General provisions

The course is part of the Master's Programme in Global Health.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen (180 credits). The main field of study must be in medicine, nursing, nutrition or similar fields relevant for global health. All applicants need to have adequate proficiency in the English lagnuage. This is normally attested by means of an internationally recognised test such as TOEFL or IELTS. Applicants must have passed the course module Introduction to Global Health, 15 credits (from Global Health 1), or equivalent.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students are expected to be able to:

• Demonstrate skills in analysing and interpreting global health data and evidence, in relation to Agenda 2030.
• Critically read, analyse, synthesize, present and discuss literature addressing maternal and reproductive, and children's health, food and nutrition security and migration.
• Critically discuss and communicate research findings and conclusions and the evidence and arguments they are based upon.
• Describe and critically discuss interventions to promote global health.
• Map and appraise the social, cultural, environment and economic causes of poor child health, food and nutrition security and sexual and reproductive health and evaluate their consequences for sustainable development.
• Critically appraise the impact of gender-based violence on global health.
• Analyse and discuss how migration is a social determinant of health.
• Appraise the health needs, and its determinants, of refugees and migrants and identify required health systems response to safeguard and promote refugee and migrant health.
• Prepare problem statements and an appropriate research proposal based on provided case scenarios. 
• Outline steps to implement a research proposal that addresses global health challenges and discuss the appropriateness and feasibility of different methods.
• Develop tools for data collection and identify appropriate bio-statistical, epidemiological or qualitative methods for data analysis.
• Understand and apply the principles of ethics in global health research.

Content

The course consists of three modules; Women's and Children's Health and Nutrition (15 cr), Migration and Health (5 cr) and Research Methods II (10 cr).

Women's and Children's Health and Nutrition, 15 cr, includes:

• Global maternal, new-born and child health.
• Global sexual and reproductive health, including rights perspective.
• The definition, implications and magnitude of gender-based violence in relation to health and food and nutrition security.
• Adolescent reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections and comprehensive abortion care.
• Maternal health and mortality with a special emphasis on disadvantaged populations or settings with limited resources.
• Global child health and challenges from an Agenda 2030 perspective, with special emphasis on disadvantaged populations or settings with limited resources.
• Early childhood development, perceptions and rights of the child.
• Public health strategies for improved integrated management of childhood illnesses.
• The concept of nutrition transition, its drivers and how this have changed the global disease burden related to nutrition.
• The role of, and interplay with food environments in shaping consumption and nutrition.
• The importance of food systems and diets for sustainability goals and planetary health.
• Gender empowerment and its relation to reproductive health and children's health and nutrition.
• Critical review of reproductive health policy and professionalism with special emphasis on diversity versus equality ideals.

Migration and health, 5 cr, includes:

• How migratory journey and its phases affects health.
• Migration as a social determinant of health.
• Public discourse on migration and migrants.
• Refugee and migrant sensitive health system.
• Right to health and migration.
• Humanitarian action.

Research Methods II, 10 cr, includes:

• An introduction to research proposal writing.
• The principles of field research.
• Essential elements of global health research ethics.
• Practice of quantitative methods (Epidemiology and Statistics) focused on data management, understanding data structure including statistical analytical software.
• Practice of qualitative methods including use of analytical software.
• Conceptualization and writing of a research study.
• Power and sample size calculation.
• Introduction to surveys including overview to registry data.

Instruction

The course consists of a series of lectures, literature studies, seminars, group and individual assignments and presentations. Sessions are interactive and students are encouraged to draw on their own experiences from the fields presented. Language of instruction is English.

Assessment

The assessment is based on:

Written examination, participation in compulsory sessions, oral presentations, assignments. To receive a final grade for the course, the student needs to obtain a pass in the written examination, successfully complete compulsory sessions, oral presentations and assignments. If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator. All examinations are in English.