Faculty of Arts & Science 2016-2017 Calendar

Public Health Sciences

• Public Health Sciences Courses

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.

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs: Professor Andrea Sass-Kortsak, a.sass@utoronto.ca.

Enquiries:  Room 688, Health Sciences Building

Public Health Sciences Courses

This course introduces students to basic public health-related concepts, significant aspects of the historical development of global health, and a selection of topics illustrating the broad and evolving nature of this field. In addition, it helps students explore the contributions that various disciplines/fields offer to global health.

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.

Linking across fields that include public health, geography and planning, this course examines the growing evidence and ways in which human health is affected by the design and development of the built environment in which we live, work and play. The course considers how various planning and development decisions impact population and individual health, particularly in relation to chronic diseases, injuries, and mental health.

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. Includes explicit attention to equity and public health, and explores issues such as: participatory governance of social-ecological systems, the nature of social change, complexity science, the role of social movements, indigenous and political ecology perspectives.

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 lecture-based course will familiarize students with fungi of public health importance, particularly those that cause disease in humans and other animals. The course will focus on the clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment of fungal infections, as well as the ecology, physiology and evolutionary biology of the agents responsible. The course will also address other ways in which fungi influence human and animal health.

In depth examination of specific topics/themes relating to Psychology.  Content in any given year depends on instructor.  This is not considered a seminar course.  Priority is given to PSY Major program students during the first enrolment period.

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.

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.