Health

This course provides an introduction to perspectives of health from a range of arts and science disciplines. Emphasis is on how health, wellness, illness, and disability have been conceptualized and constructed. Students will compare and contrast social, medical and biopsychosocial models of health and examine health across different historical periods, societies and cultures. Credit will be granted for only one of HLTH 111 and HLTH 101. Three credits.

This course builds on HLTH 111, challenging students to consider systematic variations in the distribution of health, health equity, and social justice among individuals, groups, populations, and societies. Various biological determinants that underpin health, illness and disease are examined. Various explanations of social determinants that affect health, well-being, illness, and disability are a focus. The relevance of determinants of health in the global context is introduced. Credit will be granted for only one of HLTH 112 and HLTH 102. Prerequisite: HLTH 101 or 111. Three credits.

This course provides students with an integrated approach to understanding the health of children in developing and developed countries and will foster an understanding of the multiple determinants of healthy development. Students will learn about key health issues that impact children from infancy through middle childhood. Students will identify alternative approaches to health beyond the disease-based approaches and will learn about the role of government in health care. By applying selected developmental theories to healthy physical, cognitive and social development, students will come to understand the contribution of family and community to, and the impact of socio-economic, political, biological, and environmental factors on, child health and development. Prerequisites: HLTH 101, 102. Three credits.

This course provides students with an integrated approach to understanding age-related changes of health during adolescence and adulthood in a cross-cultural context including health of indigenous populations. Special emphasis will be placed on using critical thinking to evaluate scientific research related to developmental origins of health beyond the childhood years. Themes covered include determinants of adolescent, adult, and geriatric health, the role of cultural considerations in healthy aging and dealing with death as part of the lifecycle. Prerequisite: HLTH 201. Three credits.

An introduction to quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research methods used to study health-related topics. A range of study designs will be discussed, with consideration to characteristics such as levels of measurement, sampling approaches, and data collection/generation techniques. The importance of research within the field of health, as well as strengths and weaknesses of different techniques, will be addressed. Discipline-specific methodology will be introduced, such as epidemiology, evidence-based practice, program evaluation, participant observation, phenomenology, and public health research. Credit will be granted for only one of HLTH 203 and another research methods course (exception PSYC 291). Corequisite: STAT 101 and second year BASc in Health status. Three credits and lab.

An examination of global health and illness from an anthropological perspective, this course applies key anthropological concepts to topics such as the meaning of health and illness cross-culturally, cultural construction of the body, medical pluralism, cross-cultural psychiatry, critical medical anthropology and the health of Indigenous peoples in Canada and other parts of the world. Cross-listed as ANTH 218. Prerequisite: ANTH 111/112 or HLTH111/112 or permission of the instructor. Three credits.

This course examines global health within the context of an increasingly uneven, globalized world. The course departs from a biomedical orientation on health to interrogate competing health and health system discourses, the political-economy of global health, factors that perpetuate and underpin global health inequities, as well as insights into the global health governance and policy landscape. Given the imperative for ‘health for all’, strategies and options for creating and spreading health through social innovation and policy will be explored. Cross-listed as HNU 421. Prerequisites: HLTH 201, 202, 203. Three credits.

This course examines approaches to health that extend beyond the delivery of health services. Students will examine the consequences of programs and policies that lie outside health sector on health systems, determinants of health, health, and health equity. A focus is on an intersectoral and systems approach to health and equity that involves government and non-government stakeholders from various sectors. Emphasis is on examining health in all policies and the role stakeholders play in overcoming barriers that hinder intersectoral approaches to complex health and equity issues from a systems perspective. Prerequisites: HLTH 201, 202, 203. Three credits.

The course will cover a selection of science-focused selected topics related to health, such as aging and disability. Topics will vary by year. Three credits.

This course represents the capstone for students completing the BASc in Health. The first part of the course will introduce leadership theories and core concepts. In the second part of the course, students will focus on learning about leading change and applying learnings to real-world leadership dilemmas which will prepare them for a real-world innovation project in HLTH 412. Emphasis will also be placed on evaluating one’s own leadership values and goals to inform future career planning. Students will be required to participate in sessions with guest speakers. Prerequisites: HLTH 301, HLTH 302. Three credits.

This course represents the capstone for students completing their BASc in Health. Students will explore a real-world problem related to health, and through a critical review of the problem create an innovative and viable solution. Credit will be granted for only one of HLTH 402 and HLTH 412. Prerequisite: HLTH 401. Three credits.

This course focuses on nutrition in tackling global disease burdens and achieving global health equity. It explores concepts, actors, governance, interventions, Sustainable Development Goals, nutrition transition, and other nutrition-related risk factors. The knowledge-translation framework, together with assets-based and integrated “bottom-up” approaches to community development, permeates the course and gives basis to the major course assignment. Various local and international guest speakers broaden the understanding of lecture topics. Cross-listed as HNU 421. Prerequisite: HLTH 301 or HNU 142. Three credits.

Under the supervision of a professor, each student completes a research project, from conception to completion, over the course of the year. The student is responsible for choosing a topic, the use of resources, the methodological soundness, and literary quality of the final product. Restricted to honours students.
Six credits.