Public Health (Environment & Health)

This stream provides a foundation for research and practice in environment and health. Multidisciplinary training is provided in the advanced methods necessary to undertake epidemiological research on the relationships between health and the environment, and to develop an understanding of the social, economic and political contexts which underlie the establishment of priorities and the selection and evaluation of policy responses.

Graduates enter careers in epidemiology, health risk assessment, consultancy or policy development as applied to environment and global health.

Objectives

By the end of this stream students should be able to demonstrate ability to apply knowledge of the core disciplines of public health, consisting of statistics; epidemiology; health economics; and social research, to real health problems. In addition, they should be able to:

• describe the principal concerns in environment and health (pollution of air, water, and land; the urban environment; sustainable development; risk perceptions)
• interpret and evaluate risk assessments and risk management strategies as applied to environment and health concerns
• show a theoretical and practical understanding of the design and analysis of studies in environmental epidemiology
• analyse the political and social contexts in which an environment and health policy is made, the factors that lead to policy change, and in particular, the role that research plays in policy change
• show competence in critically evaluating and communicating research evidence in relation to environment and health issues.

Programme specifications - showing which of the various elements of the Course support and achieve each of these specific Objectives.

Term 1

Students complete the four compulsory modules constituting the Public Health common core: Basic Epidemiology; Basic Statistics for Public Health & Policy; Introduction to Health Economics; and Principles of Social Research. In addition, students intending to follow this stream must take Environment, Health & Sustainable Development. The remaining module can be selected from Health Policy, Process & Power; Health Promotion Theory; Health Services; or Issues in Public Health.

Term 1 Module details (PDF 165K)

Terms 2 and 3

Students take a total of six study modules, one from each timetable slot. The list below shows recommended modules. There are other modules which may be taken only after consultation with the Course Director. Where only one study module is shown this is compulsory.

C1: Drug, Alcohol, Tobacco Use and Public Health; Health Care Evaluation; Primary Health Care Revisited:Concepts, Tools & Experiences in low and middle income countries; Research Design & Analysis; Study Design: Writing a Study Proposal.

C2: Conflict & Health; Design & Analysis of Epidemiological Studies; Health Impact & Decision Analysis; Health Promotion Approaches and Methods; Qualitative Methodologies; Statistical Methods in Epidemiology.

D1: Environmental Epidemiology.

D2: Epidemiology & Control of Communicable Diseases; Ethics, Public Health & Human Rights; Globalisation & Health; Global Mental Health; Nutrition Related Chronic Disease; Organisational Management; Reviewing the Literature; Sexual Health.

Term 2 Module details (PDF 212K)

E1: Environmental Health Policy.

E2: Advanced Statistical Methods in Epidemiology; Analytical Models for Decision Making; Analysing Survey and Population Data; Control & Epidemiology of Malaria; Current issues in Safe Motherhood and Perinatal Health; Epidemiology and Control of Malaria; Health Systems; History & Health; Nutrition Programme Planning; Sociological Approaches to Health; Tropical Environmental Health.

Term 3 Module details (PDF 109K)

Project Report

All students complete a relevant research project.

Please see the MSc Public Health overview page for further details.