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  • HME4405

HME4405 - Epidemiology and public health

Course content

The main objective in this course is to acquire skills that will enable students to describe population health in Norway and internationally and judge critically determinants of health. After completing the course students should be able to evaluate epidemiological methods and concepts relevant for reading scientific journals and public health reports. They will gain an understanding on the various determinants of population health. Various indicators of health and their interpretations will be presented through international and historical comparisons. This will also include inequalities in health. Projections of health and likely future need for health care will be presented. Through practical and theoretical examples, students will be better equipped to understand how the natural course of disease stages and the life course tap into preventive and medical services.

Learning outcomes

The course will give a thorough understanding of disease frequency in the population, study designs, causation, clinical epidemiology, communicable and non-communicable preventive medicine, environmental epidemiology and these are related to health policy.

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in StudentWeb.

Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Prerequisites

Recommended prior knowledge

HMM4401- Health and Medicine (or a similar course), statistics.

Overlap

10 credits against HMED2101 - Medisin i samfunnet.

Teaching

Teaching takes place throughout the semester.

Criteria for access to teaching resources

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, contingent on available capacity.

Exam information

A mandatory term paper and a final written exam.

The students must pass the term paper to be allowed to sit for the written exam. If the term paper fails, the student may re-submit it within a week.

The mandatory term paper must be handed in electronically and will be subject to electronic screening for potential plagiarism. Failure to meet academic standards for reference to sources or plagiarism – whether intentional or not – will be prosecuted according to the University of Oslo’s regulations (Forskrift om studier og eksamener ved Universititetet i Oslo, §9) and may result in severe consequences such as expulsion from the University.

For master students: You are expected a deeper level of critical thinking which will be reflected in one additional question at the exam.

Exam resources

No special exam resources are allowed.

Language of examination

English

Assessment and grading

Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail. Read more about the grading system .

Explanations and appeals

Students can request an explanation of their grades, and can also appeal against their grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals

Possibility of make-up exams and re-takes

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam .

Withdrawing from exams and limits on re-takes

A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam.

Exam options for students with special needs

Students may apply for access to alternative exam resources or exam forms on the basis of chronic illness and/or special needs that create a marked disadvantage to other students in the exam situation. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Evaluation of this course

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. As a student at the University of Oslo you will therefore be asked to participate in various types of evaluation of our courses, facilities and services. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, in-depth evaluation of this course, a so called "periodic evaluation".

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