In this module you will learn about different ways to understand population health and the most important population health metrics. This will be followed by learning about how the policy, legislative and economic environments impact on health, and the development and evaluation of interventions to change population health. You will also learn how evidence is translated into practice. This includes exploring a variety of concepts, such as the differences between health, absence of health and disease, or the patterns of health and illness, and the causes and consequences of these patterns. Additionally, you will learn how to identify and effectively engage with key stakeholders to improve health in the local, national, and international population.

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

define health, and distinguish between health, absence of health and disease
	describe patterns of health and disease from population health data
	list some possible causes and consequences of patterns of health and illness
	give an explanation of why people form certain health behaviours and how they can change
	explain the difference between evaluation and monitoring, as approaches to understand the success of public health interventions
	identify major stakeholder groups who should be involved in developing and rolling out public health interventions
This is a core module for students on the MSc Population Health programme and spaces are limited to 50. The module will run mainly asynchronously with live sessions every Tuesday for five weeks in Term 1.

As well as recorded lectures you will have online seminars, discussions, group work, self-directed reading, and presentations to enhance your knowledge of population and health as well as your critiquing and reviewing skills.

Selected Reading List

Kings Fund. What does improving population health really mean? Kings Fund website. 2019. Available online at: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/what-does-improving-population-health-mean?
Huber, Machteld et al. 2011. “How Should We Define Health?” BMJ. 2011 Jul 26;343:d4163. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d4163
Kindig, David, and Greg Stoddart. 2003. “What Is Population Health?” American Journal of Public Health 93(3): 380–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.3.380
Here’s the link to the current reading list:

https://rl.talis.com/3/ucl/lists/B8370143-6F94-AA31-843A-B7591732AB7E.html?lang=en-GB