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.
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.
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
A minimum of 22 credit hours in public health coursework, including a minimum of 9 upper-division credit hours, are required for the minor. All coursework applied to the minor must be completed with a grade of C- or better; no pass/fail work may be applied. The grade point average for all public health coursework must equal 2.00 (C) or higher.
Students will be allowed to apply no more than 9 credit hours, including 6 upper-division credit hours of transfer work towards a minor in public health
Students must take courses in the following areas:
- Fundamentals of Public Health: Collectively, the core courses in public health will provide a foundational knowledge on the burden and distribution of disease and mortality around the world, the determinants of global health disparities, the development of global health policies, and the outcomes of global health interventions. Students will examine the history and uses of epidemiology, measures of disease frequency and occurrence, association and causality, analytic epidemiology, evidence-based screening, and infectious disease outbreak investigations.
- Introductory Statistics: Public health students must possess basic skills in quantitative reasoning to critically evaluate primary literature and understand how data are used to measure population health and disease burden, monitor intervention and screening programs, and inform policy decisions.
- Introductory Biology: Students majoring in public health must have a foundation of biological knowledge in order to understand and appreciate the concepts of health and disease.
- Elective Courses: To round out the public health major, students are required to take two courses (at least 6 credits) in the various domains of public health. Students must note when and if courses have prerequisites that are not part of the public health major.
Required Courses and Credits
| Code | Title | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of Public Health | ||
| PBHL/GEOG/IPHY 2692 | Foundations in Public Health | 3 |
| GEOG 3692 | Introduction to Global Public Health | 4 |
| IPHY 3490 | Introduction to Epidemiology | 3 |
| Introductory Statistics | ||
| Students must take at least 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 | ||
| Introductory Biology | ||
| Students must take at least one of the following courses: | 3 | |
| Biology and Society | ||
| General Biology 1 | ||
| Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology | ||
| Elective Courses | ||
| Six credit hours of public health electives. At least one course (at least 3 credits) must be at the upper-division level, and at least one course (at least 3 credits) must be from outside of the student's major. | 6 | |
| Social and Behavioral Health Electives | ||
| Medical Anthropology | ||
| Anthropology of Neuroscience | ||
| 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 | ||
| Topics in Health Economics (depends on topic) | ||
| Advanced Topics in Social Psychology (Social Psychology of Health Promotion; Discrimination and Health) | ||
| Psychology and Neuroscience of Exercise | ||
| Special Topics in Psychology - Social Science (Prevention Science: Promoting Positive Youth and Adult Development; Science of Happiness; Sports Psychology) | ||
| Environment and Health Electives | ||
| Foundations of Environmental Justice | ||
or HONR 4075 | Environmental Justice | |
or PHIL 2140 | Environmental Justice | |
or GEOG 3782 | Environmentalism, Race, and Justice | |
| Health and Medical Geography (taught every other year) | ||
| Microbiology | ||
| Global Human Ecology | ||
| Food and Power (taught every year) | ||
| Climate Change and Health | ||
| Disease and Public Health in Global History (online course) | ||
| Topics in Health Economics (depends on topic) | ||
| Nutrition and Health Electives | ||
| Introduction to Nutrition 1 | ||
or IPHY 3440 | Clinical Nutrition | |
| Nutrition and Anthropology | ||
| Nutrition and Human Performance (offered every other year) | ||
| Food and Power | ||
| Plants and Society | ||
| Philosophy and Food | ||
| Intermediate Environmental Problem Analysis: Topical Cornerstones (Food and Environment; Water-Energy-Food Nexus) | ||
| Disease and Public Health in Global History (online course) | ||
| Food and Society (online course) | ||
| Other Electives Related to Public Health | ||
| Parasitology | ||
| Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Health | ||
| Hearing Loss Epidemiology | ||
| Disabilities in Contemporary American Society | ||
| Spanish Health Professions | ||
| Strategic Health Communication | ||
| Fictions of Illness: Modern Medicine and the Literary Imagination | ||
| Genetics of Brain and Behavior | ||
| Biological Psychology | ||
| Religion and Reproductive Politics in the United States | ||
| Total Credit Hours | 22-23 | |
| 1 | IPHY 2420 is offered every year; IPHY 3440 is offered every other year. |
Plan(s) of Study
| Year One | ||
|---|---|---|
| Fall Semester | Credit Hours | |
| EBIO 1210 | General Biology 1 | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| PBHL 2692 | Foundations in Public Health or Foundations in Public Health or Foundations in Public Health | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Year Two | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| SOCY 2061 | Introduction to Social Statistics | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| IPHY 3490 | Introduction to Epidemiology | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Year Three | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| GEOG 3692 | Introduction to Global Public Health | 4 |
| Credit Hours | 4 | |
| Spring Semester | ||
| SOCY 4052 | Social Inequalities in Health | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Year Four | ||
| Fall Semester | ||
| PSYC 4606 | Advanced Topics in Social Psychology (Social Psychology of Health Promotion) | 3 |
| Credit Hours | 3 | |
| Total Credit Hours | 22 | |
Learning Outcomes
By the completion of the program, students will be able to:
- Describe and apply the modern public health approach to understanding the natural history of communicable and noncommunicable diseases
- Examine the biological, behavioral, social, cultural and environmental origins of communicable and noncommunicable diseases
- Identify and examine the biological, behavioral, social, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the distribution of disease and health indicators over the life course
- Define the role of data, data literacy and statistics in guiding evidence-based risk assessment and health policy
- Apply analytic methodologies, research strategies and study designs used in public health to study the distribution, underlying causes and impact of communicable and noncommunicable disease
- Articulate multi-disciplinary public health strategies for the prevention, treatment and control of communicable and noncommunicable diseases