HSC 5320G - Foundations of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Credits: 4

This course provides students with an overview of the major chronic diseases that are highly preventable and manageable through lifestyle and behavioral changes. Using the United States Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2020 Framework, students will gain an understanding of the distribution, etiology, costs, prevention, and management of these chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, cancer, and mental health disorders. Students will also become familiar with concepts of health disparities and their role in the distribution and prevention of chronic disease. In addition, theoretical foundations for health behavior change and disease prevention program design will be introduced. In the latter half of the course, students will work in small groups to apply course content by researching and presenting information on evidence-based approaches to prevention of a specific chronic disease, within the context of their graduate concentration area.