the interdependence between the environment, nutrition and health. Publishes submissions for review by qualified peers in order to support the collaborative effort that will create innovation within the field of public health.
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BMC Public Health – This open access, peer-reviewed journal covers all aspects of public health. Special attention is focused on the impact of all determinants of health. Concentrates on articles that contain research or findings that would be beneficial contributions to the field of public health.
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Journal of Community Nutrition and Health – This journal is the official publication of the Rural Research Institute of Physiology & Applied Nutrition. Eligible articles will be written in English and cover topics relevant to community health care and nutrition. Can be articles, reviews, case reports, short communication, and other formats.
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Maternal & Child Nutrition – Aims to be the journal with highest regard when it comes to the study of all elements of nutrition in the field of public health related to mothers and children. They highlight new initiatives, recent research materials to keep the readers informed of all major developments that impact the science and practice of public health and nutrition.
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Annual Review of Nutrition – This journal has been active since 1981 in publishing developments in the field of nutrition, both scientific and practitioner related.
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Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences – Dealing with all life sciences in general, the field of nutrition is covered in this publication that contains material that is applicable to practitioners in these fields. The platform of the journal allows authors to submit materials for peer review, and the open access nature of the journal makes it more accessible to encourage collaboration between various public health professionals.
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Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics – This journal is published monthly and provides the opportunity for articles to be reviewed by peers, in order to work together to make the biggest impact on the industry. Attempts to advance professional knowledge across all public health factors related to food and nutrition.
Free Online Courses in Nutrition
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Food and Nutrition Policy – Develops the practice of creating policies and making sure to address the issues that involve nutrition. There are both direct and indirect ways to address the involvement of nutrition in public health concerns, and both are gone over in detail.
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International Nutrition – In reviewing the different populations around the globe, there are many ways that nutritional problems can have a big impact on the public health in those developing countries. Attention is given to the ways that targeted, specific interventions can be done to address individual concerns of particular regions of the world.
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Principles of Human Nutrition – This integrated overview of the basic functions of nutrition and individual nutrients and how they determine health and disease within various human populations. The principles assist in understanding the ways that nutrition can impact diseases, as well as the condition of health as a whole.
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Baltimore Food Systems: A Case Study of Urban Food Environments – This case study class provides the city of Baltimore as an example. By looking at the specific problems within the city and its population, students are able to assess how these public health and nutritional concern exist, and also to propose possible ways to diminishing the negative effects.
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Food Production, Public Health, and the Environment – Studies the condition of the world where there are a billion people that are under-nourished while at the same time are a billion people overweight. The analysis consists of the food production systems, economics, population density and location, and equity. Proposals are considered on how these issues of inequity can be resolved or minimized.
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Sustainable Agricultural Land Management – Offering up an explanation of how crops can be cultivated with the least amount of waste and resources will provide beneficial when attempting to create interventions in areas not accustomed to crops and agricultural output.
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Nutrition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention – This course covers basic nutritional information and provides study of how health benefits can be achieved through a proper combination of various nutritional elements. Evidence is included to address how diets can be used to improve condition of certain diseases.
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An Introduction to the U.S. Food System: Perspectives from Public Health – Issues that relate to public health, equity and the environment are addressed in the food system of the U.S. Case studies are used to demonstrate how the U.S. system grew into what it is today, and certain alternative options are considered for the way that food gets from the farm to the fork.
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Sustainability of Food Systems: A Global Life Cycle Perspective – The current food system is studied and how the way it functions impacts our globe. The examination also includes the changes that could be made in order to modify our current food system to have a sustainable global food system that provides for our global population into the future.
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Nutrition, Health, and Lifestyle: Issues and Insights – Getting to the scientific evidence, students will be able to figure out what food myths they have heard throughout their lives, as well as determine which ones are true and which ones are not. The six week course provides insights as to possible combinations of foods and nutrients that promote optimal health and physical performance.
Additional Nutrition Links
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Nutrition
- American Board of Nutrition
