Public Health Program
Dr. Colleen Reid, Interim Director
T: 303-492-7050
Colleen.Reid@colorado.edu
The Public Health Program at the University of Colorado Boulder is pleased to be offering a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health. According to the Association of Schools & Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), public health is the science and art of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles and research for disease and injury prevention. Public health helps improve the health and well-being of people in local communities and around the globe. Public health works to prevent health problems before they occur.
As the world becomes more interconnected, our communities and populations face increasingly complex health challenges emerging through the interaction of individual vulnerability and behavior, cultural and social factors, environmental and geographic influences, as well as economic and political dynamics. Addressing these public health challenges requires innovative approaches arising from multiple disciplines.
Core Areas of Public Health
While public health is defined in many ways, the following is a list of core areas that are often associated with public health.
- Biostatistics: Statistical science applied to health and biomedical data.
- Environmental health: The impact of air, water and the built environment on health.
- Epidemiology: The study of the frequency, distribution and determinants of disease.
- Health administration and management: Managing human and fiscal resources to deliver public health services.
- Global health: Addressing health challenges across the world.
- Maternal and child health: Improving the health of women, children and their families.
- Nutrition: How food and nutrients impact the health of populations.
- Public health laboratory practice: Diagnose, prevent, treat and control infectious disease.
- Public health policy: The role of policy and policy decisions on public health.
- Public health practice: Incorporating public health principles into clinical practice.
- Social and behavioral science: The study of social and behavioral determinants of health.
Requirements
Graduating with a BA in Public Health will require meeting the Arts & Sciences requirements as well as the curriculum presented below, consisting of at least 40 credit hours, with a minimum of 22 at the upper division level, passed with a cumulative GPA of 2.000 or higher. Grades of C- or better will be required in all courses a student is using to satisfy the requirements for the major. Additionally, students must meet the requirements for graduation from their other school or college, if doing a double degree. Students should take note of when and if courses have prerequisites that are not part of the public health major.
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Public Health | ||
| GEOG/IPHY/PBHL 2692 | Foundations in Public Health | 3 |
| GEOG 3692 | Introduction to Global Public Health | 4 |
| IPHY 3490 | Introduction to Epidemiology | 3 |
| Bioethics | ||
| Choose one of the following: | 3 | |
| Introduction to Medical Ethics | ||
| Bioethics | ||
| Introduction to Biology | ||
| Choose one of the following: | 3 | |
| Biology and Society | ||
| General Biology 1 | ||
| Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology | ||
| Introductory Statistics | ||
| Choose one of the following courses in statistics: | 3-4 | |
| Quantitative Methods in Anthropology | ||
| Introduction to Statistics with Computer Applications | ||
| Statistics and Geographic Data | ||
| Intro to Data Science and Biostatistics | ||
| Introduction to Statistics | ||
| Quantitative Research Methods | ||
| Psychological Science I: Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Social Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Data Science | ||
| Capstone Course | ||
| Choose one of the following courses | 3 | |
| Public Health Capstone in Public Health Practice: Internships | ||
| Capstone in Public Health: Career Exploration in Public Health | ||
| Public Health Capstone: Honors Thesis | ||
| Public Health Capstone Research Methods: Environmental Interventions to the Mental Health Epidemic | ||
| Electives in Public Health | ||
| Students must complete an additional minimum of 6 courses (4 of which must be at the 3000 or 4000 level). One elective must be from Social and Behavioral Health and one from Environmental Health. The other 4 electives can come from either of those lists or from the list of Other Public Health Courses. | ||
| Social and Behavioral Health Courses | 3 | |
| Anthropology of Neuroscience | ||
| Medical Anthropology | ||
| Topics in Health Economics (only certain topics ) | ||
| Psychology and Neuroscience of Exercise | ||
| Special Topics in Psychology - Social Science (only certain topics ) | ||
| Advanced Topics in Social Psychology (only certain topics ) | ||
| Ethics and Social Issues in U.S. Health and Medicine | ||
| Social Epidemiology | ||
| Sociology of Death and Dying | ||
| Medical Sociology | ||
| Social Inequalities in Health | ||
| Suffering and Care in Society | ||
| Environmental Health Courses | 3 | |
| Microbiology | ||
| Topics in Health Economics (only certain topics ) | ||
| Foundations of Environmental Justice | ||
or HONR 4075 | Environmental Justice | |
or PHIL 2140 | Environmental Justice | |
or GEOG 3782 | Environmentalism, Race, and Justice | |
| Intermediate Environmental Problem Analysis: Topical Cornerstones (only certain topics ) | ||
| Climate Change and Health | ||
| Food and Power | ||
| Health and Medical Geography | ||
| Disease and Public Health in Global History | ||
| Global Human Ecology | ||
| Other Public Health Courses | 12 | |
| Nutrition and Anthropology | ||
| Parasitology | ||
| Fictions of Illness: Modern Medicine and the Literary Imagination | ||
| Introduction to Nutrition | ||
or IPHY 3440 | Clinical Nutrition | |
| Nutrition and Human Performance | ||
| Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Health | ||
| Genetics of Brain and Behavior | ||
| Biological Psychology | ||
| Disabilities in Contemporary American Society | ||
| Hearing Loss Epidemiology | ||
| Spanish Health Professions | ||
| Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States | ||
| Total Credit Hours | 40-41 | |
Plan(s) of Study
Through the required coursework for the major, students will complete at least 3 credit hours in the Arts & Humanities area, 6 credit hours in the Social Sciences area and a minimum of 6 credit hours in the Natural Sciences area of the Gen Ed Distribution Requirement, the Global Perspective category of the Gen Ed Diversity Requirement and the Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Skills category of the Gen Ed Skills requirement. Depending on elective courses selected within the major, students can complete most of the Natural Sciences area and Social Sciences area in the Gen Ed Distribution Requirement and the US Perspective component of the Gen Ed Diversity Requirement.
| Year One | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall Semester | Credit Hours | |
| GEOG 2692 | Foundations in Public Health | 3 |
| EBIO 1210 | General Biology 1 (Biology major requirement) | 3 |
| EBIO 1230 | General Biology Laboratory 1 | 1 |
| Gen. Ed. Skills course (example: Lower-division Written Communication) | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 16 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| PHIL 1160 | Introduction to Medical Ethics (Bioethics major requirement) | 3 |
| Gen. Ed. Skills course (example: QRMS, if needed) | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution course (example: Arts & Humanities) | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 15 | |
| Year Two | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| SOCY 2061 | Introduction to Social Statistics (Or another course that fulfills the statistics major requirement) | 3 |
| GEOG 3692 | Introduction to Global Public Health | 4 |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution course (example: Social Sciences) | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution course (example: Natural Sciences, if necessary) | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 16 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| IPHY 3490 | Introduction to Epidemiology | 3 |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution course (example: Social Sciences) | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution course (example: Arts & Humanities) | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 15 | |
| Year Three | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| Upper-Division Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Skills course (example: Upper-division Written Communication) | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution/Diversity course (example: Arts & Humanities/Diversity: US Perspective) | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 15 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| Upper-Division Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Gen. Ed. Distribution/Diversity course (example: Natural Sciences) | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 15 | |
| Year Four | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 15 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| PBHL Capstone Course | ||
| Upper-Division Public Health major Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Upper-Division Elective | 3 | |
| Elective | 3 | |
| Credit Hours | 12 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 119 | |
Learning Outcomes
By the completion of the program, students will be able to:
- Describe and apply the public health approach to understanding the natural history of communicable and noncommunicable diseases.
- Examine the biological, behavioral, social, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the distribution of disease and health indicators in different geographic contexts and across the life course.
- Articulate the importance of data, data literacy and statistics in public health research and practice.
- Describe analytic methodologies, research strategies and study designs used in public health to study the distribution, underlying causes and impact of communicable and noncommunicable disease.
- Identify and examine multidisciplinary public health strategies for the prevention, treatment and control of communicable and noncommunicable diseases.
- Identify and recognize different ethical features and considerations in relation to public health.