Public Health (PH)

PH 201, Introduction to Public Health, is intended to give students an overview of the broad field of public health, which centers on health promotion and disease prevention. Throughout the course, students will be actively engaged in discussions and activities that promote a greater understanding of public health as a system, as well as its interdisciplinary connections to other health care fields. Critical thinking and analysis of important public health issues will also be emphasized throughout the semester. This course additionally serves as an introductory course for the Bachelors of Arts degree in Public Health.

This course focuses primarily on application of general public health concepts and tools specifically from the perspective of Kauaʻi and the State of Hawaiʻi. Broader public health issues will also be discussed as they relate to Kauaʻi and State of Hawaiʻi. Students will be exposed to specific challenges and successes in Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi as they relate to public health. Students will also engage in a series of ethical debates regarding topics of public health interest in Kauaʻi and Hawaiʻi.

This introductory course is designed to introduce students to the global parameters of public health and to begin learning how to apply public health principles to issues and challenges in global public health. Students will learn about the strong linkages between health, economic and social development, as well as disparities in health and related socio-economic indicators, challenges to public health faced by wealthier countries, and the role of globalization and its impacts on health. Population-based public health interventions to address this wide array of health challenges will be discussed as well, including the role of community-based efforts in improving public health and the need for interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary approaches to address global health issues.

The purpose of this course is to enable public health students to become better critical thinkers by engaging them as active learners of quantitative analytic methods. Through numerous examples, exercises, and activities featuring public health and other real-world data, students will develop the skills necessary to (1) identify, analyze, and solve real-world problems that involve quantitative information; (2) reason quantitatively and make numerical arguments; (3) interpret and communicate the results of quantitative analyses; (4) use technology and internet resources effectively and build skills in working with data; and (5) develop and improve “numerical intuition” and confidence in the ability to engage in quantitative thinking.