This course involves fieldwork and presentation of results based on a topic chosen by the students. The students are assessed both on their presentations in class and the report/assignment submitted.
The course builds on POH 807S (Social Epidemiology). The course focuses on the philosophical and the application of theoretical issues in epidemiology, application of knowledge in epidemiology as well as critical appraisal of scientific literature from a multidisciplinary perspective. Other areas will include outbreak investigation, making use of epidemiological data to draw appropriate conclusions, and social sciences methodology to understand background and proximal factors.
Objective: The objectives of the course are to:
- Build the capacity of students in philosophical and theoretical perspectives in epidemiology
- Equip students with the knowledge and skills to analyze data in epidemiology.
Mode of Delivery: The course is delivered through lectures, case studies analyses, individual and group presentations.
The course focuses on strategies for health improvement, reduction of health disparities as well as protection against global threats that cut across national boundaries. Issues to discuss will include global health and poverty, economic development, peace and security, communicable and non-communicable diseases, social and spatial dimensions of health and their impact on disparities in the burden of diseases, the impact of climate change on health, and risk factors.
Objective: The aim of the course is to develop the capacity of students to:
- Understand concepts and perspectives on global health; and
- Analyze social and spatial dimensions of health and their impact on disparities in the burden of diseases.
Mode of Delivery: The course is delivered through lectures, case studies analyses, individual and group presentations.
The course deals with public health issues associated with growth of urban population in developing countries as well as the emerging middle class populations. Emphasis will be on urban health problems of developing countries; health of slum areas, affluent areas, migrants/refugees, children, the aged, and populations at high risk (e.g. CSW, MSM, IDU). Changes in urban physical and social environment and their consequences for lifestyle risks and health, design and implementation of coordinated and cost-effective health care system will be examined.
Objective: The objectives of the course are to:
- Build the capacity of students to appreciate concepts and theoretical perspectives on urban health
- Appraise policies and programmes on urban health.
Mode of Delivery: The course is delivered through lectures, case studies analyses, individual and group presentations.
This course covers some concepts and theoretical perspectives on the relationships between migration and health in both the past and contemporary era. It examines both communicable and non-communicable health issues among both voluntary and involuntary migrants, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa but some examples will be drawn from developed countries as well to expose students to the global context. The implications of migrants’ health to both places of origin and destination will be examined. It also situates migration and health within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Relevant case studies will be emphasized on to enhance students’ understanding of the synergies between migration and health.
Objective: The course will build the capacity of students to:
- Understand the relationships between migration and health in both the past and contemporary; and
- Analyse the implications of migrants’ health to the socio-economic development of both places of origin and destination.
Mode of Delivery: The mode of delivery will be lectures, individual and group presentations.
The course examines contemporary issues in current challenges in health, aspects of health transition in the context of the emergence of new and the re-emergence of old infections; issues of endemicity and the spread of diseases; emergence of diseases associated with life styles; management of health; financing of health care; challenges of health for an ageing population; the roles of national and multinational institutions (e.g. World Health Organization (WHO)) and international NGOs in health.
Objective: The aim of the course is to develop the capacity of students to:
- Analyse contemporary health issues in both Ghana and Africa
- Interpret and discuss population and health issues in both Ghana and Africa
Mode of Delivery:This course is delivered through lectures, presentations and group discussions.
The course involves intermediate statistical techniques and their application to social science issues. Topics to be discussed include nature and meaning of statistics, measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, time series, normal distribution, sampling techniques, testing of hypothesis, correlation and regression analysis. Students will be introduced to packages such as SPSS and STATA.
Objective: The objectives of the course are to equip students to:
- Develop analytical skills in social science research
- Analyse and interpret statistical data in social sciences.
Mode of delivery:The course will be delivered through lectures, practical exercises and presentations.
This course deals with issues of the nature and scope of social science research (issues of epistemology, ontology and methodology). Among the topics to be covered are perspectives in social science research, concept and sources of knowledge, concept of research problem, types of research, philosophies informing quantitative and qualitative data collection, quantitative and qualitative techniques and in social science research, issues of validity, reliability, representativeness in social science research, questionnaire drawing, developing an interview guide, and ethical issues in social science research
Objectives: The objectives of the course are to:
- Build the capacity of students in social science research methodology
- Develop the skills of students to undertake quantitative and qualitative research.
Mode of Delivery : The teaching will be conducted through lectures, fieldwork, group and individual presentations.
The course deals with the historical development and contemporary issues of urbanization in the world generally and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. It includes definitions of urbanization, models and conceptual issues in urbanization such as primate city, rank-size rule, conurbations, morphology of cities, resource utilisation and related human activities such as access to different modes of transportation, education, health, housing, sanitation, arts and cultural heritage, economic, business and job creation activities and healthy urban lifestyles in general.
Other aspects are measures of urban change and growth and the role of urbanization in national development, urban poverty and inequality, slums, violence and conflict, governance and participation, resilient cities and sustainable urbanization.
Objective: The objectives are to develop the capacity of students to:
- Analyse issues associated with the process of urbanization
- Appraise the implications of urbanization on the socio-economic development of urban centres.
Mode of Delivery: This course will be delivered through lectures, seminars and group discussions.
The course examines policies adopted to provide health care and also consider past, present and policies of health in Africa and Ghana; strategies that have informed policies and programmes in health at the global (e.g. Health for All by the Year 2000, Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals), continental (Bamako Initiative, Maputo Declaration on HIV and AIDS) and national levels (e.g. payment regimes; health insurance) as well as other factors which influence health delivery (e.g. brain drain and emerging technologies). The topics will include: the politics of public health; the concept of public versus private participation; health policy-making process and implementation; global influences on domestic health policy formulation in sub-Saharan Africa.
Objective: At the end of the course the student will be equipped to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the conceptual issues in policy formulation
- Analyze factors which inform health policies globally and in Africa
- Relate the knowledge gained to policy formulation in health.
Mode of Delivery: This will be in the form of lectures, seminars, group discussion and case studies.