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Foundations of Public Health

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
  • Convenor: to be confirmed
  • Assessment: a 600-word essay outline (30%) and 2000-word essay (70%)

Module description

In this module you will learn how to describe and think critically about influences on public health and how these may be addressed by interventions and policies in the realms of health protection, health promotion, environmental health and One Health.

Indicative syllabus

  • Definitions of health, wellbeing, disease and illness and frameworks for understanding health
  • Frameworks for understanding influences on health including health inequalities and various determinants of health
  • Social influences on health and disease including income, wealth and class; race and ethnicity, colonialism and neo-colonialism; gender and sexuality discrimination; disability and ableism; and intersectionality
  • Multi-sectoral influences on health and disease (education and employment; housing and neighbourhood; access to services; social support and community; transport)
  • Commercial influences on public health
  • Environmental influences on health (air/water/vector-borne disease; food/water insecurity; pollution; emissions and climate crisis; forced migration; workplace safety; housing quality)
  • Health protection surveillance and investigation
  • Ethics of public health interventions
  • Governance and policy of public health

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • understand how health is conceived, and how concepts of health and wellbeing and disease/illness impact individuals and communities differently
  • explore and analyse the social, environmental, behavioural, commercial and structural determinants of health
  • explain and apply key principles of health protection, health promotion, environmental health and One Health to real-world public health scenarios
  • describe and assess the ethical foundations of public health, using established ethical frameworks to assess their justification, impact and implications
  • describe and critically assess systems of public health governance, including how public health policies are developed, implemented and evaluated at local, national and global levels.