Background

Nutrition-related diseases (e.g. type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases) are a major cause of ill health in Indigenous Australians.  Only a relatively small proportion of Indigenous Australians achieve recommended intakes of vegetables, fruits, and dairy, while a relatively large proportion consume nutrient-poor discretionary foods that are high in added sugars (ABS 2015; ABS 2016; AIHW & ABS 2022).  As a result, intakes of micronutrients such as calcium, folate and magnesium may be insufficient, and intake of sodium is excessive (AIHW 2016; Gwynn et al. 2012). While many similar reasons exist between Indigenous Australians and Australians of other descent for sub-optimal micronutrient intakes, there are additional barriers and challenges specific to Indigenous Australians that underlie sub-optimal intakes of nutrients (refer to presentation “Indigenous Australian considerations in Nutrition” in the AT3 resources on CloudDeakin for further information).

Your assignment

You have been employed by the non-government, non-profit organisation Nutrition Australia as a Nutritionist. As part of your job, you have been asked to prepare a Fact sheet that can be added to their 'resources' section.

Your task, using a maximum of 1 x A4 page (front and back) is to prepare a ‘FACT SHEET’ on improving micronutrient intakes in Indigenous Australians. You should focus your fact sheet on one specific micronutrient of your choice (e.g. calcium, vitamin D, folate, sodium). You are also welcome to focus on a subset of the population e.g. children, adults, females, remote-located, although you may be more general.

While this may appear somewhat reductive in terms of focus on nutrition-based initiatives for these population groups, recommendations made in your fact sheet to target specific micronutrient intakes may be more holistic in nature and with cultural relevance considered.

Purpose

This assessment task provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate skills in digital literacy and finding and disseminating information, a task that nutrition professionals are often required to undertake. You will be required to search and read journal articles to find current research on the topic. With this assessment task you will also learn how to write technical content in a concise presentable manner for a specific target audience, so you will be able to develop your communication skills.

ULOs

This assessment task covers and assesses the following ULOs:

ULO 2) Describe the importance of micronutrients in normal cell functioning and physiological processes.

ULO 3) Recognise the health consequences of micronutrient deficiencies and how these can effectively be treated by nutritional intervention.

ULO 4) Select, critically analyse and interpret scientific literature around a topical nutritional issue, formulate an evidence-based assessment of the evidence and communicate this to a range of audiences.

Requirements

Your assignment should be submitted in PDF file format via the dropbox on CloudDeakin. No coversheet is required. We recommend you make your fact sheet in either a Word document (brochure template) or in PowerPoint and then save it as PDF. Please do not submit other file formats as these are not compatible with the Deakin marking system.

Due date: Thursday 15 May, 8.00 pm (AEST)

Assessment weighting: 35% of your final unit grade