Elective courses

The master’s program in public health presupposes that a student will also pass through four out of eight elective courses.

List of elective courses

Qualitative research methods

Addictive behavior and mental health

Injury prevention and safety promotion

Occupational health

Environmental health

Epidemiology of communicable diseases

Qualitative research methods (4 credits)

This course includes three academic sessions (lectures, discussions, group assignments) and an examination. More detailed description of the course will be provided later on.

Addictive behavior and mental health (4 credits)

The students are expected to learn development and manifestation of addictive behavior, types of addiction, the general principles for prevention and treatments, different diagnostic procedures and principle, and the different consequences of addictive behavior. Students will receive knowledge on peculiarities and manifestation of dependency, basic principles of prevention and treatment of dependency, various diagnostic procedures and dependency consequences.

Injury prevention and safety promotion (4 credits)

The aim of this course is to provide relevant knowledge on definitions, concepts, epidemiology of injuries as well as the main principles of injury prevention and health promotion.  Special emphasis is given to the development of long-term strategies and planning of preventive measures at global, national, regional and local levels. Special attention is given to prevention strategies at the local level.

Occupational health (4 credits)

The course aims at providing the students with basic understanding of concepts, definitions, methods and regulations within occupational health. The course addresses interaction between work and health, focusing on exposure, biological mechanisms and clinical features of different occupational diseases in order to increase knowledge and promote good practice in occupational health. The focus is set on strategies and action plans at global, national, regional and local levels. Main topics of the course are the following: Introduction to occupational health, occupational health in EU and Russia, basic understanding of toxicology, clinical features, exposure estimation, monitoring, physiology of work in different occupations, occupational hygiene and challenges of occupational medicine. Examples from various industries and a visit to an industrial plant are included in the course.

Environmental health (4 credits)

This course consists of three parts, such as “Introduction to environment-and-health”, “Air, water and food safety”, and “Industrial pollution, global health and risk assessment”. The aim of the first part is to explore the basic relationship between environmental factors and health, pertinent definitions and concepts, and explore related larger socioeconomic issues. During the second part students have to become aware of the fundamental concepts and current issues related to air and water pollution, as well as of food safety. The third part aim is to explore the nature of the health hazards associated with exposures to pollutants within and outside industrial operations, climate change and related global health issues, transboundary transport of contaminants, harmful substances, industrial and natural disasters, and the basic principles of risk assessment and its applications.

Epidemiology of communicable diseases (4 credits)

This course focuses on the communicable diseases epidemiology in Russia as well as world-wide, and the importance of communicable diseases in public health. So, several major topics within the field will be covered: “The epidemiology of communicable diseases”, “Principles for the control of communicable disease”, and “The epidemiology of significant communicable diseases in the Russian Federation”.