Health Courses

This course provides an introduction to perspectives of health from a range of art and science disciplines. Emphasis is on how health, wellness, illness, and disability have been conceptualized and constructed. Students will compare and contrast social and medical models of health across different historical periods, societies and cultures. Tutorials will develop applied skills for university success in health studies. Three credits.

This course builds on Health I, challenging students to consider systematic variations in the distribution of health, health equity, and social justice among individuals, groups, populations, and societies. Various biological determinants that underpin health, illness, disease, pain, and defect are examined. Various explanations of social determinants that affect health, well-being, illness, and disability are a focus. The relevance of determinants of health in the global context is introduced. Three credits.

This course provides students with an integrated approach to understanding the health of children in developing and developed countries and will foster an understanding of the multiple determinants of healthy development. Students will identify alternative approaches to health beyond the disease-based approaches and will learn about the role of government in health care. By applying selected developmental theories to healthy physical, cognitive and social development, students will come to understand the contribution of family and community to, and the impact of socio-economic, political, biological, and environmental factors on, child health and development up until adolescence. Prerequisites: HLTH 101, 102. Three credits.

This course provides students with an integrated approach to understanding age-related changes of health during adolescence and adulthood in a cross-cultural context including health of indigenous populations. Special emphasis will be placed on using critical thinking to evaluate scientific research related to developmental origins of health beyond the childhood years. Themes covered include determinants of adolescent, adult, and geriatric health, the role of cultural considerations in healthy aging and dealing with death as part of the lifecycle. Prerequisite: HLTH 201. Three credits.

An introduction to quantitative and qualitative research methods used to study health-related topics. A range of study designs will be discussed, with consideration to characteristics such as levels of measurement, sampling approaches, and data collection/generation techniques. The importance of research within the field of health, as well as strengths and weaknesses of different techniques, will be addressed. Discipline-specific methodology will be introduced, such as epidemiology, evidence-based practice, program evaluation, and public health research. Credit will be granted for only one of HLTH 203 and another research methods course (exception PSYC 291). Prerequisite: STAT 101 and second year BASc in Health status. Three credits and lab. It is strongly recommended that you complete this course prior to taking HLTH301 and 302.

This course examines global health within the context of an increasingly uneven, globalized world. The course departs from a biomedical orientation on health to interrogate competing health and health system discourses, the political-economy of global health, factors that perpetuate and underpin global health inequities, as well as insights into the global health governance and policy landscape. Given the imperative for ‘health for all’, strategies and options for creating and spreading health through social innovation and policy will be explored. Three credits. It is strongly recommended that you have HLTH203 completed prior to taking this course.

This course examines approaches to health that extend beyond the delivery of health services. Students will examine the consequences of programs and policies that lie outside health sector on health systems, determinants of health, health, and health equity. A focus is on an intersectoral and systems approach to health and equity that involves government and non-government stakeholders from various sectors. Emphasis is on examining the role these stakeholders and how to overcome barriers that hinder intersectoral approaches to complex health and equity issues from a systems perspective. Three credits. It is strongly recommended that you have HLTH203 completed prior to taking this course. 

This course represents the capstone for students completing their health studies major. The first part of the course will introduce leadership strategies within the health care system, and connect students with leaders in the field. In the second part of the course,students will learn about innovation strategies, which will prepare them for a real-world innovation project in Health 402 (Health Innovation). Three credits.  

This course represents the capstone for students completing their health studies major. Students will explore a real-world problem in the health care system, and through a critical review of the problem create an innovative and viable solution. Three credits.