Table 2.
Undergraduate public health courses at the University at Buffalo.
| Course number and title | Course description |
|---|---|
| PUB 101: Introduction to public health | The course is designed to provide you with an understanding of and appreciation for population approaches to improving the health of our nation and the world, as well as knowledge of various career paths in public health. |
| PUB 102: Historical and contemporary public health problems | This course is an integrative overview of both historical and contemporary public health problems and how they were/are being addressed. The course also introduces students to the public health approach to improving health by integrating approaches from the five core areas of the discipline. |
| PUB 210: Global public health | This course will provide upper division undergraduate students with a meaningful appreciation of the challenges in achieving the human right to health in low- and middle-income countries worldwide. Students will understand the leading causes of illness, death, and disability and approaches to prevention and control of those conditions in resource-constrained settings. Students will also understand the complex interrelationships between social, environmental, and political factors that affect health and well-being in low- and middle-income countries. |
| PUB 220: Behavioral and social influences on health | The discipline of public health helps inform decisions that shape the behavior of individuals, communities, and societies. PUB 220 is an exploration of theories, models, and methods of social and behavioral disciplines relevant to the identification, description, and solution of public health problems. The course is designed to engage students' curiosity and aid them in developing basic literacy as well as critical and creative thinking regarding social and behavioral concepts and processes that influence personal and population health. |
| PUB 310: Health and disease: biological, personal, and environmental influences | This course provides an overview of the biological bases of health and illness as well as an overview of the intersections of biological, personal, and environmental determinants of health and illness. Students will learn about key biological processes and physiological systems relevant to public health issues as well as how biology and the environment interact to lead to health outcomes. |
| PUB 315: Asking and answering scientific questions in public health | This course provides an overview of scientific methodology and evidence-based practice in public health. Students will learn about the research methods used to collect data and the statistical methods used to evaluate that data in public health research and practice. Students will also gain exposure to how those methods are used to address problems in public health. |
| PUB 320: Models and mechanisms for understanding public health | This course addresses how we understand and explain the causes of public health problems. Students will gain an understanding of the complex causes of different types of public health problems, including infectious diseases, chronic diseases, and environmental health hazards. A particular focus will be on how the person and the environment interact to influence health and illness. |
| PUB 325: Interventions to address public health problems | This course addresses how public health professionals take action to solve public health problems. Building on the foundation of understanding problems from PUB 320, the course addresses interventions used to prevent and treat infectious diseases, to change health behaviors, and to address environmental health hazards. A particular focus will be on intervention strategies that can be used at the population level to improve health for groups and communities. |
| PUB 330: Public health systems and policies | This course addresses how the public health system and the broader health care system function to promote health and treat illness, as well as how governments function to address public health issues. Major topics addressed will include the structure and function of the public health system in the United States, how those functions are provided for by law and financed by governments; the structure of the health care delivery system and how it relates to the public health system; policy design and implementation and the role of government in that design. |
| PUB 422: Public health ethics: an interdisciplinary exploration | Public Health Ethics explores interdisciplinary perspectives using literary, philosophical, and historical examples. Public health ethics has a special concern about functions of the state and organizations in protecting and promoting health. The American Public Health Association Principles of Ethical Practice of Public Health will be employed to assess important moral dilemmas presented in cases, literature, and films. Principles of moral philosophy and moral psychology will also be used. |
| PUB 494: Capstone: modern public health problems and solutions | This course satisfies the capstone requirement for the major in public health. The course focuses on integrating and synthesizing knowledge gained in the public health major core curriculum and using that knowledge to analyze, explain, and address public health problems. Students will also gain exposure to how knowledge from the core curriculum is applied in public health practice. The course will center around student projects based on case studies of public health problems. |