| CODE | LAS2040 | |||||||||
| TITLE | Leaving No-One Behind: Public Health, through the Looking Glass | |||||||||
| UM LEVEL | H - Higher Level | |||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | |||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | |||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences | |||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Public Health is “the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society” (Acheson, 1988; WHO). It aims to provide conditions under which people can be healthy, improve their health and wellbeing, or prevent the deterioration of their health. In the majority of cases the underlying challenge is not health care delivery but the societal context within which these issues arise. In this unit, contemporary public health issues such as obesity, emerging infectious diseases, and environmental health will be discussed. Students will be introduced to the basic principles of public health, its history and relevance to local and global challenges in the present day. Students will examine interacting determinants (e.g. socioeconomic, behavioural, biological, environmental, etc) which impact the health of individuals and populations across the lifespan. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the unit the student will be able to: - describe the purpose of public health and be able to define key terms; - describe the role of different stakeholders in the field of public health; - list some determinants of health and recognize how individual determinants of health affect population health; - elaborate upon common public health challenges. 2. Skills: By the end of the unit the student will be able to: - show an appreciation of the different levels of scientific evidence; - apply appropriate frameworks and adopt a structured approach when describing how societal and environmental issues may impact health; - write a report upon a public health issue of choice; - concisely summarize and present the evidence around a public health challenge. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - CSDH (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. Final Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Geneva, World Health Organization. Available at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43943/1/9789241563703_eng.pdf - European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2017), Malta, Country Drug Report 2017, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. Available at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/4513/TD0616154ENN.pdf - IPCC (2014). Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Summary for Policymakers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg2/ar5_wgII_spm_en.pdf - Marmot, M. and Wilkinson, R. (2003). Social Determinants of Health - The Solid Facts. 2nd ed. WHO Regional Office for Europe. Available at http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/98438/e81384.pdf. - Somerville, M., Kumaran, K. and Anderson, R. (2016). Public health and epidemiology at a glance. 2nd ed. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Project | |||||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Jason Attard (Co-ord.) Jeffrey Bonnici Maria Louise Borg Daniel Cauchi Roberto Debono |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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