Yaounde: JHIS University awards pioneer master’s degrees in Public Health Nutrition.

During the defense, the two candidates presented research addressing critical public health nutrition challenges, after two years of rigoruous academic work.   

The research works reflected the programme’s commitment to producing high quality professionals capable of generating evidence to inform policy, improve healthcare practice and contribute to sustainable national development. 

The first thesis was defended by Tufoin Shanceline and was titled: “Factors Associated with Cancer-related Malnutrition Among Patients in Yaounde”. 

The thesis was supervised by Dr Doh Gilbert, Biomedical Scientist-Medical Virologist in the Ministry of Public Health, with Arrey Crista as co-supervisor. 

Members of the jury comprised of Dr Medoua Gabriel, a Director at Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plant Studies, IMPM, as president; Dr Agbor Gabriel, also a Director at IMPM, as examiner, while Prof Julius Oben sat in for University of Bamenda, which is the mentor university to JHIS.

Tufoin Shanceline, in her thesis, looked at the problem that despite the rise in cancer in Cameroon, nutrition intervention still remains largely unrecognised and insufficiently treated among cancer patients in Yaounde.

She said: “Statistics show that 10 to 20 percent of patients often die not actually out of the cancer itself, but nutrition-related factors”. 

“So, this research was to look at the factors associated with this malnutrition and how they can be handled,” she said.

The candidate disclosed that: “After researching, we discovered that cancer-related malnutrition is high in the General Hospital with about one in every five patients presenting with malnutrition”. 

The thesis recommended routine nutritional screening, early nutrition intervention, employment of oncology dietitians, nutrition counselling during treatment, strengthening multi-disciplinary care and conducting larger multi-centre studies.

After defending the thesis, the jury found Tufoin Shanceline’s research worthy of award of master’s degree and gave her an excellent grade of 90 on 100.

The second thesis defense was by Teche Rose Blandine. It was titled: “Impact de la strategie integree d’education nutritionelle sur les connaissances et les pratiques alimentaires des adolescents scolaires de la commune d’arrondissement de Douala IV” (Impact of the integrated nutrition education strategy on the dietary knowledge and practices of school-age adolescents in the Douala IV Subdivision). 

The research was supervised by Prof Emeritus Fokou Elie. Members of the jury were made up of Dr Agbor Gabriel of IMPM as president; Dr Medoua Gabriel of IMPM as examiner, while Prof Julius Oben represented University of Bamenda.

The candidate, in her thesis, recommended proper nutrition for children while they are young “because we grow with certain attitudes”.

“If children eat healthy while they are young, they will grow up with this attitude and this will prevent them from diseases. The house and school can influence nutrition of school-age children either positively or negative,” she said.

She stated that the integrated strategy involves many actors; parents, teachers, school guardians., among others. After defending her thesis, the jury gave Teche Rose Blandine an excellent score of 91 on 100.

First-ever in west and central Africa

Speaking to the press, Prof Julius Oben, Founder and President of JHIS University, disclosed that there are only 28 universities in the world that offer master’s degrees in Public Health Nutrition and JHIS is among the four in Africa.

“For a long time, there has been a gap, where people do not link good nutrition to good health. But I think people are becoming more aware of the need of good nutrition basically for the development of any country. There are multiple benefits that could be got just from the knowledge of the public in general, rather than individuals; the general public having the idea of good nutrition helps in the development of every country,” he said.

He stated that: “It was important for us to start this pioneer programme and I am very proud of the students who went through these two years of training. I am very grateful to the University of Bamenda that mentors our institution and which evaluated our programme and saw that it was important for the country and students as well”.

Meanwhile, Dr Agbor Gabriel of IMPM said the first thesis on integrating nutrition in cancer therapy is important and something that is being neglected in the public health system in Cameroon.

“The thesis actually pointed out the weaknesses that are faced in hospital settings where nutrition is not integrated in the treatment and management of cancer,” he said.

On the second thesis focusing on adolescent nutrition and development, he said: “If you don’t feed your child well, definitely the child is going to have low Intelligence Quotient, IQ. Nutrition has been known to improve the IQ of children and that has impacted so many children in our society today…”. 

“We are happy that the theses are strong and set a strong foundation for the country and for the university,” Dr Agbor noted. It should be noted that JHIS is committed to excellence in higher education, research, innovation and professional training.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3867 of Monday August 03, 2026