Doctoral College Seminar Series
A Doctorate in Professional Practice – the Highs and Lows of nutrition research
Dr Chris Cashin
25th November 2026
Online
Join us for our next session in the Doctoral College Seminar Series.
This session will discuss the following:
- The Doctorate in Professional Practice
- Reasons for completing this type of programme
- The benefits of the taught part.
- The research process – particularly navigating my way through a global pandemic
- What have I learnt?
- What were the outcomes of the research?
- Where I am now?
An exploratory case study investigating the nutritional intake of male adolescents aged 10 – 16 years in Southeast Wales and nutrition literacy of their parents or guardians.
Introduction: Adolescence is a time of rapid growth and great change in a young person’s life, The Lancet series on nutrition in this age group has highlighted the gaps in knowledge and effective programmes to support healthy adolescent growth1.
The research was instigated as searches of the published literature on nutrition intakes in this age group were limited, along with limited data on parents/guardians nutrition and food literacy. This has also been an observation of the researcher as a dietitian and sport nutritionist working with development squads. This led the researcher to undertake the project whilst studying a Doctorate in Professional Practice.
Therefore, the overall aim of the research was to understand what the current nutritional practice in a cohort of male adolescents was aged 10 -16 years and some aspects of nutrition literacy of their parents/guardians.
Methods: The research was undertaken in rugby clubs in South Wales enabling the researcher to easily meet with parents/guardians. Mixed methods were used where quantitative nutritional analysis of 5-day food diaries (n=37), was followed by qualitative semi structured interviews on nutrition literacy with the parents/guardians (n=17). Data from the food diaries were analysed using nutritional analysis software2 and intakes compared to the Dietary Reference Values and Nutrition Guidelines in the United Kingdom3. The data were managed using analytical software SPSS, v 32 4 . This was followed by thematic analysis of the semi structured interviews. The research was approved by the ethics committee at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Results: The research identified that some nutrition intakes of the group of adolescent males did not meet dietary guidelines in the United Kingdom, where nutrient profiles showed under consumption including calcium, iron, selenium and vitamin D. Other key nutritional targets such as fruit and vegetable consumption and oily fish were not met. Boys of this age are not thought to have additional nutritional requirements even if they play recreational sport5. Nutrition and food literacy were also limited in the parents/guardians, particularly related to understanding of key nutrients and dietary guidelines. The research found that there was poor understanding of the Eatwell Guide. Parents/guardians reported that nutrition information was confusing and needed to be easier to understand.
Conclusion: This observational study found the group of adolescent males are not meeting some nutrient requirements and key nutritional targets. The parents/guardians also showed limited nutrition literacy. This study is of interest to Dietitians and health care practitioners as it highlights poor nutritional intakes in a group of adolescent males, along with limited nutrition literacy of their parents/guardians. Health Practitioners should start to consider nutrition and food literacy as an opportunity to understand why individuals make personal food choices, along with improving access to nutrition education resources.
References:
- Norris S, Frongillo E, Black M, Dong Y, Fall C, Lampl M. Nutrition in growth and adolescence. Lancet. 2021;399(10320):174-184.
- Nutritics. Nutritional analysis software [Internet]. 2017 [cited 2018 Jan 20]. Available from: https://www.nutritics.com/app/
- Department of Health. Dietary reference values for food energy and nutrients for the United Kingdom: report of the panel on dietary reference values of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. 5th ed. London: Stationery Office Books; 1991.
- IBM Corp. IBM SPSS Statistics. Armonk (NY): IBM Corp.; 2022.
- Smith J, Jeukendrup A. Performance nutrition for young athletes. In: Bagchi D, et al., editors. Nutrition and enhanced sports performance. London: Academic Press; 2018.
This session will be presented by Dr Chris Cashin.
Chris is a senior lecturer at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in the school of Sport and Healthy Living in Carmarthen, where she leads on Nutrition and is the Programme Manager for an MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition.
Chris is a Registered Dietitian with a background in the National Health Service, a Registered Nutritionist (Association for Nutrition) and a Practitioner Registrant (Sport and Exercise Register).
It has always been an ambition to complete a doctorate and the opportunity arose in 2016. Chris enrolled on a Doctorate in Professional Practice at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. After completing the taught part of the programme a research project started. As a Paediatric Dietitian in the NHS and having worked with many development squads as a Sports Nutritionist Chris made a decision to develop a research project investigating the nutritional intakes of young rugby players and nutrition literacy of their parents or guardians. Having identified a gap in the literature where there is very limited evidence on what groups of children are eating and whether parents or guardians have sufficient knowledge of nutrition requirements.
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