MPH Context Certificate: Chronic and Non-Communicable Diseases
Chronic diseases—such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, asthma, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease—are responsible for a large majority of the deaths in the United States and a rapidly rising share of deaths in developing countries. In addition to their effect on mortality, these conditions have an enormous impact on disability, quality of life, healthcare costs, and lost productivity, and are also a major contributor to health disparities. The 12-credit certificate is designed to provide graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to address a broad range of challenges posed by these conditions, including identification of their causes; design, implementation and evaluation of programs to prevent their occurrence, and also to extend life and improve quality of life once they occur; and organization of the medical care system so that it focuses first on prevention, and also provides access to high-quality and efficient treatment and management.
Upon graduation, students will be able to:
- Identify the major known determinants of chronic disease and their distribution by country, community, and key demographic characteristics.
- Assess how the organization, delivery, and financing of health services in the US and globally influence the provision of healthcare aimed at the prevention, management, and treatment of chronic disease.
- Analyze the factors that influence public health’s approach to addressing chronic disease, including health impact; availability of health data; political, economic, and cultural influences; and feasibility.
- Apply systematic approaches to develop, implement, and evaluate programs to prevent the occurrence of chronic disease and to improve quality of life for persons with these conditions.
- Demonstrate professional knowledge and skills in chronic disease for effective practice in the selected functional certificate.
Course Requirements
- PH 780 Chronic Disease: A Public Health Perspective (2 cr)
- Choose 10 additional credits from the following course options:
| Environmental Health Focus |
| EH 705 Toxicology (2 cr) |
| EH 707 Physiology (2 cr) |
| EH 730 Methods in Environmental Health (4 cr) |
| EH 757 Environmental Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EH 804 Exposure Assessment (4 cr) |
| Policy & Management Focus |
| PM 755 Health Care Delivery Systems: Issues and Innovations (4 cr) |
| PM 832 Operations Management in Health Care (4 cr) |
| Global Health Focus |
| GH 880 Confronting Non-Communicable Diseases in the Developing World (4 cr) |
| GH 888 Seminar on Global Health Policy Issues (2 cr) |
| GH 891 Global Pharmaceutical Policy: At the Intersection of Process and Politics (2 cr) |
| PH 740 Pharmaceuticals in Public Health (4 cr) |
| Epidemiology Focus |
| EP 740 Introduction to the Epidemiology of Aging (2 cr) |
| EP 748 Drug Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EP 752 Cancer Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EP 758 Nutritional Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EP 762 Clinical Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EP 775 Social Epidemiology (4 cr) |
| EP 790 Mental Health Epidemiology (2 cr) |
| Community-Based Prevention Focus |
| MC 770 Children with Special Health Care Needs (4 cr) |
| PH 757 Chronic Disease Prevention (4 cr) |
| SB 800 Obesity Epidemic (4 cr) |
