Course Discription

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- Compulsory courses
Social and Behavioral Foundations of Health and Health Care
2 credit
Type of courses
Compulsory courses
Instructor
Shu-Sen Chang, Winston Tseng
Course Outline
The aim of this course is to introduce the importance of social contexts and behavioral aspects of health and health care. This course will use a social ecological framework to address multilevel influence on health and health care. In the course we will extend the dominant “risk factor” approach to health behavior and health care and examine current issues in health from a social and behavioral sciences perspective. The course includes four parts. First, the course will introduce the historical perspectives on population and disease and the concept of social epidemiology. Second, the course will build the theoretical foundations of health behaviors and health. Third, the course will describe the sociocultural context of health and health care. Fourth, the course will introduce how to apply the social ecological framework in different populations through the life course perspective.

Course Objectives:

The students are expected to obtain knowledge and skills to achieve the below goals after completing this course -
1. To be able to correctly apply the social ecology of health model to contemporary public and global health issues at the individual and group levels.
2. To be able to understand how to draw from a wide range of disciplines, including social epidemiology, medical sociology, health psychology, medical anthropology, demography, gerontology, and economics, to inform public and global health practices.
3. To be able to obtain the knowledge and develop the skills to describe planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs, policies, and interventions based on the social and behavioral foundations of health and health care. 

 

Course Requirements:

Students should read and review the reading material before and after the lecture. The slides of each lecture will be provided to students. This course includes exercises and quizzes for students to appraise the course materials. 

 

CEPH Competencies Met:

 

D17-1

Explain public health history, philosophy and values

D17-2

Identify the core functions of public health and the 10 Essential Services*

D17-4

List major causes and trends of morbidity and mortality in the US or other community relevant to the school or program

D17-5

Discuss the science of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in population health, including health promotion, screening, etc.

D17-6

Explain the critical importance of evidence in advancing public health knowledge

D17-9

Explain behavioral and psychological factors that affect a population’s health

D17-10

Explain the social, political and economic determinants of health and how they contribute to population health and health inequities