Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 lectures / week, 1.5 hours / lecture

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course, but permission of the instructor is required.

Description

This course examines the built, psychosocial, economic, and natural environment factors that affect health behaviors and outcomes. It introduces tools designed to integrate public health considerations into policymaking and planning. It provides extensive hands-on training in the application of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology, which brings a health lens to policy, budgeting, and planning debates, and emphasizes health equity and healthy cities. The class is designed to prepare graduate students from planning and policy fields to interface with public health organizations, agencies, or advocacy groups in professional contexts. It is also intended to accommodate advanced undergraduates, particularly pre-health undergraduates interested in behavioral and sociocultural determinants of health.

Learning Objectives

• Articulate the ways in which social, natural, built, and economic environments impact health
• Critically assess the value of examining non-health policies and projects through a health lens
• Develop the professional judgment to recognize when a health lens may add value to decision-making, and to identify concrete tools to integrate health considerations into these decisions
• Describe the purpose, benefits, and challenges of using HIAs to convey information to decision-makers and other stakeholders
• Describe the core steps used to conduct HIAs, including screening, scoping, assessment, recommendations, reporting, monitoring and evaluation
• Demonstrate competency in contributing to an HIA

Grading