Overview of Course

This course is designed to acquaint the student with the variables associated with population and public health and to provide ideas about how to address these issues.
The health of populations has an intimately reciprocal relationship with human history and cultural development. When we study population health and disease prevention, we are studying patterns of disease in order to better understand the causes of disease as well as methods of prevention for these diseases. We know that the causes of disease vary throughout the world and across the life span, and we also know that we must adapt our disease prevention interventions to the demography and culture of the target populations. These interventions will vary at the individual, community and population levels. This class will help students explore different cultural influences, including psychological, sociological, political, religious, and economical factors that influence population and public health. We’ll conclude with a practical project that includes programmatic and theoretical steps to “solving” a population health issue.