EPP 101, Spring 2002

"PERSPECTIVES IN COMMUNITY HEALTH"

Course Overview

EPP 101 is an upper division undergraduate course designed to provide students with an introduction to the field of community health. The course is appropriate for students who plan a career in public or community health and/or in medicine, nursing and related fields. It is also appropriate for students with a general interest in the issues and solutions to community health problems, or who may address these issues from other disciplines (economics, politics, anthropology, sociology, etc.). Many lectures are given by clinical faculty and public health practitioners who work in the field of community or public health and can present an "insider’s view" of the approaches to community health problems.

Community health is synonymous with public health or population health, and the terms will be used interchangeably. They all refer to the practice of medicine in communities or populations as opposed to the one-on-one practice of medicine, i.e. the patient is the community. Lectures will focus on both the causes of illness in the community and approaches to disease prevention.

A secondary goal of this course is to expose students to community health practitioners, possibly leading to internships and other field experiences, and to learn about career options in public health.

Occasionally course information will be disseminated by e-mail. Be sure to let me know if you do not receive e-mail. There is a course web page that will be the source for posted course notes and other information. The web page also has many useful links to public health resources.

Specific Objectives

1. Understand the methods and purpose of epidemiology as a basic science of public health.
2. Learn about the demographics of the population in relation to health problems, including distribution of diseases across different age groups, ethnicities, and socio-economic groups.
3. Become familiar with the most common diseases and leading causes of death in the United States, including their causes and strategies for prevention.
4. Learn about specific risk factors for disease (e.g. smoking, alcohol, firearms, physical inactivity, etc.) and approaches to reducing their impact on public health.
5. Have a beginning understanding of approaches to community health and strategies used public and community health practitioners and agencies to prevent disease, including, preventive medicine, health education, behavioral change programs, and policy approaches.
6. Develop an awareness of the different levels and types of health professionals who are involved in community health promotion and disease prevention, including career options in public health.

General Course Information

Instructor: The course instructor is Dr. Diana Cassady. Her office hours are Thursday from noon to 1pm immediately following class. Dr. Cassady’s office is in TB 154, and she can be reached by e-mail and telephone at dlcassady@ucdavis.edu and (530) 754-5550.

Class schedule: We have 110 minutes for each course session, although generally the class will be held for 90 minutes with no break. Each class will begin with announcements and a quick discussion of public health stories in the news. Then a lecture of approximately one hour will follow. Questions and a discussion of reading assignments will be conducted at the end of most class periods.

Required Text: Community and Population Health by Lawrence Green and Judith Ottoson (1999), 8th edition. McGraw Hill Publishing. A copy of this text will be available at Shield’s Library.

Grading for Course: Quizes: 2 @ 15%; Research Paper: 30%; Final: 40%. All material in the textbook chapters assigned and lectures will be potentially covered in the exams. Exams will be short answer and essays, and students will be expected to bring a blue book to the quizzes and final exam.

CLASS DISCUSSION

At the end of each theme, students will lead a class discussion about that theme (e.g., overview of public health, health issues in different age group). The purpose of these discussions is to integrate the material presented in the textbook and lectures.

RESEARCH PAPER REQUIREMENTS

Please choose a public health problem (from class lectures or the book, from a journal, or from a newspaper article, book or movie) that is of interest to you. Complete a brief literature review of the public health problem you have chosen, including magnitude and impact of the problem, known risk factors for the problem including demographic (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity), life style (e.g. smoking, alcohol, behavioral) and environmental/occupational factors (e.g. Pollution, other toxins, radiation). Discuss approaches that have been used to prevent the problem, indicating if they are primary, secondary or tertiary prevention approaches. For specific approaches to the problem, discuss whether they have been demonstrated to be effective and the feasibility of the approach.

You will need to turn in your paper topic and an outline of your paper in class by May 9^th. The purpose of this is to provide feedback so your paper is as good as possible.

Papers should be 5-10 pages, double spaced, minimum 12-point font, with a complete bibliography. Primary references from medical and public health journals should be the sources of information for your papers. The Carlson Health Sciences Library on campus offers classes on using PubMED and other electronic databases that index health and medical journals. Secondary sources, such as popular books and news articles, are not acceptable references.

Papers are due in class on June 4th, 2001. Late papers will be automatically marked down one grade.

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