Master of Public Health MPH/PGDip/PGCert

This module considers the basic concepts of epidemiology and will give you the knowledge and skills to access, describe and interpret epidemiological data, including:

• the main research designs used in epidemiology
• the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of study and how the evidence obtained contributes to the assessment of causality.
• how to carry out critical appraisal of published papers
• other important epidemiological concepts including bias, confounding, basic infection rate and demography

An introduction to all of the fundamental and central concepts within public health including:

• Health Inequalities
• Determinants of Health
• Health Economics
• Health Promotion
• Health Protection
• Sociology of Health
• Global Public Health
• Health Systems UK and non-UK
• Public Health Policy
• Public Health Practical Skills

Learn the basic concepts of medical statistics and develop the knowledge and skills to analyse univariate data. Explore the basic principles and application of medical statistics in epidemiology.

Gain the skills to develop and deliver a research proposal from beginning to end, including:

• refining a research topic/idea into a manageable research project
• writing and refining a research question, aims and objectives
• sources of data, including new technologies and searching
• study design for feasibility and practicality
• qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, other data sources)
• quantitative data collection (eg survey design)
• qualitative data analysis
• ethics and research governance (GCP online task)
• basic theory around mixed methods
• introduction to patient and public involvement (PPI)
• dissemination/writing/presenting research
• introduction to project management including financing
• CASP for critical appraisal

Develop skills in planning and evaluating interventions including public health programmes, services and policies.

You will cover the full intervention cycle:

• assessing need and priorities (including health needs assessment, health equity audit and health impact assessment)
• intervention planning (including programme theory and choosing interventions)
• monitoring and evaluation (including quasi-experimental study designs for assessing outcomes)

The course assessment include writing a protocol for a public health intervention (individual coursework). Students may submit an optional formative assessment (of no more than half a page). Verbal feedback is provided to support the writing of this protocol

This module provides you with an overview of the concept of health improvement. You'll explore the different approaches to health improvement, including building healthy public policy, individual versus population approaches and ethical implications.

The final dissertation provides the opportunity to carry out an extended piece of research to address a real public health problem, integrating the skills gained throughout the course and well-supported by experienced researchers.

You will gain skills that are highly valued by a range of national and global employers, including national health services, governmental and non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and industry.

Students from overseas are encouraged bring with them ideas and material suitable for their project, and may discuss these in advance with staff.

Previous projects include:

• What can be done to encourage women from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to attend breast screening? A qualitative synthesis of barriers and facilitators
• Mortality in people with coeliac disease: Long-term follow-up from a Scottish cohort
• Smoking in movies and smoking initiation in adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis
• Systematic review of respiratory viral pathogens identified in adults with community-acquired pneumonia in Europe
• The prevalence of psychological comorbidity in people with vitiligo: a systematic review and meta-analysis
• Exploring psychological consequences for BRCA+ women in the post-Covid era
• Role of lifestyle behaviours in the ethnic pattern of poor health outcomes in Leicester, England: analysis of a survey data set
• Reporting and management of fertility problems in general practice: Obtaining population-based estimates of the current clinical burden in the UK
• Do cravings predict smoking cessation? An investigation into the utility of the “urges to smoke” measures
• Why do parents use A&E: A qualitative interview study
• An evaluation of the Nottingham Breastfeeding Peer Support Programme for young mothers
• Expectations versus reality: couples' experiences of infant feeding
• Are mass media campaigns aimed at changing alcohol consumption effective: A systematic review
• The association between preoperative stroke and 30-day mortality following non-cardiac elective surgery
• Premature birth and respiratory health in adulthood
• A systematic review of epidemiological studies investigating risk factors for road traffic crashes in low and middle income countries
• A cross-sectional study of the impacts of standardised tobacco packaging legislation on University of Nottingham students
• Qualitative systematic review: views and perceptions of HIV

This module focuses on the aspects of communicable disease control and health protection including the dangers of infection, chemicals and radiation hazards in the UK and globally. You'll learn about surveillance, the principles of outbreak management of communicable (infectious) diseases, immunisation, vaccination, and a range of communicable (infectious) diseases (e.g. respiratory, gastrointestinal, blood-borne, sexually transmitted, vaccine-preventable, healthcare-associated). Along with the theory of chemical hazards and radiation hazards and their impact on human health, and the principles of chemical and radiation incident management.

The module will provide students with knowledge of the use of statistical analysis software for organising and manipulating data. This will include an understanding of the importance of adequate data management prior to the commencement of statistical analysis and how to use advanced functionality to ensure that data management is carried out efficiently and with the potential for errors minimised.

What is a healthcare system? What is the relationship between the state and a healthcare system? What does a healthcare system do? This module will answer these questions and more. You'll be introduced to health and healthcare systems, their structure, components and organisations. Compare health care systems to assess their strength and weaknesses, and learn key frameworks for health systems strengthening.

This module introduces students to a higher level of statistical methods, building on the content of the Medical Statistics module (EPID4030) and including statistical regression modelling techniques.

For example, students will learn to interpret and apply the techniques of multiple linear regression, logistic regression, rates and survival analysis in a statistical software package

Study a wide overview of global public health issues, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and other global health policies. You will gain insight into ethical and economic issues within which health care is delivered in resource rich and resource poor settings.

This module will introduce you to the sociological and anthropological perspectives on health, illness and healthcare. You'll analyse the ways patterns of health, illness and disease vary in relation to gender and other aspects of social groups. 

The module will:

• Introduce students to a sociological perspective on health, illness and healthcare
• Consider the ways in which patterns of health and illness vary across different social groups
• Consider the ways in which our society responds to illness
• Critically explore the role of medicine in society.

This module provides an introduction to issues relating to sustainability, climate, and the environment in the context of public health worldwide. It aims to address key emerging issues relating to social and economic factors impacting sustainability, the health and health systems implications of a changing climate, and the relevance of environmental factors for individual and public health. 

This module will provide an integrated programme of epidemiology, basic nutrition and molecular science and public health nutrition and policy to examine the relationship between nutritional status and major human disease. The emphasis of the module will be upon understanding population-wide approaches to evaluation of disease risk factors and development and implementation of preventive strategies.

A healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and the workplace provides an ideal context to promote health. This module considers the business case for workplace health promotion, introduces contemporary psychological theories of behaviour change, and explores how these theories provide an understanding of workers’ behaviours and inform the design of interventions to encourage healthy choices.

The module will provide students with:

• an understanding of the basic concepts of qualitative research, and of the relations between quantitative and qualitative research
• an understanding of how qualitative research can be used to investigate matters pertinent to public health
• basic skills in appraising qualitative research papers and reports
• preliminary skills in designing qualitative research – in terms of recognising the sorts of questions and areas of investigation relevant to qualitative research, and appropriately selecting methods of data collection and analysis
• preliminary skills in conducting and writing up collection and analysis of qualitative data.

This module promotes an understanding of the process of conducting a comprehensive systematic review of evidence in order to inform the conduct of health or health care practice. The module will enable you to:

• critically discuss the role of systematic review within evidence-based healthcare and understand the use of systematic reviews to explore issues relating to the appropriateness
• meaningfulness
• feasibility and effectiveness of health care interventions
• frame an appropriate review question and develop a review protocol relevant to their own area of health or healthcare practice
• develop approaches to design and implement an appropriate search strategy to critically explore processes related to the assessment of methodological quality
• data extraction and data synthesis for a range of health-related research
• critically discuss the available frameworks for the systematic review of quantitative and qualitative research and the process of meta-analysis and meta-synthesis

Explore the cognitions and cognitive determinants of health-related behaviours in detail, through the study of a range of key models. You will also develop an understanding of changes in these behaviours and the intention-behaviour gap.

Other topics include:

• the role of information in health-related motivation and action
• how social influence techniques can maximize the impact of health promotion
• how the manner in which messages are processed determines their impact on attitude change
• the role of self-efficacy in motivation, health behaviour and health
• elicitation research, intervention design and evaluation
• behaviour change techniques and their relationship to psychological theories

This module considers the basic concepts of epidemiology and will give you the knowledge and skills to access, describe and interpret epidemiological data, including:

• the main research designs used in epidemiology
• the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of study and how the evidence obtained contributes to the assessment of causality.
• how to carry out critical appraisal of published papers
• other important epidemiological concepts including bias, confounding, basic infection rate and demography

An introduction to all of the fundamental and central concepts within public health including:

• Health Inequalities
• Determinants of Health
• Health Economics
• Health Promotion
• Health Protection
• Sociology of Health
• Global Public Health
• Health Systems UK and non-UK
• Public Health Policy
• Public Health Practical Skills

Learn the basic concepts of medical statistics and develop the knowledge and skills to analyse univariate data. Explore the basic principles and application of medical statistics in epidemiology.

Gain the skills to develop and deliver a research proposal from beginning to end, including:

• refining a research topic/idea into a manageable research project
• writing and refining a research question, aims and objectives
• sources of data, including new technologies and searching
• study design for feasibility and practicality
• qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, other data sources)
• quantitative data collection (eg survey design)
• qualitative data analysis
• ethics and research governance (GCP online task)
• basic theory around mixed methods
• introduction to patient and public involvement (PPI)
• dissemination/writing/presenting research
• introduction to project management including financing
• CASP for critical appraisal

Develop skills in planning and evaluating interventions including public health programmes, services and policies.

You will cover the full intervention cycle:

• assessing need and priorities (including health needs assessment, health equity audit and health impact assessment)
• intervention planning (including programme theory and choosing interventions)
• monitoring and evaluation (including quasi-experimental study designs for assessing outcomes)

The course assessment include writing a protocol for a public health intervention (individual coursework). Students may submit an optional formative assessment (of no more than half a page). Verbal feedback is provided to support the writing of this protocol

This module provides you with an overview of the concept of health improvement. You'll explore the different approaches to health improvement, including building healthy public policy, individual versus population approaches and ethical implications.

This module focuses on the aspects of communicable disease control and health protection including the dangers of infection, chemicals and radiation hazards in the UK and globally. You'll learn about surveillance, the principles of outbreak management of communicable (infectious) diseases, immunisation, vaccination, and a range of communicable (infectious) diseases (e.g. respiratory, gastrointestinal, blood-borne, sexually transmitted, vaccine-preventable, healthcare-associated). Along with the theory of chemical hazards and radiation hazards and their impact on human health, and the principles of chemical and radiation incident management.

The module will provide students with knowledge of the use of statistical analysis software for organising and manipulating data. This will include an understanding of the importance of adequate data management prior to the commencement of statistical analysis and how to use advanced functionality to ensure that data management is carried out efficiently and with the potential for errors minimised.

What is a healthcare system? What is the relationship between the state and a healthcare system? What does a healthcare system do? This module will answer these questions and more. You'll be introduced to health and healthcare systems, their structure, components and organisations. Compare health care systems to assess their strength and weaknesses, and learn key frameworks for health systems strengthening.

This module introduces students to a higher level of statistical methods, building on the content of the Medical Statistics module (EPID4030) and including statistical regression modelling techniques.

For example, students will learn to interpret and apply the techniques of multiple linear regression, logistic regression, rates and survival analysis in a statistical software package

Study a wide overview of global public health issues, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and other global health policies. You will gain insight into ethical and economic issues within which health care is delivered in resource rich and resource poor settings.

This module will introduce you to the sociological and anthropological perspectives on health, illness and healthcare. You'll analyse the ways patterns of health, illness and disease vary in relation to gender and other aspects of social groups. 

The module will:

• Introduce students to a sociological perspective on health, illness and healthcare
• Consider the ways in which patterns of health and illness vary across different social groups
• Consider the ways in which our society responds to illness
• Critically explore the role of medicine in society.

The module will provide students with an opportunity to explore a broad approach to Health Promotion to address inequalities in health at local, national and international development contexts.

This module will provide an integrated programme of epidemiology, basic nutrition and molecular science and public health nutrition and policy to examine the relationship between nutritional status and major human disease. The emphasis of the module will be upon understanding population-wide approaches to evaluation of disease risk factors and development and implementation of preventive strategies.

This module provides an introduction to issues relating to sustainability, climate, and the environment in the context of public health worldwide. It aims to address key emerging issues relating to social and economic factors impacting sustainability, the health and health systems implications of a changing climate, and the relevance of environmental factors for individual and public health. 

A healthy workforce is a productive workforce, and the workplace provides an ideal context to promote health. This module considers the business case for workplace health promotion, introduces contemporary psychological theories of behaviour change, and explores how these theories provide an understanding of workers’ behaviours and inform the design of interventions to encourage healthy choices.

The module will provide students with:

• an understanding of the basic concepts of qualitative research, and of the relations between quantitative and qualitative research
• an understanding of how qualitative research can be used to investigate matters pertinent to public health
• basic skills in appraising qualitative research papers and reports
• preliminary skills in designing qualitative research – in terms of recognising the sorts of questions and areas of investigation relevant to qualitative research, and appropriately selecting methods of data collection and analysis
• preliminary skills in conducting and writing up collection and analysis of qualitative data.

The module will enable students to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to conduct a systematic review of a topic relevant to their own area of health or healthcare practice.

Explore the cognitions and cognitive determinants of health-related behaviours in detail, through the study of a range of key models. You will also develop an understanding of changes in these behaviours and the intention-behaviour gap.

Other topics include:

• the role of information in health-related motivation and action
• how social influence techniques can maximize the impact of health promotion
• how the manner in which messages are processed determines their impact on attitude change
• the role of self-efficacy in motivation, health behaviour and health
• elicitation research, intervention design and evaluation
• behaviour change techniques and their relationship to psychological theories

This module considers the basic concepts of epidemiology and will give you the knowledge and skills to access, describe and interpret epidemiological data, including:

• the main research designs used in epidemiology
• the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of study and how the evidence obtained contributes to the assessment of causality.
• how to carry out critical appraisal of published papers
• other important epidemiological concepts including bias, confounding, basic infection rate and demography

An introduction to all of the fundamental and central concepts within public health including:

• Health Inequalities
• Determinants of Health
• Health Economics
• Health Promotion
• Health Protection
• Sociology of Health
• Global Public Health
• Health Systems UK and non-UK
• Public Health Policy
• Public Health Practical Skills

Learn the basic concepts of medical statistics and develop the knowledge and skills to analyse univariate data. Explore the basic principles and application of medical statistics in epidemiology.

Gain the skills to develop and deliver a research proposal from beginning to end, including:

• refining a research topic/idea into a manageable research project
• writing and refining a research question, aims and objectives
• sources of data, including new technologies and searching
• study design for feasibility and practicality
• qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, other data sources)
• quantitative data collection (eg survey design)
• qualitative data analysis
• ethics and research governance (GCP online task)
• basic theory around mixed methods
• introduction to patient and public involvement (PPI)
• dissemination/writing/presenting research
• introduction to project management including financing
• CASP for critical appraisal

Develop skills in planning and evaluating interventions including public health programmes, services and policies.

You will cover the full intervention cycle:

• assessing need and priorities (including health needs assessment, health equity audit and health impact assessment)
• intervention planning (including programme theory and choosing interventions)
• monitoring and evaluation (including quasi-experimental study designs for assessing outcomes)

The course assessment include writing a protocol for a public health intervention (individual coursework). Students may submit an optional formative assessment (of no more than half a page). Verbal feedback is provided to support the writing of this protocol

This module provides you with an overview of the concept of health improvement. You'll explore the different approaches to health improvement, including building healthy public policy, individual versus population approaches and ethical implications.