Health Inequalities
- Course Number
- CHL5419H
- Series
- 5400 (Epidemiology)
- Course Instructor(s)
- Arjumand Siddiqi
Course Description
CHL5419H introduces students philosophical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of the scholarly literature on health inequalities. The purpose of the course is (a) to investigate how and why health inequalities are such a central phenomenon in population health, (b) what we know about patterns and causes of health inequalities, and how we know it and, (c) how this work can help us think about what has been done (and, what could be done) to address inequality, locally and globally. The course is delivered through two components: a lecture component that is nonetheless intended to be interactive and conversational and a seminar session, which is designed to ‘go deep’ on key theoretical and methodological issues addressed in the literature. In the end, the hope is that the course will enable students to organize and root their ideas about health inequalities, and their critiques of ideas and actions on health inequalities, in the extensive body of scholarly knowledge on this work.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Articulate what health inequalities are – the nomenclature and what the terms intend to convey,
- Describe the basics of the theory regarding the causes of health inequalities,
- Explain the basic statistical reasoning and rationales behind several of the main quantitative methods used to study health inequalities and their causes,
- Offer informed critiques of scholarly work on health inequalities,
- Parse the extent to which lay writing and other communications on health inequalities align with scholarly understandings of health inequalities,
- Provide informed participation in discussions about interventions for health inequalities,
- Feel more confident in their oral and written communications about health inequalities.
Methods of Assessment
| Weekly, Pre-Lecture, One Paragraph Reflections | 10% |
| Weekly, Post-Lecture, One-Paragraph Reflections | 15% |
| Article Critique | 25% |
| Memo Briefing | 25% |
| Oral Presentation of critical reflections on health inequalities | 10% |
| In-Class and Seminar Participation | 15% |