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Public Health and Epidemiology
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:6.00
Study Course Accepted:31.03.2023 15:46:27
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | SVUEK_129 | LQF level: | Level 7 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 2.00 | ECTS: | 3.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Clinical Medicine; Public Health | Target Audience: | Clinical Pharmacy | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Mirdza Kursīte | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Department of Public Health and Epidemiology | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Riga, 9 Kronvalda boulevard, svek rsu[pnkts]lv, +371 67338307 | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 0 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 0 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 0 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 8 | Class Length (academic hours) | 3 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 24 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 24 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | Clinical pharmacology, statistics, basic epidemiology, and English. | ||||||||
| Objective: | To provide the opportunity to gain knowledge about primary themes in public health and epidemiology. To promote understanding about research and its challenges. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Health. Public health. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | Health promotion. Disease prevention. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | Social determinants of health in pharmacy. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Healthcare system organisation. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Core principles of epidemiology. Causality. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 6 | Health data. Data types and data collection. Bias. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Basic epidemiologic measures. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Descriptive and analytical studies. Associaton measures. | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | Independent studies of the study materials indicated in the e-platform before each class. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | Cumulative assessment of: • attendance (10%); • assessment of four in-class activities (40%); • written exam with five essay-type questions (50%). | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | • Define concept of public health. • Describe concept of health promotion and main approaches. • Distinguish and describe the levels of disease prevention. • Identify social determinants of health in clinical pharmacy. • Explain the concepts of “risk factor, cause and confounder” in the context of multifactorial theory of causation. • Find and identify suitable data sources and data collection methods. • Describe the concept of representative sample. • Distinguish measures of prevalence and incidence. • List and describe epidemiologic study designs, strengths and limitations. • Explain difference between random error and bias. • Name examples of selection bias and information bias. • Identify measures of association. • Name main principles of healthcare system organisation and financing. • Define concept of quality in healthcare. | ||||||||
| Skills: | • Differentiate and compare public health and medicine. • Apply the concepts of public health. • Evaluate differences between disease prevention and health promotion. • Compare the strengths and limitations of the high-risk and population strategy in disease prevention. • Illustrate the link between scientific problem, research question and hypothesis. • Draw simplified causal diagrams and define variables. • Calculate basic epidemiological measures: prevalence, cumulative incidence and incidence rate. • Identify study designs used in scientific publications. • Calculate measures of association: relative risk, rate ratio and odds ratio. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | • Apply and generalize public health knowledge to clinical research and practice. • Argue the role of health promotion and disease prevention for public health improvement. • Create research question and aim. • Choose a suitable study design and methods for data collection. • Foresee potential threats to scientific validity of study results. • Interpret the measures of association. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Jacobsen, K. 2020. Introduction to Health Research Methods. 3rd ed. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. Iegūts no: via eBooks on EBSCOhost | ||||||||
| 2 | Donovan D., McDowell I. 2017. AFMC Primer on Population Health - A Virtual textbook on Public Health concepts for clinicians. Ottawa, ON: The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. [viewed: 31.03.2023.] | ||||||||
| 3 | Alexander L.K. et al. Causality. ERIC Notebook. 2nd ed. 2015. UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. [viewed 31.03.2023.] | ||||||||
| Additional Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Bouter L. M., Zielhuis G., Zeegers M. 2018. Textbook of Epidemiology. Bohn Stafleu van Loghum. Iegūts no: via eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) | ||||||||
| Other Information Sources | |||||||||
| 1 | https://www.euro.who.int/en/home | ||||||||
| 2 | https://gateway.euro.who.int/en/datasets/european-health-fo… | ||||||||
