Public and Global Health -studies, Open University studies

After completing the course the student will be able to
- discuss in depth the concept of global mental health

- know the basics of promoting mental health in both high income and low to middle  income countries

- understand the association of cultural and societal circumstances with the needs for mental health care services

- descripe developmental requirements of the mental health globally

- concepts of global mental health

- promoting mental health

- needs for mental health care services

Prerequisites

This is a course on global mental health issues, focusing also on mental health services. The objective of the course is to provide a general overview on the concept of global mental health.

Electronic. Will be announced in Moodle.

Pass/Fail

After completing this course, the student will  
- understand the basic concepts, principles and methods of epidemiologic research,
- be able to assess population health and associated factors by calculating and interpreting various measures of occurrence and associations,  
- recognize and be able to describe the main epidemiologic study designs (cross-sectional, cohort, case-control and clinical trial approaches),  
- understand the principles of critical evaluation of epidemiologic studies, including assessing the possibility of bias, confounding and other limitations in a study

Introduction to the scope of epidemiology and its basic concepts and methods: measures of occurrence and associations, defining exposures and outcomes, validity of measurements, systematic error, random error, confounding, descriptive and analytic epidemiologic study designs, causality.

Announced in the teaching schedule.

General scale, 0-5

After completing the course students are familiar with descriptive statistics, measures of association and the basic principles of statistical inference. They are familiar with and have used the SPSS statistical software to analyze real datasets.

• Structure of data matrix, types of variables  
• Descriptive statistics: frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and variation  
• Measures of association: correlation, crosstabulation, group means/medians  
• Introduction to statistical inference: testing and confidence intervals  
• Ideas of sample size calculations  
• Use of SPSS statistical program

Altman D.G. Practical statistics for medical research. Chapman & Hall.

Moore D:  Statistics : concepts and controversies

Moore D, McCabe G: Introduction to the practise of statistics

Pass/Fail

After successful completion of the course, the students will

- understand basic concepts in global health and key actors and institutions involved with global health policy  

-understand how human rights, international agreements and global policy agendas and commitments relate to health and health policy at national and local level  

-understand how global health issues and global governance in other fields influence health at national level  

-is familiar with the role of European Union for health and health policy  

- have basic skills to critically assess, respond to and understand global heath challenges in international, regional, national or local contexts

This course introduces key actors and agreements shaping global health policy, factors which affect global health governance, and global health issues which arise from policies or developments in other areas than health. The course discusses the role of human rights for global health policy, international agreements in the field of health, health and trade-related issues and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The course introduces health in humanitarian action and European Union's role in health and global health. It supports student's capacity to engage with global governance, global health politics, and how global phenomena and actors influence health and health policy choices and accountability at global, regional, national and local levels.  

General scale, 0-5

After successful completion of the course, the students will:

- be familiar with the multidisciplinary field of public health and especially of health promotion and protection

- understand the historic, economic and cultural context of public health

- be familiar with key competences in public health and ethical and political issues related to public health and health systems organisation and financing

-understands basic principles in health promotion, prevention and protection

- master the key concepts and comprehend the various approaches to assess and describe population health, determinants of health and health inequalities

- know the basics of the distribution of and trends in health at global, regional, national and local levels  

-describe a major health promotion programme in a country targeting unselected / selected populations in different settings

This course introduces public health and key concepts and competences of public health, especially health promotion, prevention and protection. The course discusses theoretical and historical background for public health and addresses distribution and trends in health and health determinants. Students will engage in a practical on health promotion.

General scale, 0-5

After successful completion of the course, the student  

- understands how local and global environmental issues are interlinked with health  

- knows the direct and indirect health effects of local and global environment  

- knows key concepts and terminology used in the field of environment and health  

-  is able to discuss solutions to prevent or mitigate the damaging  changes in local and global environment, and their relevance for health    

- has skills to critically assess claims and policy initiatives concerning environment and health  

- is able to take part in multidisciplinary work related to the promotion of health and environmental well-being  

-Local and global environments and their impact on health  

-Ecological changes, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, and the key drivers  

-Policy  initiatives and strategies to prevent and mitigate damaging changes in  local and global environments and the health consequences  

-Assessing health and environmental impact  

-Key  concepts, including Planetary health, One Health, EcoHealth, planetary  boundaries, environmental and ecological determinants of health,  sustainable food system

Announced in the Teaching Schedule.

General scale, 0-5