Health Education and Behavior Learning Materials

Community and Public Health 1: Health Education and Behavior – CPH 2711: Learning Materials

Get Ready For Your College Courses

To best prepare for your future studies, please review the below preparation resources. We encourage you to use the time before starting your first term, to get a taste of the topics of your upcoming courses. There’s no better time to start than now! Good luck with your studies!

Learn Health Education and Behavior

Course Overview

Health is a multidimensional concept, with both a concrete and a social definition. In this course, we will explore the concepts of health and illness. Based on these concepts, the course will further explore the ways in which our surroundings, the conditions under which we are born, grow, work, play, and age, shape our personal, community and populations health. The course will investigate the structural and intermediary determinants of health such as the built and social environment, social capital, behavior, and biology.

Preparation Resources

This course utilizes the UoPeople Library and Information Resource Network (LIRN) frequently at .Other Reading Materials:
1. Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
2. Noack, H.(1990). Conceptualizing and measuring health. WHO regional publications. European series, 37, 85-112. Retrieved from
3. Savolaine, J., & Granello, P. F. (2002). The function of meaning and purpose for individual wellness. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 41(2): 179-189.
4. Crinson, I. (2007).The Social Patterns of Health and Illness. Concepts of Health and Illness: Section 7. The Social Patterns of Health and Illness.
5. World Health Organization, 2015 Public Health. Trade, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy and Health. Available at:
6. WHO Library Cataloguing in Publication Data (2003). Essential public health functions: a three-country study in the Western Pacific Region. Accessed at:
7. Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., Taylor, S., & Commission on Social Determinants of Health. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet,372(9650), 1661-1669.
8. Wilkinson, R. G., & Marmot, M. G. (Eds.). (2003). Social determinants of health: the solid facts. World Health Organization
9. Solar O, Irwin A. A conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health. Social Determinants of Health Discussion. Paper 2 (Policy and Practice) [Chapter 4 & 5 only]. Download from:
10. Northridge, M. E., & Sclar, E. (2003). A joint urban planning and public health framework: Contributions to health impact assessment.American Journal of Public Health, 93(1), 118-21.
11. Kawachi, I., Kennedy, B. P., & Glass, R. (1999). Social capital and self-rated health: a contextual analysis. American journal of public health,��89(8), 1187-1193.
12. Kevin M. Leyden. Social Capital and the Built Environment: The Importance of Walkable Neighborhoods. American Journal of Public Health: September 2003, Vol. 93, No. 9, pp. 1546-1551. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.93.9.1546 <>
13. Adelaide Statement on Health in All Policies. WHO, Government of South Australia, Adelaide 2010. Accessed via:
14. Kaplan, R. M., & Anderson, J. P. (1990). The general health policy model: An integrated approach. In B. Spilker (1990). Quality of Life Assessments in Clinical Trials. New York, NY: Raven Press, Ltd. Retrieved from
15. Jiang, F., Zhang, J., Wang, X., & Shen, X. (2013). Important steps to improve translation from medical research to health policy. Journal of Translational Medicine, 11, 33-37. Retrieved from
16. Atkinson, J. A., Page, A., Wells, R., Milat, A., & Wilson, A. (2015). A modelling tool for policy analysis to support the design of efficient and effective policy responses for complex public health problems. Implementation science, 10(1), 26-35. doi:10.1186/s13012-015-0221-5 Retrieved from
17. Ezzati, M., & Riboli, E. (2013). Behavioral and dietary risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. New England Journal of Medicine, 369(10), 954-964
18. Mozaffarian, D., Hao, T., Rimm, E. B., Willett, W. C., & Hu, F. B. (2011). Changes in diet and lifestyle and long-term weight gain in women and men.New England Journal of Medicine, 364(25), 2392-2404
19. Stewart, A. & Brice, P. Inherited causes of disease in populations.Genetics: Inherited causes of disease in populations. Genes and Disease in Populations.
20. Volpp, K. G., Asch, D. A., Galvin, R., & Loewenstein, G. (2011). Redesigning employee health incentives’ lessons from behavioral economics. New England Journal of Medicine, 365(5), 388-390.
21. Dickerson, S. S., & Mycek, P. J. (2007). Health Psychology. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 415-419). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
22. Glasgow, R. E., Vogt, T. M., & Boles, S. M. (1999). Evaluating the public health impact of health promotion interventions: the RE-AIM framework. American journal of public health, 89(9), 1322-1327.
23. WHO. 2015. World Conference on Social Determinants of Health – Case Studies o Social Determinants of Health Accessed:

Community and Public Health 1 - Course Schedule and Topics:

This course will cover the following topics in eight learning sessions, with one Unit per week. The Final Exam will take place during Week/Unit 9 (UoPeople time).

Week 1: Unit 1 – What is Health?

Week 2: Unit 2 – Community & Public Health: An Introduction

Week 3: Unit 3 – The Social Determinants of Health: An Overview

Week 4: Unit 4 – The Built & Social Environment

Week 5: Unit 5 – Public & Social Policy & Population Health

Week 6: Unit 6 – Biology & Behaviors: Risk Factors for Mortality & Morbidity

Week 7: Unit 7 – Health Psychology and Behavior

Week 8: Unit 8 – Global Best Practices & Case Studies

Week 9: Unit 9 – Course Review and Final Exam