Determinants of Health Equity

Catalog description

Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. This course is designed to expose students to the foundational issues in health equity from a variety of perspectives. The course examines relevant historical issues, theories, and empirical data, emphasizing critical analysis and application of knowledge. Students gain a better understanding of research on health disparities and interventions to promote health equity through a combination of readings, lectures, reflection papers, discussions, and research assignments. Students discuss how to identify and anticipate obstacles which contribute to health inequities, conduct evaluations of these obstacles, and determine best prevention and control methods for these obstacles. This course introduces the concepts and pragmatic principles of actions needed to strive for reducing inequities in health status. The need for equity-focused health promotion programs to eliminate health disparities and the specific processes and factors that play a role in achieving health equity are identified and discussed. Current policy debates and recent policy developments related to health equity are also briefly discussed.