Physical and Mental Health

Year 1 Semester 1 

Credits 20

This module ensures you have the basic understanding necessary for dealing with the key public health issues of our times. You will be introduced to physical and mental health and wellbeing, including non-communicable (e.g. heart attacks and cancer), communicable diseases (e.g. tuberculosis) and mental health disorders (e.g. depression) of public health importance. You will learn about the epidemiology, risk factors (e.g. smoking) and preventive strategies to reduce the burden of these issues. You will examine these diseases in relation to health inequalities and also consider how and why the disease profile for the UK differs from that for other areas of the world. Mental health is vital to population health as mental wellbeing profoundly influences our quality of life and our resilience to inevitable changes in circumstance. The ways in which mental wellbeing can protect individuals against physical illness, inequities and unhealthy behaviour will be explored.