Planetary Health
| Module title | Planetary Health |
|---|---|
| Module code | HPDM122 |
| Academic year | 2020/1 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Kristin Liabo (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 6 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 15 |
|---|
Module description
Globally and locally, health interconnects with social practices and systems shaped by environmental, economic, political and cultural motivations. This module will introduce you to medical sociology, environment and human health, social epidemiology and global health. You will learn how these disciplines contribute to our understanding of health and environmental inequalities. You will be taught how to consider health and wellbeing in global, social and environmental contexts. No specialist knowledge is needed for this module, although an interest in interdisciplinary learning is essential. Your learning will be assessed in group work and by an essay in which you will consider a specific public health problem through the frameworks you have been introduced to.
Module aims - intentions of the module
The overarching aim of this module is to introduce you to how knowledge from the interconnections between four different disciplines can contribute to a more holistic and deeper understanding of public health at local, national and global levels. You will learn how health in its widest sense and health and environmental inequalities are created, and the potential strategies for addressing them more effectively. We will cover this over 6 sessions which will vary in length and provide teaching to enhance understanding of:
- The link between local, national and global health
- The role of theory development in understanding health and environmental inequalities
- The interconnections between the health of the environment and human health, and wellbeing
- Corporate and economic determinants of health and environment
- Planetary boundaries to healthy and sustainable living
- Disease control, prevention and health promotion: why we need a global approach
- Lay understandings of health: majority and minority world perspectives
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Understand distinctive and complementary contributions made by each of the four key disciplines taught in this module (medical sociology, social epidemiology, environment and human health, and global health)
- 2. Apply the interdisciplinary learning from the module to a case study of personal interest
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Understand how health and wellbeing are conditioned by social and environmental factors
- 4. Critically appraise research papers related to planetary health, across the four key disciplines
- 5. Demonstrate the interconnectedness of health and wellbeing locally, nationally and globally
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Apply social and environmental understanding of human health and wellbeing to policy or practice planning in a range of context
- 7. Identify important partners or levers for change in disciplines other than ones own and on different levels of operation (macro-meso-micro)
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, an example of an overall structure is as follows:
By using the theme of food as the ‘golden thread’ running through all teaching sessions, students will be introduced to interdisciplinary perspectives of global health, environment and human health, medical sociology and social epidemiology. Other topics will also be covered.
- Introduction to the module: interdisciplinary global and local health
- Environmental, social, political and cultural drivers of health
Medical sociology/social epidemiology (local, global) – stigma, practices, culture, identity, politics.
- Global public health: interconnecting health and environmental inequalities across continents, communicable diseases
Obesity global rates, corporate and economic determinants of health, food/trade/aid/development (structural adjustment, food sovereignty), healthy diets and planetary boundaries. Global drivers for disease, food sovereignty / food systems.
- Environment and human health
Introduction to basic concepts, health and environmental inequalities, antimicrobial resistance, climate and other environmental change, sustainability.
- New approaches to global and national health challenges
Nature-based solutions, salutogenic environments, therapeutic landscapes, nature-connectedness and wellbeing, “social prescribing” and other social approaches to reducing communicable and non-communicable diseases.
- Lay understandings of health and wellbeing
Looking back at learning in this module and considering whose voices are represented in the research we have examined.
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 135 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 15 | Delivered over six sessions, to include group discussion and preparation for group work. Due to Covid, the following may apply: Face-to-face scheduled lectures may be replaced by short pre-recorded videos for each topic (15-20 minutes) and/or brief overview lectures delivered via MS Teams/Zoom, with learning consolidated by self-directed learning resources and ELE activities. - Small-group discussion in tutorials and seminars may be replaced by synchronous group discussion on Teams/ Zoom; or asynchronous online discussion, for example via Yammer or ELE Discussion board - Workshops involving face-to-face classroom teaching may be replaced by synchronous sessions on Teams/Zoom; or Asynchronous workshop activities supported with discussion forum |
| Guided Independent Study | 65 | Session preparation and follow up work utilising resources provided on ELE |
| Guided Independent Study | 20 | Group work offline between sessions in preparation for presentations. Due to Covid, any group work may need to take place online. |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Reading and assignment preparation |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group presentation | 15 min in teaching sessions | 1-7 | Facilitator and peer feedback |
| Small group discussions | Throughout teaching sessions | 1-7 | Facilitator and peer feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 100 | 2500 words | 1-7 | Written feedback |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay (100%) | Essay: (2500 words) | 1-7 | Typically within six weeks of the result |
Re-assessment notes
Re-assessment is in the same format as for the first attempt
Please refer to the TQA section on Referral/Deferral: http://as.exeter.ac.uk/academic-policy-standards/tqa-manual/aph/consequenceoffailure/
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Frumkin H. (Editor) “Environmental health: from global to local”. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016.
King NB, Koski A. “Defining global health as public health somewhere else” BMJ Global Health, 2020;5:e002172 doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2019-002172
Levy B, Patz J. “Climate Change and public health”. Oxford University Press, 2015. Available online Health https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780190202453.001.0001/med-9780190202453
Raworth, K. “A doughnut for the anthropocene: humanity’s compass in the 21st Century” The Lancet Planetary Health, 2017;1(2):E48-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30028-1
Raynor G, Lang T. “Ecological public health: the 21st Century’s big idea?” BMJ, 2012;345:e5466 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e5466
Examples of further reading:
Bunn et al “ ‘Coz football is all we have’: masculinities, practice, performance and effervescence in a gender-sensitised weight-loss and healthy living programme for men” Sociology of Health and Illness (2016) 38:5;812-28 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-9566.12402
Read with:
Hunt et al “A gender-sensitive weight loss and healthy living programme for overweight and obese men delivered by Scottish Premier League football clubs (FFIT): a pragmatic randomised controlled trial” The Lancet (2014) 838:9924;1211-21 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62420-4
Colchero, M, Popkin B, Rivera, J. & Wen Ng, Shu 2016. Beverage purchases from stores in Mexico under the excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages: observational study
Epstein, S 1994 Construction of lay expertise (example from AIDS activism in the US) – links also to communicable diseases and inequalities in treatment (in this case due to the then limiting opportunities to be part of trials, which at that point were the only chance of survival https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016224399502000402
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
- ELE – College to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages
- http://media.dh.gov.uk/uploads/infographic/Full%20Size%20HTML/index.html
- https://goodlife.leeds.ac.uk/about/
Indicative learning resources - Other resources
Davies, S. 2019. Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer, 2019: health, our global asset – partnering for progress. Department of Health and Social Care
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | Feb 2020 |
| Last revision date | 18/09/2020 |
