Public health and social epidemiology (P02933)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HEA-P-P02933

Public health practice stresses the central importance of overall population health improvement and, crucially, the reduction of health inequalities. Marked inequalities in health persist both within and between countries: inequalities can be seen across various axes including gender, race/ethnicity, and access to material resources, so, for example, deprived people have substantially poorer health than affluent people.

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in populations and the application of the knowledge gained to protect and improve health. Epidemiology is one of the central disciplines underpinning public health research and practice. This course provides an introduction to the nature and scope of epidemiology and the contribution it makes to public health with particular reference to social epidemiology and the study of the social determinants of health and health inequalities. It also provides an overview of basic approaches to measuring disease in populations, quantifying and interpreting associations between risk factors and disease outcomes, and epidemiological study design.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

International Public Health Policy, (School of Health in Social Science, Schedule D)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the nature, scope and contribution of public health and epidemiology and the importance of social health inequalities.
• Critically understand the extent of inequalities in health within and between countries.
• Critically understand the range of factors that influence individual and population health and critically understand different approaches to studying these.
• Display extensive knowledge on how epidemiology studies variation in disease by time, place and person in order to better understand disease risk and aetiology.
• Evaluate critically what is meant by socioeconomic position and the range of measures used to study it and identify and interpret information on inequalities in health.
• Appreciate the wide spectrum of epidemiological research design and critically evaluate appropriate use of different study designs.
• Critically understand the importance of minimising error, bias, and confounding in epidemiological research and consider whether associations between proposed risk factors and disease outcomes are genuine and/or causal.
• Critically examine contemporary debates regarding the causes of inequalities in health.