PHPC0221 Current Topics in Public Health

(24 July 2024 is reserved for class make-up in case there is any cancellation of classes due to bad weather or other unexpected factors.)

(25 July 2024 is reserved for class assessment.)

Professor

JC School of Public Health and Primary Care

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Alumni Stories 校友小故事

• How to Age Well
• The Role of Public Health in COVID-19 Outbreak
• Environmental Health
• Introduction to Behavioural and Mental Health
• Digital Health
• Obesity

Ageing is a universal challenge. From a public health perspective, ageing is also a critical factor in meeting growing healthcare needs. Our Ageing Lab is interested and interactive in understanding older adults’ social and health needs and challenges in living in the community. In this lecture, we will cover the functional and psychological needs of older adults and discuss the health and social system challenges.

This is a fun experiential learning activity that allows the participants to immerse themselves in an experience of ageing and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop an insight to improve the quality of life in older adults and the health system.

The Role of Public Health in COVID-19 Outbreak

This lecture will provide basic knowledge to the students about the role of public health during an infectious disease outbreak. Students will better understand the importance of infectious diseases on public health and differentiate the clinical implication between the virologic and serological assays through participating class lecture and experiments on detection of nucleic acid an antibody.

Environmental Health

This lecture is an introduction to environmental health and field monitoring studies. It will introduce how environmental factors affect human health and gain first-hand experiences skills by conducting field studies.

Introduction to Behaviour and Mental Health

This lecture aims to provide a fundamental review of the relationship between major lifestyle behaviours and physical and mental health outcomes; and review the concepts and theories related to people’s psychological adaption to chronic illnesses. It also discusses the impacts of chronic diseases on mental health outcomes among patients and their caregivers and effective interventions for adaptation to chronic illnesses.

It will adopt interactive class activities to help clarify students concepts regarding the roles of lifestyle behaviours on people’s health outcomes. Class activities regarding proposing self-help interventions and developing strategies for positive coping among people with chronic health conditions will also be included.

Digital Health

Digital technology can be helpful professionals to monitor parents’ health, chart the progress of patients’ health status and improve the health care system. This lecture will provide an overview of digital health for patient management, including electronic health records from the hospital authority and health data from the community and big data and artificial intelligence related to health.

It aims to introduce students to digital health technology and data in the healthcare arena and by health care professionals and provide students with knowledge and understanding of electronic health records, data use, point of care testing, telemedicine, and digital health systems.

Obesity

This lecture will introduce the obesity-related problem and discuss the public health strategies address to the problem by illustrating the size of obesity-related problems worldwide and covering different public health strategies addressing obesity.

How to Age Well

• Identify the functional and psychological needs of older adult
• Discuss the challenges in health and social system

The Role of Public Health in COVID-19 Outbreak

• Explain the importance of infectious diseases on public health
• Differentiate the clinical implication between the virologic and serological assays

Environmental Health

• Demonstrate the basic methods of environmental monitoring

Introduction to Behaviour and Mental Health

• Explain the relationships between lifestyle behaviours and physical/mental health
• Describe the concepts and theories related to people’s psychological adaption to chronic illnesses
• Describe the impact of chronic illnesses on mental health among patients and their caregivers
• Describe effective interventions for adaption to chronic illnesses

Digital Health

• Describe data management at a patient, community, and health system level
• Describe the use of digital health technologies from diagnostics to consultations
• Describe the uses and problems of big data and artificial intelligence relating to health

Obesity

• Acknowledge the size of obesity problem and the health consequences
• Criticize the various existing public health strategies addressing obesity

1. Understanding Environmental Health: How We Live in the World. (Chapter 1) Nancy Irwin Maxwell, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 3^rd edition.
2. International Academy of Public Health – Environmental Health (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I41wxmzGti0)
3. Abe, M. & Abe, H. (2019). Lifestyle medicine: An evidence based approach to nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and stress management on health and chronic illness. Personalized Medicine Universe, 8, 3-9.
4. Badr, H. & Aeitelli, L.K. (2017) Re-thinking dyadic coping in the context of chronic illness. Current Opinion in Psychology, 13, 44-48.
5. Bilsker, D., Samra, J., & Goldner, E. (2009). Positive coping with health conditions: A self-care workbook.
6. Helgeson, V.S. & Zajdel, M. (2017). Adjusting to chronic health conditions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 545-571
7. Matire, L.M., Schulz, R., Helgeson, V.S., Small, B.J. & Saghafi, E.M. (2010). Review and meta-analysis of couple-oriented interventions for chronic illness. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 40, 325-342.
8. Wu, X., Kaminga, A.C., Dai, W., Deng, J., Wang, Z., Pan, X. et al. (2019). The prevalence of moderate-to-high posttraumatic growth: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 243, 408-415.
9. Walsh, R. (2011). Lifestyle and mental health. American Psychologist, 66, 579-592.
10. Arigo D et al. The history and future of digital health in the field of behavioral medicine. J Behav Med. 2019 Feb; 42(1): 67-83.
11. Duggal R et al. Digital healthcare: regulating the revolution. BMJ. 2018 Jna 15; 360:k6.
12. Shuren J et al. FDA Regulations of Mobile Medical Apps. JAMA. 2018 Jul 24; 320 (4): 337-338.