Introduction to Public Health

Full course description

Public Health is the multidisciplinary field of research, practice and policy that aims at promoting health and preventing disease. The aim of this course is to provide a vivid view on public health and to provide insight in: its fundamentals, its methods and the organizations involved in public health. Various aspects of public health such as healthy eating will be addressed from an ecological perspective in which we distinguish between individual, family, organizational, community/environmental and global level. You will study the role of public health on every distinct level and ask yourself if public health interventions should be aimed at the individual, the collective or the environment. What is the role of public health for the chronically ill? How can public health target the family? How can we protect/promote health in the occupational setting and what about health, prevention and public health in developing countries? How can we explain socio-economic health differences and does the built environment play a role in public health problems? Further, you will work in small groups on a nutrition-related public health challenge and you report your findings in a report and a mini symposium.