Critically evaluate global health issues in terms of social, environmental and political determinants and the role of key national and international organisations and initiatives;

Summary of module

Global health is a broad discipline that attracts multidisciplinary involvement.
This module aims to enhance students’ understanding of global health challenges and public health responses with an ability to critically evaluate these issues from political, social, and epidemiological perspectives.

You will be able to identify the major causes of global morbidity and mortality and the underlying determinants of those causes including social determinants.
The module will provide a comparative view across the globe, along with depth case studies for a within-setting historical view, to highlight key determinants, approaches to analysis, possible interventions and metrics for evaluation.

By the end of this module you will be able to critique the role of the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals in driving health systems and the global health agenda in High income, middle and low income countries.

Module Aims

This module aims :
– To enhance student understanding of global health challenges and public health responses with an ability to critically evaluate these issues from political, social, and epidemiological perspectives.
– To gain in-depth understanding of health protection and public health improvement in the context of economic development, governance, and human rights.
– To provide a comparative view across low, middle- and high-income settings, along with depth case studies for a within-setting historical view.
– To highlight key determinants, approaches to analysis, possible interventions and metrics for evaluation.
–
What should I start to think about?

At its core, global health is concerned with policy and practice that aim to understand global challenges. In this module, you will be able to draw upon success and failure in addressing communicable and non-communicable public health issues globally. The COVID-19 outbreak currently is a global challenge; try to think what are global health and data-driven policies for emergency responses in a pandemic?

Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will be able to:
Knowledge
1. Critically evaluate global health issues in terms of social, environmental and political determinants and the role of key national and international organisations and initiatives;

2. Judge relevance of evidence-based solutions for addressing population health needs and the differences in low, middle and high-income countries.

Thinking skills
3. Demonstrate a critical understanding of relevant global health issues through research from primary and secondary sources.

Subject-based practical skills
4. Provide a critical review of a public health issue and response within a global context using an appropriate political, social, and epidemiological lens.

Skills for life and work (general skills)
5. Integrate concepts from the epidemiological and social context for a given global health challenge to inform policy debates when working with variable levels of data, resources and political commitments.

Reading and Resources List
Core
• Born A, Pulley Y, Holtz THE. (2017) Textbook of Global Health (Fourth Edition). New York: Oxford University Press

• Jacobsen, Kathryn H. (2018). Introduction To Global Health

• ISBN 10: 1284123898, EAN: 9781284123890. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc

• Warwick-Booth, Louise, Cross, Ruth (2018). Global Health Studies. ISBN 10: 1509504176. EAN: 9781509504176. Polity Press. UK

• Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Yogan Pillay, Timothy H. Holtz (2017).

• Textbook of Global Health (4th ed.). Oxford University Press; January 2017. ISBN: 9780199392292. Edition: 4. Oxford University Press

• Jones AND Bartlett Publishers, INC International Concepts (2016). Rev. ed. of: Essentials of global health. ISBN-10-0763797510, ISBN-13-9780763797515. United States

• Detels, R Gulliford, M Karim, Q Tan C (2017) Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health (Sixth edition). Oxford University Press.

Recommended

• Paper collection from The Lancet Global Health Commission on High-Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30101-8/fulltext

• Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker (2017) Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. Little, Brown and Company.

Please check the Moodle site for specific readings, which relate to the scheduled seminars.

Other resources which will be useful for reference purposes are:
• Freedman, L.P., W.J. Graham, E. Brazier et al (2007). Practical lessons from global safe motherhood initiatives: time for a new focus on implementation. Lancet, 370(9595): 1383-91.
• Janes, C. (2009). Anthropology of Global Health, Ann Rev Anthr, 38:167-83.
• Lawn, J.E., J. Rohde, S. Rifkin et al (2008). Alma-Ata: Rebirth and revision 1 – Alma-Ata 30 years on: revolutionary, relevant, and time to revitalise. Lancet, 372(9642): 917-27.
• Fillinger, U. and S. Lindsay (2011). Larval source management for malaria control in Africa: myths and reality. Malaria Journal, 10:353.
• Parker, M., T. Allen and J. Hastings (2007). Resisting the control of neglected tropical diseases: dilemmas in the mass treatment of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths in north-west Uganda. Journal of Biosocial Science 40(2):161-181.
• Molyneux, David H.; Malecela, Mwele N. (2011). Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Millennium Development Goals-why the “other diseases” matter: reality versus rhetoric. Parasites & Vectors, 4: 234.
• Anon (2010). Editorial: Gender equity is the key to maternal and child health. The Lancet 375(9730): 1939.
• Abdool Karim, S.S., G.J. Churchyard, Q. Abdool Karim and S.D. Lawn (2009). HIV infection and tuberculosis in South Africa: an urgent need to escalate the public health response. The Lancet 374 (9693): 921-933.
• Castro, A. and P. Farmer, (2003). Infectious disease in Haiti: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and social inequalities. EMBO Reports, 4:S20-S23.
• Prince, R., & Geissler, P.W. (2001). Becoming “one who treats”: a case study of a Luo healer and her grandson in Western Kenya. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 32(4), 447-471.

• Tylee, A., Haller, D. M., Graham, T., Churchill, R., & Sanci, L. A. (2007). Adolescent health 6: youth-friendly primary-care services: how we are doing and what more needs to be done. Lancet, 369(9572), 1565-1573.
• WHO. (2003). Adolescent friendly health services: An agenda for change. http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2003/WHO_FCH_CAH_02.14.pdf

• Barimah, K., and E. Van Teijlingen (2008). The use of traditional medicine by Ghanaians in Canada. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 8:30.
• Nichter, M. (2008). Global health: why cultural perceptions, social representation and biopolitics matter. Tuscon: Univ Arizona Press.
• Nichter, M. (2008). Global health: why cultural perceptions, social representation and biopolitics matter. Tuscon: Univ Arizona Press.

Journals:
You should access the library databases for journals. Try Science Direct, Pub Med or EBSCO (there are others). Paper versions of journals as also kept in the library. There are plenty of other journals in the library that would be useful to you. Please make sure you obtain an Athens account in the library, which will enable you to search a variety of databases when you are not on campus.

Useful websites:

These websites may contain useful information, although most of your references should come from recent journals and books.

• The PH England https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england
• The Stationary Office www.official-documents.co.uk
• Office of Public Health Information www.opsi.gov.uk
• Department of Health www.dh.gov.uk
• The Guardian www.guardian.co.uk
• London Health Observatory www.lho.org.uk
• World Health Organization www.who.int/en
• Health Development Agency/National Institute for Health www.nice.org.uk
• Spiked (online debates and articles designed to provoke!) www.spiked-online.com
• Office of National Statistics www.statistics.gov.uk
• UCL Institute of Health Equity: ………….. www.instituteofhealthequity.org
• WHO – list of all the up-to-date information on the COVID-19 outbreak https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019