Course Description


P8628   Public health aspects of child health, 3 points

Prerequisites: Permission of the Instructor

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of key child health status indicators, and major causes of child health and disease at the individual and population levels. By studying examples of significant child health problems and solutions in a range of populations in the United States and internationally, students will learn how to define and assess a child health problem, and become familiar with public health intervention strategies and their potential impact. In addition, students will gain an understanding of how social and environmental conditions contribute to patterns of morbidity and mortality, as well as individual risk within a population and health disparities across populations.

The course content is organized into three modules: (1) Poverty and Social Adversity; (2) Physical Environment and Safety; and (3) Lifestyle and Behaviors. Within each module, key child health problems and programmatic solutions are studied, followed by an in-class exercise at the completion of the module. The format combines lectures and discussion with team-based learning. In addition, some class sessions take place at program sites, where students participate in field-based learning. Assignments include readings (available on Courseworks) to provide background for each session. Students are divided into learning groups (6-8 members), which meet at the start of each class to integrate the out-of-class readings into each session.