People

Current Teaching Module

• Nutrition in Health & Disease
• Food & Nutritional Toxicology
• Health & Wellbeing
• International Public Health Nutrition
• Food & Nutrition Analysis

Teaching / Responsibilities:

Dr Vijayakumaran is Programme Lead for the Food Science and Nutrition programmes at SASM, UTB. She currently teaches Nutrition in Health & Disease, Food & Nutritional Toxicology, Health & Wellbeing, International Public Health Nutrition, and Food & Nutrition Analysis. She is also an Associate Lecturer (Visiting Lecturer) for the MSc Dietetics (Apprenticeship) at Health Sciences University, UK (2025–present).She previously led the BSc Nutrition programme (2019–2022) and was Unit Lead and Lecturer on the MSc Nutrition & Behaviour at Bournemouth University.

Specialized Area

Public health nutrition; food insecurity; nutrition in older adults (including sarcopenia); food and nutrition management

Research Interest

• Nutrition and healthy ageing;
• food insecurity;
• sustainable food systems;
• plant-based diets in older adults;
• food-based community interventions in ethnically diverse populations

Short Biography / Profile

Dr Reena Vijayakumaran is an Assistant Professor and Programme Lead for the Food Science and Nutrition programmes at the School of Applied Sciences and Mathematics, Universiti Teknologi Brunei. She is a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) with the Association for Nutrition, UK, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She holds a PhD and an MSc in Food Management from the University of Surrey, UK. Her doctoral research examined how elicited emotions affect food consumption among hospital patients. Before joining UTB, she was a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition at Bournemouth University, UK (2019–2026), where she led the BSc Nutrition programme and taught on the MSc Nutrition & Behaviour. Earlier, she was a Lecturer in Nutrition & Dietetics at Universiti Sains Malaysia (2013–2019). Her research covers public health nutrition, food insecurity and nutrition in older adults, with a particular focus on sarcopenia and community-based, co-produced interventions. She is also a Associate Lecturer for the MSc Dietetics (Apprenticeship) at Health Sciences University, UK since 2025.

Qualifications

• PhD in Food Management – University of Surrey, UK (2013)
• MSc in Food Management – University of Surrey, UK (2009)
• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education – Bournemouth University, UK (2020)
• BSc in Nutrition & Community Health – Universiti Putra Malaysia (2007)

Professional Memberships / Awards

She is a Registered Nutritionist (RNutr) with the Association for Nutrition, UK (Reg. No. 21363), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) with Advance HE, UK (Ref. PR189930). She has been an AfN Accreditation Assessor since 2022 and is a Member of the Nutrition Society, UK.

Additional Website Information:

TANGERINE project page: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/tangerine

Publication

Dr Vijayakumaran is Co-PI on TANGERINE (nuTritional heAlth aNd aGeing in oldER ethnIc miNoritiEs). This MRC-funded project, led by Bournemouth University with Loughborough University and the University of Chester, is co-designing a sustainable food-based intervention to improve nutritional health and ageing in older South Asian and Black African communities in the UK. The project’s outputs include:

• Shah P, Demashkieh M, Ellahi B, Osei-Kwasi H, Amenyah SD, Vijayakumaran R, Murphy J, Hardy R. (2025). Fruit and vegetable intake in minority ethnic groups in the UK: analysis from ‘Understanding Society’ and UK Biobank. Public Health Nutrition, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898002510102X
• Shah P, Osei-Kwasi H, Vijayakumaran R, Prah A, Fenge L-A, Murphy J, Ellahi B. Adapting food choices in later life: A photovoice study of African and Caribbean migrants in the UK. (Preprint, SSRN; under review.)

She is also lead investigator on two further projects. “Ageing as a Vegetarian and Vegan in the UK: Challenges faced by Older Adults” is a qualitative study run in partnership with Vegetarian for Life; the manuscript is in review at Public Health Nutrition. “Exploring Food Insecurity and Sustainable Food in Rural India” was presented at the SUNRISE Staff Sustainability Research Conference (2025).

Her earlier research in Malaysia, at Universiti Sains Malaysia, focused on sarcopenia in older adults and on hospital food service and patients’ meal experiences. This includes a 12-week pilot randomised controlled trial of high-intensity resistance training with whey-protein supplementation in older Malaysian women with possible sarcopenia, and studies of patient satisfaction, meal experience and plate waste in Malaysian public hospitals. Selected publications:

• Vijayakumaran RK, Daly RM, Tan VPS. (2023). “We want more”: perspectives of sarcopenic older women on the feasibility of high-intensity progressive resistance exercises and a whey-protein nutrition intervention. Frontiers in Nutrition, 10, 1176523. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1176523
• Aminuddin NF, Vijayakumaran RK, Abdul Razak S. (2018). Patient satisfaction with hospital foodservice and its impact on plate waste in public hospitals in East Malaysia. Hospital Practices and Research, 3(3), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.15171/hpr.2018.20
• Vijayakumaran RK, Eves A, Lumbers M. (2018). Understanding patients’ meal experiences through staff’s role: study on Malaysian public hospitals. Hospital Practices and Research, 3(2), 50–58. https://doi.org/10.15171/hpr.2018.11
• Vijayakumaran RK, Eves A, Lumbers M. (2016). Patients’ emotions during meal experience: understanding through critical incident technique. International Journal of Hospital Research, 5(4), 155–160. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhr.2016.21

Other achievements/ Most prominent publications

Co-PI, MRC-funded TANGERINE project; AfN Accreditation Assessor (since 2022).

Most prominent publication: Shah P, Demashkieh M, Ellahi B, Osei-Kwasi H, Amenyah SD, Vijayakumaran R, Murphy J, Hardy R. (2025). Fruit and vegetable intake in minority ethnic groups in the UK: analysis from ‘Understanding Society’ and UK Biobank. Public Health Nutrition, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898002510102X