Population Health: Societal and Individual Perspectives – (M.A.)

Contents

The programme is comprised of four terms with primarily mandatory courses. The first term begins with the course Population health and health equity, which presents the subject field and problematises around various perspectives of the individual, group and society and how these perspectives overlap and complement each
other. The course also provides introductory knowledge of how health varies in relation to gender, age, socioeconomic factors and one's country of residence. A brief introduction is also given to the medical terminology used in public health sciences, especially in the field of inequality in health. This course is followed by Social stratification and health, which focuses mainly on the origins of social stratification and its relation to health, but also social determinants like gender and ethnicity. During the next course, Psychobiological processes, stress and health, the student will learn about different theories and models behind stress, gaining an increased understanding of the connection between socioeconomic position, stress and ill health. This first term ends with an introduction to methodology, with quantitative methods from psychology, sociology and epidemiology.

The second term begins with a course in Life course approach to health equity studies, where the focus is on health and development during different phases of life, including critical periods such as the foetal period, childhood and teenage years and their significance for health in adult age and later years. After this follows two
courses that more specifically focus on social differences in health during two significant phases of life: childhood and later years. The latter is carried out jointly with the Aging Research Centre (ARC) at KI/SU. This second term ends with a short course in SPSS statistics, followed by an advanced course in methodology.
The third term begins with the course Population development and social change, given by the demographics section of the Department of Sociology. During the course Welfare state, social policies and health, students will gain an understanding of how occurrences on the macro level can influence conditions of health. The course
then takes on a comparative international perspective, with a presentation of regional and global changes in health over time. This third term ends with an introduction to the work of the master's thesis, so that students can get started with that.
The last term begins with an elective course on the advanced level or with an individual in-depth reading course in preparation of writing the thesis. The rest of the term will be devoted to writing the master's thesis.
The master programme is composed of both lectures and seminars. Students are expected to be prepared for the seminars and take an active part in the discussions that take place there. The different segments are assessed through written examinations, take-home examinations and/or in-depth analyses in the form of for example papers to be discussed during seminars and during the final thesis work.