Faculty of Arts & Science 2012-2013 Calendar

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Public Health Sciences

Faculty

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease and promoting health through organized population-based efforts.  The focus of public health is to prevent rather than treat disease and to positively affect determinants of health through a wide range of strategies, including the surveillance and assessment of population health and the promotion of healthy behaviours, healthy environments and healthy public policies.  In addition to these activities, the identification and treatment of those with disease may be vital to preventing it in others, such as during an outbreak of an infectious disease.  Hand washing, vaccination programs, the inspection of restaurants, laws banning smoking in public places and tax credits for childhood physical activity programs are examples of public health measures.  Public health includes sub-disciplines such as epidemiology, biostatistics, occupational and environmental health, public health policy, and social and behavioural health sciences.

Undergraduate Coordinator:  Professor B.J. Harvey (416-946-5793 or bart.harvey@utoronto.ca)

Enquiries:  Room 688, Health Sciences Building (416-946-5793 or bart.harvey@utoronto.ca)

Public Health Sciences Courses

Examines concepts of resilience as a way of building the capacity of communities to (a) respond to predicted disruptions/shocks associated with climate change, global pandemics, anticipated disruptions in global food supply, energy insecurity, and environmental degradation; and (b) nurture the development of alternative spaces that support the emergence of more life-sustaining structures and practices.

Find out how to use statistics in your research, and critically assess published data using statistical concepts. The examples used in these lectures and small-group sessions are taken solely from human biology studies.

This course engages students in the fundamental science of epidemiology applied to health and disease.  After an introduction to various measures of health and disease, the scientific methods used to investigate, analyze, prevent and control health problems will be illustrated using biomedical and public health examples.

This course engages students in in-depth learning about HIV research.  In addition to learning about methods and issues from a variety of research disciplines as applied to HIV, students will be expected, with guidance, to design a study relevant to the content of the course.

Bayesian inference has become an important applied technique and is especially valued to solve complex problems. This course first examines the basics of Bayesian inference. From there, this course looks at modern, computational methods and how to make inferences on complex data problems.

Prerequisite: STA302H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)

STA465H1    Theory and Methods for Complex Spatial Data[36L]

Data acquisition trends in the environmental, physical and health sciences are increasingly spatial in character and novel in the sense that modern sophisticated methods are required for analysis. This course will cover different types of random spatial processes and how to incorporate them into mixed effects models for Normal and non-Normal data. Students will be trained in a variety of advanced techniques for analyzing complex spatial data and, upon completion, will be able to undertake a variety of analyses on spatially dependent data, understand which methods are appropriate for various research questions, and interpret and convey results in the light of the original questions posed.

This issue-oriented course will extend students´ understanding of the broad definitions of health and its determinants, and population-based strategies of health promotion in Canada. Topics include: variations in health status as affected by population patterns, class, gender, ethnicity, employment, and family composition; the major causes of morbidity and mortality; the concept of "community health", and the opportunities and constraints facing public policy.

This course is designed to introduce students to the principles and methods of epidemiology. The emphasis will be on descriptive methods and study design. Computational techniques, measurement problems, and issues that surround the drawing of inferences from area-level or other aggregrate data will be discussed.