Health Sciences

The course introduces students to the key concepts and debates in global health, and uses case studies to illuminate these inequalities and the political, economic, social, and structural forces that perpetuate them. In this course students focus on the politics of global health in order to critically assess the role that governmental, institutional, and corporate actors play in financing, governing, and delivering healthcare worldwide. 

The course provides an overview of modern health challenges in Europe and how they are embraced by a variety of stakeholders: policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and civil society. The course focuses on three perspectives, the first being health in Europe: which focuses on the health status across the European countries, the organization of health systems, and major healthcare challenges for individual countries. Secondly, the perspective of European health focuses on integration and collaboration among Member States within the European Union (EU) and more widely according to the WHO European region. Lastly, European health in a globalized world is assessed. The course combines theory with practice through lectures, tutorials, and field visits.

This interdisciplinary course introduces you to the growing and important field of disability studies. This course has a strong focus on the lived experience of disability and values the knowledge embodied in this experience. It takes an explicit advocacy orientation, exploring the range of challenges experienced by disabled people locally, nationally and globally, while critically examining policies and interventions aimed at helping to reduce and eliminate barriers to full participation. It also takes an intersectional approach, looking at how disability intersecting with other aspects of identity such as race, ethnicity, age, and gender provide additional challenges that need to be taken into account in interventions aimed at eliminating inequities.
 

This version of the Medical Ethics course includes an Independent Study Project (ISP) done under the direction of the instructor. The ISP is 10-12 pages and counts for 1/3 of the overall grade for the course. This course provides insights into the main concepts of social psychology, human behavior, and health. Our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and actions have an effect on our health, well-being, and the choices we make concerning our health. Social psychology looks at how our thinking and actions are influenced by other people and social norms. In this course, students learn how the principles of social psychology are relevant to our health. Can social psychology explain why there are health disparities among people with different socioeconomic backgrounds? How can social psychological principles help to change someone’s attitude or behavior? Is our health behavior influenced by social pressure? Do you start or quit smoking because your friends tell you so? These and other questions are discussed and answered during the current course using scientific literature in the field of social psychology and health. To understand the role and application of social psychology, the course looks at specific examples within the field of health promotion, health education, disease prevention, and work-related health issues. In addition, students learn about relevant research methods within the field of social psychology and how to apply them.

This course requires permission from the UCEAP Faculty Director to enroll. The course addresses four main topics (climate change and health, urbanization and health, water and health, and food and health) strictly linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and related to distal and proximal determinants of health. The course provides the basis of systemic thinking for the improvement of surveillance programs, timely response to emergencies, and economic savings by applying the One Health (OH) approach. The course demonstrates the need for an integrated and cross-sectoral approach toward the achievement of the Agenda 2030 SDGs and provides basic knowledge on the main issues related to health at the human/animal/environment interfaces. The course asserts that health is a precondition, an outcome and an indicator of sustainable development.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course examines the origin and the evolution of these differences in health over the life cycle. The course studies how to measure these differences from conception to old age; and how these differences have been connected to the individual, family, neighborhood, national, and global phenomenon’s. The course analyzes different policies and interventions that have tried to alleviate these differences; and sees how these differences contribute to the rising inequality in the last century. The course discusses topics including: measurement of inequality (statistics); mortality, fertility, and birth outcomes; (demographics); health behaviors (economics); mental health (psych); the early origin hypothesis (epidemiology); and social genomics (behavioral genetics).

This course provides insights into the main concepts of social psychology, human behavior, and health. Our thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and actions have an effect on our health, well-being, and the choices we make concerning our health. Social psychology looks at how our thinking and actions are influenced by other people and social norms. In this course, students learn how the principles of social psychology are relevant to our health. Can social psychology explain why there are health disparities among people with different socioeconomic backgrounds? How can social psychological principles help to change someone’s attitude or behavior? Is our health behavior influenced by social pressure? Do you start or quit smoking because your friends tell you so? These and other questions are discussed and answered during the current course using scientific literature in the field of social psychology and health. To understand the role and application of social psychology, the course looks at specific examples within the field of health promotion, health education, disease prevention, and work-related health issues. In addition, students learn about relevant research methods within the field of social psychology and how to apply them.

The course provides a study of health science, beginning with the historical implication and philosophy, as well as a look at the major emerging health issues.
 

Efforts to support child health, including those made by health professionals and services, humanitarian organizations, interventions, and policymakers, are often hindered by common sense or ageist assumptions about who children are and should be. This course unpacks and contrasts those assumptions with evidence from actual children in their lived contexts. Questions will include: Can and should children be responsible for their health, health management, or medications? How do children cope with and care for illness? Who should decide whether a child receives medical treatment? What do and should children know about issues like sexuality, death, and bodily functions? Should we tell a child if they are dying? What happens when health interventions forget children are people? How can health policy perpetuate or address child health inequities? What’s wrong with saying “children are resilient”? Students learn how to think about child health from four perspectives: constructionist, child-centered, critical (structural), and biosocial.

This course focuses on the history of racial health and medicine in the United States. It provides a broad overview of issues related to medical racism in the United States from the colonial period to the present. While issues of discrimination and medical experimentation are addressed extensively throughout the semester, the course also considers the question of medical research, political mobilizations, and the institutional aspects of public health.