Health Promotion is a fundamental component of any approach to public health and population health, whether it be research, policy or practice. The World Health Organization defines health promotion as "Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.”. This course provides an overview of health promotion including examination of the social determinants of health, health literacy and foundations in health promotion. During the course students will explore the role of health promotion in addressing a range of current global health issues and their relevance to the field of public health. Students will examine contemporary perspectives on health and health promotion contributions to public health and population health responses. The course enables students to gain an understanding of  how health can be defined from different perspectives, and develop core knowledge of health promotion including its foundation theories, principles and concepts,. The course will equip students with the capacity to engage in public health and population health through the essential health promotion skills and understandings.

This is a core course in the Bachelor of International Public Health (3880) comprising 6 units of credit towards the total required for completion of the study program.

Mode of study

Fully online

Key contacts

Dr Husna Razee
Course Convenor
+61 (2) 9385 8317
husna.razee@unsw.edu.au

Who should do this course?

Students of the Bachelor of International Public Health (3880) should take this course.

Course outcomes

  • Differentiate between disease prevention, health promotion and health education.
  • Discuss the social determinants of health that influence health.  
  • Identify appropriate health promotion strategies and strategies to facilitate healthy behaviours
  • Apply models of behaviour change to explain and describe people’s decision making in relation to healthy behaviours.
  • Apply behaviour change and communication frameworks and Ottawa Charter action areas to solve real-life health issues.
  • Integrate understanding of the importance of health literacy in suggesting ways for improving health promotion and health education actions and initiatives.

Learning & teaching

The course outline and readings that highlight key issues and activities in health promotion both in the Australian and international context will be used in this course. Students will be presented with a range of theoretical perspectives and practical examples. It is expected that students will read the core readings and draw on these as they explore what is happening in a case scenario of Pambani.

This 6-credit 10-week course requires approximately 140 hours of work.  The course is delivered totally online over a ten-week term.  Students are expected to spend approximately 10 hours a week preparing for and actively participating in this course and preparing for and completing assessments.

Assessments

Assessment 1 - Quizzes (Parts 1 and 2)
Length: 10 Multiple Choice Questions each
Weighting: 20%

Assessment Task 2 - Written Assignment
Length: 2200 words
Weighting: 50%

Assessment Task 3 - Online Discussion Forum
Length: 300 + 300 words
Weighting: 30%

Readings & resources 

Learning resources for this course consist of the following:

  • Course notes and readings (posted in Moodle)
  • Online lectures (posted in Moodle)
  • Supplementary resources such as videos, podcasts (available in Moodle)

There is no compulsory text for this course outside of the readings however, in addition to the course notes, there are additional recommended learning resources.