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This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to core topics in health studies including concepts of health, measuring health, determinants of health and health services organisation.
How do we prevent ill health? How do we create healthier environments? Drawing on a public health approach, this course addresses these questions. Getting away from a focus on doctors, nurses and hospitals, we will look at social and economic means of bringing about a healthier New Zealand and greater well-being in the world. This course is unique, in that it is team taught by a group of experts from around the university and the city as a whole. It includes both academics and practitioners amongst the presenters. The course will be coordinated by Dr. Anne Scott, a sociologist of health and medicine, and by Dr. Lauretta Muir, a bioethicist and health policy specialist, who will be senior tutor on the course.Each year the presenters may be different, depending on what is topical and who is available. However, last year some presenters talked about:• Housing and health• Young people’s health• Global health challenges • Health screening• Public health in New Zealand• Positive mental health Exercise, sport and health• Space, place and health• Māori and health• Smoking cessation policy in New Zealand• Concepts of health• Epidemiology• Working in the health sector
Health Studies 101 will provide students with a conceptual and practical toolkit with which to examine health and related issues.Exploration and discussion of the issues addressed in the course will be used to illustrate underlying concepts and frameworks. Students will complete the course with the following understandings: of health determinants including social, economic and political determinantsof health and place;of health inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand, and current measures to address them;of the ways in which we can begin to measure health; of which strategies work best for promoting population health, and why; of the use and evaluation of specific health policies in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Anne Scott
Lauretta Muir
Students will have three major pieces of assessment. First, a 1500 word essay will allow you to explore some of the underlying concepts involved in thinking about health. Secondly, you will produce a short report on a health issue of your choice. A final exam will round out the assessments for this course.
There will be a course reader available on Learn.
Library portalEssay boxes are located on the ground floor of the Geography - Psychology building (car park entrance) Learn Course Reader Assignment Sheet Cover Plagiarism Statement Referencing for Health Sciences Using EndNote for referencing Writing guides for Health Sciences
Domestic fee $747.00
International fee $3,488.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Humanities .