Postgraduate Applied Health 2018-2019

This course begins by introducing you to Economics as a discipline. Consideration is then given to the commodity health care. It is shown that given its characteristics, government intervention is necessary to aid its efficient delivery. This raises questions concerning what services to provide as well as issues around the financing and organisation of health care. It also introduces a number of fundamental economic concepts that are encountered throughout the Programme such as demand, utility, opportunity cost and marginal analysis. On completing the course students should be able • To understand how health care differs from other commodities and to consider the implications of these differences for the organisation and delivery of health care. • To understand and be able to apply certain economic concepts. • To appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of these economic concepts when used to analyse health care decision-making.

Teaching and learning for this course will involve a combination of lectures, assignments, and tutorials. You will receive approximately 50 hours of face-to-face lectures which will provide you with a theoretical background for each topic. 

This course intends to develop the student's awareness of the fact that statistical techniques are integral to scientific research. Researchers must be able to specify a precise research question in statistical terms and then select an appropriate study design in order to carry out an effective research project. They must also be able to assess the adequacy of the research presented in scientific or medical literature. The same skills are also required for many MSc dissertation projects.

This course will provide a detailed knowledge of the relationships between diet, human development, health, and disease. Topics covered include diet and nutrition across the life course, integration and adaptability of different metabolic pathways to e.g. starvation, exercise, and the role of diet in the development of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, it will also provide insight into the effects of malnutrition and food processing on health. A combination of lectures, and a laboratory class will help consolidate your understanding of the impact food and nutrients on health.

Unhealthy and risky behaviours – such as a poor diet, sedentary behaviour, not attending screening programmes, or not taking medication as prescribed – are leading causes of suboptimal health and premature death, health care expenditure, and sickness absence. Health Psychology examines what drives these behaviours and how they can be changed. This course aims to provide students with the core knowledge and skills for developing and implementing effective interventions to promote healthier behaviours.

This course teaches students in the field of health psychology how to conduct high quality behavioural research, how to become an informed consumer of research, and how to think and operate within a professional, ethical framework. The structure of the course reflects the logical flow of the research process itself, moving week on week from the planning of research (generating and refining research questions, evaluating evidence, designing a study), through study conduct (ethical practice, qualitative and quantitative methods, measurement issues, research governance) to the interpretation and dissemination of results (to academic, policy, public, and media audiences).

This course is an introduction to the skills and information needed to appraise and undertake health-related research. This course provides a foundation for further learning in quantitative and qualitative research methods. Within this course you will develop the skills necessary for the planning, conducting and dissemination stages of health-related research. Topics covered include: - Developing a Research Question, Research Design; Methods of Data Collection; Approaches to Analysing Data; Dissemination of Research findings and Writing a Research Proposal.

This course is an introduction to the MyAberdeen platform which is used to deliver all online courses, to the university’s code of conduct for staff and students, and to make students aware of the support and help available to them during their studies. It is a zero credit but compulsory course for any student undertaking any online courses or programmes within the Institute of Applied Health Sciences (IAHS) at the University of Aberdeen.

This course aims to provide students with (a) an opportunity to complete a thorough and comprehensive review of the existing literature on a clearly defined topic in an area of interest to Health Psychology, and (b) the academic skills to search, synthesise and clearly present in writing a large amount of research evidence.

Working largely independently with the support of an academic supervisor, students on this course will produce a substantial literature review of a publishable standard. Reviews may be either narrative or systematic depending on the topic area.

This course in applied epidemiology gives an introduction to disease measurement at a population level, basic epidemiological study design and analysis, and provides an understanding of key methodological issues needed to apply when designing – or critically appraising – an epidemiological study.

This course is taken by students registered for the PGCert in Research Methods for Health and the MPH. It is delivered online and provides interaction with fellow students and faculty both synchronously and asynchronously. Everyone taking part must be registered for the course and complete all assessments. This course aims to enable the fundamental understanding and application of evidence based health at an individual- and population-level, focusing on the use of systematic reviews to synthesise evidence as well as methods to translate and implement evidence to inform health practice and policy.

Resources available for the provision and payment for health care are limited. However, knowledge of economics helps ensure that available resources are used in the most effective way possible.  Economics allows more informed decision making about a variety of issues: choosing between alternative treatments; setting priorities between patients; choosing between alternative new technologies; organising the provision of health care.

In this course students will acquire a knowledge and understanding of:

• key themes of economic theory as applied to health care
• some of the main techniques of health care evaluation
• main arguments concerning alternative systems for organising and financing health care

The course introduces students to the field of global health and develops skills to critically appraise organisations, actors, debates and data. Teaching material will cover: key definitions and terminology; institutions, practitioners and scholars in global health; and key drivers and challenges in the global health field. Students will learn about established and emerging topics, how these intersect with broader social, economic and political factors, and how research can make credible contributions in this context.

This course will equip students with the skills and information needed to appraise and undertake research in a professional manner. You will acquire the skills and information needed to: formulate a general aim and specific research questions and objectives; design a study; writing a research proposal, collect and manage data and critically appraise the data in the context of other relevant research and present the findings of a scientific study. In addition students will develop their knowledge of the standards, requirements and professionalism required to conduct high quality rigorous research.

This course will provide you with the basic knowledge required to enable you to move on to the complex issues that are addressed in today's society around the role of nutrition and food in disease prevention and management.  This course is designed as a refresher course for those who have already undertaken nutrition at undergraduate levels or to enable students with a strong science background to convert their knowledge into the nutrition field.

This course will give you a detailed theoretical and practical understanding of the methods used to assess nutritional status, including body composition, dietary intake and energy expenditure assessment. It includes a  ‘hands-on’ experience of using a a dietary assessment technique used routinely by nutritionists. The assignments for this course are designed to help you develop the skills you will employ in daily life as a nutritionist these include presenting and conducting a nutritional assessment of a client and being determining the best methods for nutritional assessment.

Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) are used to test the effectiveness of interventions. The aim of this course is to take a student through the process of designing RCTs. The course will focus on RCTs in the evaluation of real world healthcare and public health settings.

This course provides a sound introduction to qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course introduces planning to conduct relevant research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences. 

What can health professionals and health care promoters do to improve their own and others health and wellbeing? What influences people’s health behaviours? Why do people find it difficult to change their health behaviour? What are the most promising strategies for improving health and well-being?

Health behaviours cover a wide range of behaviours (e.g. smoking, physical activity, vaccination, diet, taking medication, and practicing safe sex) and have a major impact on peoples’ health, quality of life, and (healthy) life expectancy. Nevertheless, many people have an unhealthy diet, exercise too little, don’t take their medication as prescribed, smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, and so forth.

In this course, we will address these challenges and students will learn key theories about health behaviour and behaviour change, including behaviour change techniques, in order to understand how health behaviours can be influenced by a variety of factors within an individual (e.g., conscious and unconscious thoughts, emotions, goals, and decisions), and also by factors in the environment (e.g., the behaviours and expectations of society; the quality of the communication by health care professionals; or availability and affordability of healthy options in the environment).

 Health psychologists and health professionals are expected to be able to develop, evaluate and implement intervention programs to promote healthier behaviour, through changing individuals and their environment.

Within this course you will develop your understanding of health behaviours, what influences them and how to change them. You will experience the role of health behaviours from both the participant’s and researcher view, by developing, participating in and analysing your own behavioural intervention.

Public health is the art and science of improving health through the organised efforts of society. This course provides an introduction to a population-based perspective on health, illness and disease. The course illustrates the practical application of numerical ways of thinking about the health of a population. The course covers the three major public health domains of healthcare evaluation, health protection and health promotion.

This course aims to support students in developing a critical understanding of the breadth of public health approaches to protecting, promoting, monitoring and improving health among a population as a whole.

With an overall aim of giving students an opportunity to gain a holistic view of the study of Human Nutrition this course will bring together and place their knowledge and training in context. Students will discuss and critically analyse and evaluate current nutrition topics in an informal setting. The course will running throughout their master’s studies.

Adopting an informal student centre format students will direct the nutrition topics considered, using a range of approaches and skills such as critical appraisal of evidence, myth busting debates, journal club, applied nutrition workshops, invited speaker masterclass, industry visits.  

This course covers issues involved in identifying, measuring and valuing costs and benefits. Consideration will be given to the importance of health outcomes, non-health outcomes and process attributes when valuing the benefits of health care interventions. The student will be introduced to Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and the use of standard gamble and time-trade off to estimate quality weights within the QALY framework. Consideration will be given here to the creation and use of generic QALY measures such as EuroQol; as well as specific QALY measures.

This course builds on the learning from the Introduction to Global health course in the first half session. It focusses on the issues that affect the health of all nations of the world, the problems that unite developing and developed countries – the shared risks and vulnerabilities. This is not merely the study of emerging diseases and epidemic threats such as HIV, Ebola and Zika but also the dual burden of over and under nutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases, the impact of war, conflict and climate change on the health of individuals, nations and world populations.

This course will provide students with knowledge and understanding of the main theoretical and empirical methods in health economics to value healthcare interventions and conduct economic evaluations. Specifically you will acquire an understanding of decision modelling for economic evaluation of health care technologies (medical treatments, diagnosis tests, screening strategies) and the economic methods of Contingent Valuation and Choice –based approaches (Discrete Choice Experiments –DCEs-, best/worst scaling) to value health care interventions (outcomes and processes).

This course aims to explore the psychological side of illness and disability and learn how Health outcomes (e.g. quality of life, death, disease) depend to a large extent on people’s beliefs, perceptions, decisions and actions.  Over the course, students will learn how these factors can change how symptoms are interpreted and reported, how risk is perceived, how illness and disability are experienced, whether help is sought from medical professionals, and whether recommended treatments are adhered to over time.  Students will also study contemporary models of disability and explore how disability behaviour influences health outcomes.

This course examines how the behaviour of health professionals can impact on patient care and service delivery, and trains students in key professional practice skills such as cognitive-behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing and health coaching.

This Work Based Placement elective offers a professional placement with one of the following: public, civic, voluntary, development sector organisations or government agencies. Students undertake a 10-week placement with a host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both.

Applied statistics introduces students to statistical concepts involved in the appropriate design, analysis and interpretation of research in health settings, covering aspects of data types and presentation of data; probability; samples, distributions, statistical inference; hypothesis testing; univariate parametric and non-parametric methods and correlation with an introduction to regression.

This course explores how stress and personality can affect our health by influencing how we view the world, how we react to situations and events (psychologically, physiologically and behaviourally) and our capacity to cope in difficult circumstances.

We are all individuals who respond differently to the environment around us and these individual differences can influence our health, positively and negatively. Stress and other individual differences such as coping, social support and personality will be explored in relation to health and illness. Understanding the relationship between these factors can explain the psychological influences on health and identify key areas for intervention.

Public health is the art and science of improving health through the organised efforts of society. This course supports students in developing a critical understanding of the breadth of public health approaches to protecting, promoting, monitoring and improving health among the population as a whole.

The course is core to the MPH programme, but also open to students interested in understanding the population-based approach to health. All must be registered for the course and complete all assessments. The course is suitable for students wanting a professional (specialist/ practitioner) public health career and also for those wanting a related academic career.

This course will equip students with the relevant skills to interpret and conduct systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions.

Students will learn to formulate a clear research question and understand the principles and main steps for undertaking systematic reviews. In particular, they will learn how:

i)              to develop an adequate search strategy;

ii)             to critically appraise primary studies;

iii)           to extract data from primary studies;

iv)           to identify the main sources of heterogeneity among primary studies;

v)            to analyse findings from primary studies;

vi)           to interpret results;

vii)         to assess the quality of existing systematic reviews.

This course challenges you to engage robustly with questions about what is good and right (and why) in public health policy and practice. You will develop your ability to critique and participate effectively in debates about what matters – and what is morally justified - in efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of communities and populations. You will develop the knowledge and confidence to identify value-based assumptions as you examine a range of real-world health problems and practice justifying and objecting to different strategies for addressing them

This course provides a sound introduction to qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course introduces planning to conduct relevant research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences.  The course is delivered by a range of experienced contributors, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and stimulating lecture sessions.

This course will provide the students with a ‘hands on’ experience in conducting an extensive individual project over a period of 6 months, in a Public Health context.  This project will address a particular Public Health issue and is designed to develop the core competence in identifying and handling Public Health questions and their answers by the methods of enquiry and analysis relevant to the full range of health services and public health activities. Students will experience the application of the knowledge and skills in health care investigation, in a Public Health context.

We live in a time of ‘Big Data’ with the rapid growth in the digital capture of health information. Health Informatics is the science of data capture, linkage and analysis of large datasets to improve health. The demand for health researchers with training and experience in health informatics is high. For people practicing in Public Health, it is a key skill. It will equip students for any career in health research or public health practice and this course is an excellent stepping stone for those wishing to develop a specialist interest in the field.

This course examines different types of health care systems. Building on material from PU5008 it covers issues relevant to many health care systems: the application of supply and demand theory; the complex relationships between the transactors in health care; the patient as consumer; user charges; doctors and hospitals as suppliers of health care; incentives; reimbursement; competition and performance management.

This specialism course provides an up-to-date knowledge of Public Health Nutrition and provides students with an opportunity to develop their
understanding of the social, economic and cultural determinants of nutrition-related health problems, and skills that will enable them to design,
implement and evaluate nutrition policies and programmes aimed at addressing such problems. A combination of lectures, seminars, debates, tutorials and site
visits will give insight into key aspects of public health nutrition and you will be expected to contribute to lively discussions of the topics.

To get a ‘hands on’ experience in conducting a literature review on a public health topic for 3 months. Student will identify a particular Public Health issue and systematically search the literature using electronic bibliographic databases, critically appraise and synthesize research evidence on the topic.

Clinical nutrition is the study of diet in relation to the development and treatment of human disease. This specialism course provides an up-to-date and detailed knowledge on the role of nutrition in the aetiology, prevention and treatment of disease in humans, with particular emphasis on disease prevention. The course covers key topics surrounding nutrition and disease, and how clinical nutrition links with public health and molecular nutrition. The course also provides an overview of research tools widely used in clinical nutrition research, and a training on evidence-based analysis of nutrition case studies.

This course in applied epidemiology gives an introduction to disease measurement at a population level, basic epidemiological study design and analysis, and provides an understanding of key methodological issues needed to apply when designing – or critically appraising – an epidemiological study.

This course will give you a detailed theoretical and practical understanding of the methods used to assess nutritional status, including dietary intake, assessment of body composition and energy expenditure applied in the context of energy balance. Theory will be put into practice through a series of practical workshop and laboratory sessions to give you ‘hands-on’ experience of using a range of assessment techniques using state-of-the-art equipment routinely employed by nutritional scientists. 

The overall aim of nutrition practice and research is to enable everyone to gain optimum health and well-being through good nutrition. This course aims to enable student to develop the fundamental understanding and application of evidence based health at an individual- and population-level.  This course also aims to help future nutrition practitioners and researchers develop the skills and insights necessary to advocate for better health through diet and nutrition, and the public and social policies that support better nutritional and health outcomes.

This course will provide a detailed knowledge of the relationships between diet, human development, health, and disease. Topics covered include diet and nutrition across the life course, integration and adaptability of different metabolic pathways e.g. starvation, exercise, and the role of diet in the development of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. During the course you will also develop the skills required to select and critically appraise scientific evidence. 

This course is an introduction to the MyAberdeen platform which is used to deliver all online courses, to the university’s code of conduct for staff and students, and to make students aware of the support and help available to them during their studies. It is a zero credit but compulsory course for any student undertaking any online courses or programmes within the Institute of Applied Health Sciences (IAHS) at the University of Aberdeen.

Chronic diseases account for 70% of annual deaths in the world and present a great burden for the society. Emerging clinical evidence suggests that improving diet and nutrition can substantially reduce the risk of chronic diseases.

This course addresses the link between diet and the risk of developing chronic diseases. Furthermore, this course provides scientific evidence as to how nutrition may be used as a tool to prevent chronic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic diseases. It also highlights the importance of scientific research on developing public health policy frameworks, which encompass a range of educational and regulatory measures aiming to contribute to chronic disease prvenion.

The dissertation is an independent piece of work undertaken by students which allow them to demonstrate in depth the skills and knowledge acquired on the MSc, and their ability to apply these two issues relevant to health economics.

This course offers students the opportunity to complete a substantial piece of data-driven, empirical work within the field of Health Psychology, under the supervision of an experienced Health Psychology researcher.

Topics available will be varied but within the domain of Health Psychology. Students will identify a suitable topic area, develop a research protocol, design and implement an empirical study and write up the results in the format of a journal article.

This course will provide the students with a ‘hands on’ experience in conducting a project for three months, in a Public Health context.  This project will address a particular Public Health issue and is designed to develop the core competence in identifying and handling Public Health questions and their answers by the methods of enquiry and analysis relevant to the full range of health services and public health activities

This applied research project, completed under the guidance of two supervisors, will give direct experience of the different processes involved in scientific research either in a laboratory, clinical or public health setting. A wide range of research topics will be offered covering the nutrition subjects studied in the taught course. Projects are carried out at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, School of Medical and Dentistry or Aberdeen Royal Infirmary; projects may also be undertaken in other institutions in the UK or overseas where suitable supervision can be identified.

.

The health economics project is an independent piece of work undertaken by students which allow them to demonstrate in depth the skills and knowledge acquired on the MSc and apply these to a research question. Under expert supervision, each student independently and creatively identifies and formulates a research question which they address using appropriate methodology.

This course offers students the opportunity to complete a substantial piece of data-driven, empirical work within their field of study, under the supervision
of an experienced researcher. Topics available will be varied but within the domain of their field of study. Alongside supervisors, students will identify a
suitable topic area, describe an appropriate study design and implement an empirical study.  Students will be involved alongside the supervisors
in the process of defining the research question, and developing the research protocol, and where appropriate obtaining all regulatory approvals.

This course must be taken in conjunction with the research project in applied health sciences and offers the students the opportunity to extend the project length from 15 weeks to 22 weeks. This additional time is to allow student to undertake a more extensive project in order to develop additional research skills.  By taking this combination of courses makes this one of the most extensive research projects to be undertaken in a taught masters. 

This course offers students the opportunity to gain experience of the different processes involved in scientific research or other scholarly investigation in
either in a laboratory, clinical, academic or public health setting, under the supervision of an experienced researcher. Topics available will be varied but
within the domain of their field of study. All projects offered will have a defined research question, a full protocol and where appropriate all regulatory
approvals before the start of the project.