PBH 110 Introduction to Public Health
This class provides an introduction to the field of Public Health. Public Health is an interdisciplinary endeavor aimed at improving population health on a community, national and global level. This course will introduce you to an evidence-based way of thinking about Public Health problems and solutions. Public Health professionals and institutions define and address our mutual concerns as a society as well as the needs of vulnerable groups within our society. The course will cover several areas including: (1)What is Public Health? (2) Biological and Social determinants of physical and mental health and changing patterns of disease. (3)The tools of population health including a basic introduction to epidemiology, the science of identifying and tracking disease. (4) Health disparities – We will examine particularly vulnerable populations and analyze different patterns of illness and access to care among certain communities. (5) Finally we will discuss the structure of health-care and public health systems.