Postgraduate Applied Health 2024-2025

This course in Applied Statistics focuses on the application of statistical techniques in postgraduate research for health professionals, with a particular emphasis on the correct interpretation of statistical analyses results. The course will NOT focus on the statistical theory underlying the subject. An important component of the course is the use of a statistical package (IBM SPSS), which can be used to implement all the methods taught on this course. 

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 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.

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 applied to health care
• Some of the main techniques of health care evaluation
• Main arguments concerning alternative systems for organising and financing health care

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.

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, conduct 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 teaches students in the field of health psychology how to conduct high quality quantitative 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 studies), through study conduct (ethical practice, quantitative methods, measurement issues, data handling, research governance) to the statistical analysis, interpretation, reporting and dissemination of research findings (to academic, policy, public, and media audiences).

This course introduces students to key concepts in 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.

Nationally and internationally there is recognition of the critical shortage in data-intensive analytic capacity applied to healthcare. This course is an introduction to the field of health data science, with examples of real-life healthcare applications, using the popular data science language R.

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. 

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Specify and critically evaluate the key elements of trial design.

2. Justify trial design decisions. 

3. Describe the differences between pragmatic and explanatory trials. 

This course will explore the challenges faced in women’s health and health care in a global setting. Students will gain knowledge of how gender differences, inequality, women’s family roles, community and society support, and approaches to healthcare systems all play a role in women’s health. It will also present how women’s health intersects with broader social and economic factors.

This course focuses 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, Zika and Sars Cov-19 but also the dual burden of over and undernutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases, the impact of war, conflict and climate change on the health of individuals, nations and world populations.

This course aims to explore the psychological side of illness, disability and dying. Students will learn how symptoms are interpreted and responded to, how risk is perceived, how individuals live with chronic conditions and about end of life and bereavement.

Health outcomes depend not just on an individual’s own behaviours, but also on the behaviour of health professionals, the behaviour of service providers and on the structure and organisation of health-relevant environments. This course equips students with basic professional practice skills and trains them how to identify and solve real world health problems using psychological theories and techniques.

This course will equip students with the relevant skills to interpret and conduct systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions. Using lectures and practical sessions, students will understand the principles of systematic reviewing and the differences between narrative and systematic reviews. They will learn to formulate a clear research question and undertake each stage of systematic reviewing of randomised controlled trials. They will also learn about the importance of the levels of evidence and systematic reviews of other different study designs. This course will also introduce the students to advances in systematic reviews such as network meta-analysis and use of Individual Patient Data (IPD)

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative 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 experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative 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 experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

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.

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a government/public, industrial, civic or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and may be offered on a competitive basis.

We reserve the right to remove a student from placement should an employer report any inappropriate behaviour or unacceptable work. Should this happen, University-based remedial training supervised by course staff will be offered as an alternative activity and assessments will remain in place but will be capped at D3.

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 Health Improvement, Health Protection and Healthcare Public Health.

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.

This course offers students the opportunity to lead 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, develop a research protocol, 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 starts in January and ends in July/August.

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.

Machine learning has the potential to revolutionise healthcare. The aim of this course is to introduce machine learning for health data science with examples of real-life healthcare applications, using the popular data science language R.

This intermediate-level course intends to advance a student's statistical skills and understanding of common and more advanced regression modelling techniques so that they can apply them to a wide range of health research data. The course will focus on introducing the student to the concepts underpinning generalised linear models. They will deepen their understanding of linear and logistic regression and learn how to analyse outcomes such as count data and time-to-event data using regression for count data and survival analysis. This course will focus on the application, interpretation, and communication of the learned methodologies. It assumes that students will already have completed a first course in introductory statistics and have an understanding of hypothesis testing and basic mathematical skills. 

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 work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a government/public, industrial, civic or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and may be offered on a competitive basis.

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a civic, government, industrial, public, research or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation in the field of Health Data Science. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a best match basis.

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a civic, government, industrial, public, research or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation in the field of Health Data Science. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a best match basis.

The course on Professional Development and Research Skills is designed to equip you with essential tools and knowledge to excel in your research project and future professional careers. Through a comprehensive series of workshops, you will gain a deep understanding and have opportunities to develop your skills in the core principles of professional development, including communication skills, leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving. In addition, the course focuses on supporting you to developing strong research skills, covering topics such as research methodology, literature review, data collection and analysis, and ethical considerations within the focus of your chosen methodology. You will engage in hands-on exercises, working with your own research project supported by your peers and tutors to enhance your practical understanding of these skills. By the end of the course, you will have a solid foundation in professional development and research, enabling you to thrive in your chosen fields and contribute to the advancement of knowledge and innovation.

The course will introduce you to the key theoretical concepts in the study of human nutrition and develop a range of transferable skills such as independent learning and interpersonal skills. It will enable you to develop a broad knowledge, understanding, and evaluation of core principles underpinning the science of human nutrition which is an essential platform for all other courses taken within the MSc Human Nutrition programme. 

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. 

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.

Please note, some of the material on this course will discuss animal research. 

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.

The course will explore the complex nature of sustainable diets within a global food system. It will give you an understanding of the need for healthy and more environmentally sustainable diets to tackle some of the greatest global challenges facing us today, including poor dietary health, climate change and environmental degradation, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It will cover the multidimensional attributes and the challenge of combining these attributes into a single entity of sustainable diets. The course will explore synergies and trade-offs between attributes, barriers and drivers of change and potential solutions to achieving sustainable diets within a global food system. In addition, external influences affecting the resilience and changes to the food system will be discussed.