Overview - PH 412: Understanding and Measuring Health

After completing PH 412, learners will be proficient in applying measures of population health and illness, including risk factors, in community health improvement in community health improvement initiatives. Key aspects of this competency expectation include:

• articulating several different definitions of health
• identifying 4 or more categories of factors that influence health
• for each of the these categories, specifying 3 or more factors that influence health
• identifying several categories of commonly used measures of health status
• for each of these categories, identifying 3 or more commonly used measures
• describing major trends in health status for the U.S. over the past 100 years
• accessing and utilizing comprehensive and current national data on health status and factors influencing health in the U.S.
• utilizing information on factors that influence health and measures of health can be used to develop community health priorities and effective interventions for improving community health status
  

This course involves several learning activities; see the PH 412 Exercises document for detailed instructions.

• Content: the content for this course is provided in the specific readings and other resources identified in the PH 412 Exercises document.
• Office Hours: This messaging system was created to handle questions and announcements. Visit this site to introduce yourself to the course as well as to help you get familiar with the workings of the system.
• Exercises:
  1. Individual Exercise: submit the completed individual exercise under the link "Submit Assignments". Your instructor will provide feedback by replying to your posting.
  2. Conferencing Exercise: add your contribution to this multi-learner conferencing exercise.
  3. Assessment Quiz: complete and submit the multiple choice assessment quiz for PH 412.

The instructor will evaluate your responses to the various exercises and indicate when you have successfully completed PH 412. For learners interested in going beyond the basics, a list of additional resources, including readings and other materials, is available through the Additional Resources link. This list emphasizes the most up-to-date materials. Information on related courses is provided in the PH 410 Course Series Syllabus. PH 413 (or any other course) can begin whenever you wish, so feel free to begin the readings that are identified for the course that you plan to take next.

PH 412 Overview last revised July 1, 2004 (bturnock)