Health Sciences

The course covers the basic principles of epidemiology, examining the determinants of major public health problems including infectious diseases, injuries, environmental health, and emerging threats. Students are trained to develop applied epidemiology competencies in field investigation and public health surveillance by using study designs where they apply their knowledge and skills to solve real life public health problems. Students also address the principles of bias and confounding, thereby enabling them to familiarize themselves with all key epidemiological concepts. This course covers identification of major landmarks in the history of the discipline; calculation and interpretation measures of disease frequency such as prevalence and incidence, mortality, morbidity and their inter-relationship; identification of the major types of study designs within observational (e.g. ecological, cross-sectional, cohort, case-control) and experimental (e.g. randomized controlled trials, cross-over trials) epidemiological studies, and compares their strengths and limitations; calculation and interpretation of various measures of association such as relative risk (risk ratio, rate ratio, odds ratio), attributable risk (risk difference, rate difference), attributable risk percent and population attributable risk 6; and the major sources of bias in epidemiological studies and their potential effects on measures of association. Other course topics include the concepts of confounding, effect modification and mediation, distinguishing association from causation, critically appraising published individual epidemiological studies using a logical framework to ascertain their internal and external validity, the inter-relationships between host, agent, and environment in infectious disease epidemiology, the epidemiologic rationale and relative health benefits of the main strategies for prevention (‘high-risk’ vs. ‘mass’) and the requirements that a screening program must fulfil before it can be considered for possible public health application. The course looks at the future directions and current challenges in epidemiology.

The course introduces the relationship between nutrition and health, and the content includes the following: role of six major nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrate, fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E) and water-soluble vitamins (B, C), and minerals; the physiological role of protein and its complementary effects; fat and obesity led by excess energy; carbohydrate and energy metabolism and its influencing factors; the role of dietary fiber; how to timely supplement vitamins from food; how to prevent the lack of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E) and water soluble vitamins (B, C); the relationship between the role of macronutrients and health; the significance of trace elements (iron, zinc, iodine, selenium) and the health hazards caused by their deficiency.

This course develops students' understanding of new and emerging issues in population health; it will prioritize the presentation of academic work in progress rather than established knowledge. Students are taught about emerging themes in population health as well as how knowledge develops and is disseminated within the academic community. Students develop a deeper understanding of contemporary population health research and to further develop your capacity to critically appraise key issues in population health. 

Global Health is the research and practice of improving health and wellbeing worldwide. Health has many determinants, and these exceed the ‘biomedical’ domain. This course uses the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, a global agenda for 2015 to 2030 that was agreed on by the United Nations General Assembly.  Students explore major global health challenges of our time - such as Covid-19 and environmental health - and address current and desired interventions to tackle these challenges in an equitable way. As an interdisciplinary approach is required to tackle the global challenges, interprofessional collaboration and skills are practiced throughout the course.

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. The course focuses on health-related behavioral determinants and offers an overview of some recent policies aimed at improving population lifestyles. The course highlights the following topics: 1) the demand for health and health capital; 2) the behavioral determinants leading to unhealthy outcomes such as obesity and addiction; 3) the trade-offs between health and welfare objectives; and 4) policies aimed at modifying health-related behavior and lifestyles. The course combines theoretical analysis and class discussion of case-studies. The course combines theoretical analysis and discussion of case-studies.

Tuberculosis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Taiwan as well as in many middle and low income countries. The course focuses on the epidemiology and current control strategies of tuberculosis from a global perspective. It discusses the natural history of tuberculosis, key elements in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, transmission dynamics, evolving concepts in tuberculosis control at World Health Organization and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, drug-resistance tuberculosis, and HIV-TB co-epidemic. The course consists of a series of lectures and in-class discussions, field trips (Taiwan CDC mycobacteria laboratory and Taiwan Anti-Tuberculosis Association), paper presentation, and final group-project report.