CPT-39603 Epidemiology and Public Health Policies (online)

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

DL course 'Introduction Descriptive epidemiology and Public Health', 'Introduction Analytical epidemiology and Public Health'

Continuation courses:

The DL-MSc-specializations have a fixed schedule during the pilot-phase

Contents:

Note: This course has a maximum number of participants. The deadline for registration is one week earlier than usual. See Academic Year.(http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Education-Programmes/Current-Students/Agenda-Calendar-Academic-Year.htm) -> Registration for Courses.
Note: The period mentioned below is the period in which this course starts. For the exact academic weeks see the courseplanning on www.wur.eu/schedule.

This course is one of the core-courses for future public health professionals aiming at a career in the public and private sector. In this course students learn how public health policy and interventions are developed.
In society, health is an important asset as it is a resource for everyday living. It enables children to go to school and develop their potential, adults to work and care for their families and elderly to remain involved in society. Health is more than an individual matter; the functioning of our society depends on healthy people. Therefore, it is of great importance to optimize health and its related lifestyle factors (healthy diet, moderate alcohol consumption, non-smoking, physical activity etc.). Analysis of major health problems and their determinants is needed to develop public health policies and programmes that intend to result in considerable health gains in the long term.
In this course methods will be introduced and explained which support the planning and implementation of public health policies and programmes. Relevant theories, concepts and tools will be presented, and illustrated with practical examples. For this purpose, the public health cycle will be introduced. This planning model provides a basic framework for professionals working in the field of public health that can be used for planning, implementing and evaluating policies and programmes. This planning model includes the following seven steps: conduct a needs assessment, support priority setting, formulate aims and objectives, construct a logic model, develop an evaluation plan, perform quality control, and analyse processes and outcomes.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- explain the public health system and working processes that are applied in the public health sector, namely the seven steps in the public health cycle: conduct a needs assessment, support priority setting, formulate aims and objectives, construct a logic model, develop an evaluation plan, perform quality control, and analyse processes and outcomes (e.g. interpret results).

Specific attention will be given to stage 1 (Agenda setting) of the Public Health Cycle:
- describe and prioritize determinants related to health problems, based on scientific literature and research reports (e.g. WHO).

Activities:

Knowledge clips, self-study, online group discussions, individual assignments, and an overall group assignment.

Examination:

- final exam: remote proctored written exam with closed questions (60%);
- group assignment report Public Health Cycle (40%);
Both components need a minimum mark of 5.5 to pass.

Literature:

Haveman-Nies A, Jansen M, van Oers JAM, van 't Veer P (2017). Epidemiology in public health practice. Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.