Dietary Case Study

 As experts in health and nutrition, it is important to be able to provide appropriate and safe advice to enhance the health of groups and populations. Understanding and applying the many resources available for use, as well as the complex considerations associated with making recommendations is an important and inherent part of practice.

This assignment will be undertaken in four parts:

Part 1 Improvements to case diet

(a)     You will be provided with a case-study detailing the diet of a client (based on a 24-hour recall) and any other important information.

(b)     Using the ‘Eat for Health’ resources (containing the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating):

  1.                                  i.            Calculate the number of serves your client is consuming of each food group on each day. Enter these values into Table 1.

ii.            Identify the number of recommended serves your client should be consuming for each food group. Enter these values into Table 1. For the ‘discretionary items’ food groups (which has a range for recommended intake), you will need to decide on a single serve value that your client should be consuming. Base this on the characteristics of your client (i.e. their age, gender, body size and activity level).

iii.            In Table 2, justify why you chose the number of servings of discretionary items that you did. Hint: you should make mention of the characteristics you used in Part b (ii).

(c)     Based on your client’s current eating likes and dislikes, and considering the general characteristics of a person in this life stage, develop an eating plan that incorporates the recommended number of serves for each food group.  The eating plan should be for one day and include a few options for each meal. The eating plan also needs to address the difference (if any) between your client’s current consumption and their recommended consumption. Include (if appropriate) recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Australians that may also need to be addressed (e.g. alcohol consumption, salt intake etc.) and refer back to the guidelines to justify your suggested changes. All of this should be entered into Table 3.

(d)     Using Table 4, comment on the potential barriers to achieving the eating plan you have established.  Remember to make mention of any health, cultural or religious circumstances that may affect your client’s consumption.

Part 2 Dietary analysis and interpretation using FoodWorks

(a)     Analyse your case’s 24-hour recall using FoodWorks dietary analysis software.  You need to use the Australian database (Ausnut 2007 or Ausfoods 2012).

(b)     Upon completion, you need to print the selection options (to hand in):

  • Foods, Analysis Summary, NRVs.
  • Include in Analysis Table – All Nutrients
  • For NRVs, Ratios & Goals include – Graphs & Tables

(c)     Based on your analysis, complete the column in Table 5 on the Template titled “Your value from FoodWorks”, regarding:

  • Energy intake
  • Percentages of energy from protein, fat, carbohydrate, alcohol, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats

(d)     Using the Australian Government document “Nutrient Reference Values for Australia & New Zealand (NRVs)”, input the NRVs specific to your client in the column titled “Recommended Value”.  Include the page number from the NRVs document or table number if you used the online resources.  Include at the top of the page, the age bracket, gender and physical activity level (PAL) you used. Note: There are NRVs available for all nutrients listed in the table, please look carefully.

(e)     Comparing the columns filled in as part of (c) and (d), and completing the column titled “Conclusions”, what comments can you make regarding your client’s intake. Include your reasoning and possible explanations for findings (i.e. make reference to key foods in diet, current weight goals – gain/loss/maintenance, exercise levels if appropriate, intake of types of fat, fat types as a proportion of total energy etc.) and discuss how any excess or deficiency may be addressed and why.

 NB. Table 5 can be expanded to (no greater than) 2 pages. Any part of Table 5 that is longer than 2 pages will not be marked.

 Part 3 Diet quality and client-related nutritional considerations

Use Table 6 to complete Part 3

(a)     Complete the ‘Diet quality test’ provided based on your client’s 24-hour recall. Comment on their overall diet quality in Table 6. NB: You should acknowledge the limitations of assessing diet quality based on 24-hour recall.

(b)     Based on your client’s current intake and their characteristics (i.e. age, gender, physical activity level etc), choose one core food group that may be important in their diet.

(c)     Complete Table 6 with your chosen food group:

  1.                                  i.            Explain why you chose this food group i.e. why is it important to this client and their condition?
  2.                                 ii.            Outline the important nutrients obtained from this food group and how they may benefit your client.
  3.                               iii.            Make specific and practical recommendations for your client about how to increase, decrease or maintain the intake of this core food group.

NB: You should include references from reputable sources to justify this information in this section.

Part 4 Limitations of methods of data collection and resources/recommendations/guidelines

(a)     A number of limitations are associated with using dietary intake methodologies which may influence the accuracy of the results. In Table 7, outline these limitations in relation to using a 24-hour recall and performing an analysis on this diary using FoodWorks.  Provide examples of how these limitations may have affected you or your client’s use of these methodologies e.g. is a 24-hour recall an accurate reflection of your client’s intake?

(b)     In Table 8, outline any limitations associated with using the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) and the Dietary Guidelines for Australians (DGs). Provide examples of the relevance of the limitations to you. e.g. did the recommendations in the DGs apply to your client?

To be submitted 

  • Completed Dietary Case Study template
  • Foodworks printouts (as directed above)
  • Reference list
  • Study Smart Certificate from completion of Study Smart modules: http://studysmart.library.qut.edu.au/
  • Blank criteria matrix

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