Supporting local, UK and international research through collaborations and service-based delivery of measurements

A strong measurement programme is the cornerstone of research aiming to understand the determinants and consequences of dietary and physical activity behaviour and the evaluation of interventions.

The Unit’s Nutrition Measurement Platform provides expertise and capacity to support research groups conducting observational studies, clinical trials, surveys and natural experimental studies. It is funded through a range of sources including the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the Unit’s MRC core award, project grants and service work.

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Expertise

The Nutrition Measurement Platform comprises four specialist areas:

• Anthropometry
• Dietary assessment
• Nutritional biomarkers
• Physical activity measurement

The Nutrition Measurement Platform supports a wide range of research, including leadership of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), delivered in collaboration with NatCen. The NDNS is a continuous, cross-sectional, nationally representative survey designed to collect detailed information on food consumption, nutrient intake and nutritional status of the UK population. It enables national secular trends in diet and nutrition to be monitored to inform government policy.

The platform also works on the translation of novel methods into scalable, validated, quality-assured measures for routine use in a range of research purposes and settings.

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Publications

See recent Nutrition Measurement Platform publications on the MRC Epidemiology Unit online Publications Database.

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Get in touch

Please make contact with the relevant platform or programme via the links above.  If you’re not sure who to contact, you can email contact@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk