Course objectives

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

• articulate what is meant by CDOH, including the conditions and factors that facilitate poor health outcomes due to commercial activity
• summarise substantive findings from the literature on CDOH
• understand and practice a range of methods used to conduct research on CDOH
• explore topics of interest through seminars, self-study and group work

Session content

What are the commercial determinants of health (CDOH) and what do we know about how they influence health?

• intro to complexity
• lectures on processed food, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, firearms and others, as well as understudied UCIs
• what mechanisms of influence do UCIs employ
• how do UCIs work together and what are the cumulative effects on e.g. regulation, marketing, and the creation of evidence
• methodological implications of research on CDOH (systems approaches and methods, framing analyses etc)
• data needs and sources (freedom of information requests, social media, policy submissions, websites etc)
• group discussions

Teaching methods

The course will be taught through a series of pre-recorded lectures, interactive seminars, group work and reading.