Public Health (PHP)
This is an archived copy of the 2019-2020 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://catalog.unh.edu.
https://chhs.unh.edu/health-management-policy/program/mph/public-health
Degree Offered: M.P.H., Graduate Certificate
This program is offered in Manchester.
The College of Health and Human Services offers an interdisciplinary curriculum leading to the master of public health (M.P.H.). The program is designed to provide students with an integrated, generalist M.P.H. degree. The M.P.H. program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).
The mission of the Master of Public Health (MPH) Program at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) is to promote an integrated public health workforce, while focusing on societal health needs to foster health equity. Graduates of the program are prepared to join the public health workforce and become public health leaders, as they are prepared for multiple career tracks by developing the skills and knowledge base necessary for success.
The Public Health Certificate Program provides a vehicle for individuals working in public or community health positions with the opportunity to earn a graduate certificate in public health. To enter the certificate program, an applicant must have a baccalaureate degree. Upon completion of the certificate program, students can apply to the M.P.H. program. If admitted into the M.P.H. program, the certificate credits will be applied to the M.P.H. degree program.
The master of public health and public health certificate seek to enhance the capacity of public health professionals to perform the 10 Essential Services of Public Health. The program is only offered at the University of New Hampshire Manchester Campus. Academic classes are offered in sessions within the academic semester and most courses are eight weeks in length and offered one evening per week for four hours. Working professionals can complete the M.P.H. program on a part-time basis over two years but have up to six years to complete the degree requirements.
For the purposes of determining academic standing, grades below the “B-” level in graded courses are considered failing grades. The MPH program director will recommend dismissal of a student to the Graduate School when a failing grade occurs in six or more credits, either in two courses or in one course taken twice. Repeating a course does not remove the original failing grade from the record. Students must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 (B), or higher, in order to graduate. Students admitted on a conditional or provisional basis must meet the conditions or provisions as stated in the letter of admission in order to remain in the Graduate School.
Admission Requirements
(Please note that this part-time program does not meet the full-time study requirements for international applicants with F-1 or J-1 visas.)
Applications are accepted for fall, spring, and summer semesters. The program encourages applications from persons who hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university. The admission committee uses previous academic records, current public health experience, responses to five essay questions regarding your interest in pursuing graduate education in public health, and recommendations from three individuals as indicators of success. Interviews with the program director are encouraged.
For more information on admission requirements please see the Graduate School website.
Public Health (PHP)
PHP 900 - Public Health Care Systems
Credits: 3
The focus of this course is on the pattern of services in the United States and on the structure and function of their component parts. It examines the impact on the system of a wide range of external factors including social, political, economic, professional, legal, and technological forces.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960A
PHP 901 - Epidemiology
Credits: 3
Exploration of factors underlying the distribution and determinants of states of health in various human populations. Emphasis is placed on investigative techniques, epidemiologic methodology, and disease prevention. Unlike other core courses in the MPH Program which are 8 weeks in length, this course is 16 weeks in length.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960B
PHP 902 - Environmental Health
Credits: 3
This course offers a general introduction to the ecological basis of health and disease. It applies the principles and framework of ecosystems to human health problems associated with environmental hazards, including toxic and infectious agents that contaminate our air, water, food, the work place and other special environments. Links between environmental and occupational health effects will be explored within the public health model. Policy required for regulation and alternative strategies for prevention will be discussed.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960C
PHP 903 - Biostatistics
Credits: 3
This course introduces students to the principles of biostatistics. Students learn through classroom instruction, lab instruction and exercises, a variety of statistical methods in public health. Students review measures of central tendency, rates, and standardization, probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, comparisons, and simple, multiple and logistic regression techniques. Unlike other core courses in the MPH Program which are 8 weeks in length, this course is 16 weeks in length.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960D
PHP 904 - Social and Behavioral Health
Credits: 3
A graduate level course which provides fundamental concepts of the behavioral sciences as they illuminate public health. Since public health practice is the application of physical, biological and behavioral knowledge to living societies, a firm understanding of human social organization and behavior is essential. Individual and community responses to prevention, identification of symptoms, diagnoses, treatments, chronic ailments and rehabilitation are discussed. In each of these areas, the course explores the interaction between community, family, patient, and health care provider.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960F
PHP 905 - Public Health Administration
Credits: 3
This course focuses on public health managers, organizational culture, management process, management functions and roles, leadership, motivation, communication, and human resource management.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960E
PHP 907 - Public Health Policy
Credits: 3
An analysis of the public policy process, the development of public health policy in the United States, and a discussion of specific public health policy issues with international comparisons. This course begins with an analytical framework for analyzing the American political system and process. It is followed by a general introduction to health policy in the United States with examples of specific policies and programs. Students will be asked to examine specific public health policy in-depth.
Equivalent(s): HMP 960H
PHP 908 - Public Health Ethics
Credits: 3
This course examines selected ethical issues arising in public health policy and practice and ethical dilemmas faced by public health professionals, practitioners, and researchers. Students analyze competing personal, organizational, professional, and societal interests, values, and responsibilities. Case studies apply different models of ethical decision making and provide MPH students with an added opportunity to explore and clarify their values and those of their colleagues.
PHP 912 - Public Health Law
Credits: 3
This course seeks to provide the legal basis for public health that is needed to effectively practice public health, especially with respect to understanding and enforcing compliance with public health regulations, and managing public health programs and organizations. The course introduces the core elements of law, legal practice and reasoning, and illustrates their application and use in public health.
PHP 914 - Public Health Policy Analysis
Credits: 3
Analysis of the public policy outputs from the perspectives of effectiveness, efficiency, and equity by applying analytical tools to public health policies in the United States. This course begins by examining the major methods used to examine health policy outputs. The perspectives of effectiveness, efficiency and equity are used as a framework for the course. Students read and critique articles from health services research literature that use previously learned methodologies.
PHP #920 - Social Marketing
Credits: 3
This course offers and introduces students to the vocabulary and tools of marketing public health programs and services. Expanding upon traditional principles of marketing and consumer behavior the student will be exposed to the theory, practice and challenges of marketing social change. The course also explores the current and emerging issues related to public health marketing.
PHP 922 - Public Health Economics
Credits: 3
This course gives each student a hands-on opportunity to become familiar with a broad range of health economics issues and analyses. The objective is to help its graduates successfully compete for advancement in careers requiring knowledge of health policy analysis.
PHP 924 - Policy and Practice of Community Health Assessment
Credits: 3
This course explores the process of community health assessment as a tool for bridging the gap between public health and the personal health care system. It provides an historical perspective of using population based measurements as a framework for health improvement initiatives. It examines several community health assessment methodologies and explores the complexity of developing a community-based health assessment.
PHP 926 - Evaluation in Public Health
Credits: 3
An introduction to program evaluation as it relates to public health practice and research, primarily in the United States. Public health-specific examples are presented throughout the course. Includes discussion of striking a balance between scientific rigor and the practicalities often faced by program evaluators.
PHP #930 - Climate Change and Health
Credits: 3
An overview of the climate system including its physical and chemical compounds, the greenhouse effect, forcing agents and dynamics at global, regional and local scales. Human dimensions of climate change will be considered in light of data and models. An environmental epidemiology framework for analyzing the direct and indirect impacts of climate variability to public health as well as appropriate public policies, such as monitoring the greenhouse gas emission reductions will be developed.
PHP #932 - Disease Ecology
Credits: 3
Students will have an understanding of the basic structure and dynamics of: climate system, ecological systems, social systems. Also gained will be the understanding of epidemiological significance of co evolutionary processes linking climate system with ecological and social systems that influence the interaction between human beings and disease agents and the understanding of the relational significance of assessment frameworks including ecosystem health, ecosystem services, environmental epidemiology, epidemiological environment.
PHP 934 - Work Environment Policy and the Health of Workers
Credits: 3
Overview of occupational safety and health policy in the U.S. Focus on the legal context, especially on OSHA, and provides an analytical framework for examining the role of social, economic, and political factors in the recognition and control of occupational hazards. Some attention to the more technical aspects of this field (e.g., industrial hygiene, ergonomics, general health and safety); emphasis on understanding current occupational health and safety policies and controversies.
PHP 936 - Global Public Health
Credits: 3
Course is designed to provide students with an introduction to and overview of the key areas of global health by addressing the major determinants of health and how health status is measured to determine the burden of disease in the developing world.
PHP 938 - Health Education and Promotion
Credits: 3
An in-depth review of approaches to health promotion and disease prevention intervention in different settings, used varied strategies, and for different target groups. Course is intended to be practical in nature focusing on the specifics of intervention development and delivery. Examples drawn from field of public health. Prereq: PHP 904 Social and Behavioral Health.
PHP 940 - Health and the Built Environment
Credits: 3
Overview of relationships between where people live, work, learn and play (built environment) and their health. Promotes an interdisciplinary approach to address chronic public health problems such as heart disease, obesity and depression, as well as tackling environmental issues.
PHP 964 - Applied Epidemiology
Credits: 3
Course provides a thorough understanding of essential statistical and epidemiological concepts and their effective application in everyday public health practice. Students are given numerous real-life examples to demonstrate the theory in practice. Prereq: PHP 901 and instructor permission. Public Health majors only.
PHP 985A - Special Topics in Policy and Management
Credits: 1-3
Study of a special topic in Public Health Policy and Management. Prereq: permission.
Repeat Rule: May be repeated for a maximum of 3 credits.
PHP 985B - Special Topics in Public Health Ecology
Credits: 1-3
Study of a special topic in Public Health Ecology. Prereq: permission.
Repeat Rule: May be repeated for a maximum of 3 credits.
PHP 990 - Field Study
Credits: 3
This course provides a 16-week long opportunity for students to synthesize, integrate, and apply the skills and competencies they have acquired during enrollment in the MPH Program and apply them to a public health problem or project in a professional public health practice setting. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the organization (not including preparation time) exploring how that organization deals with a particular public health issue and working on a project for that organization. In addition, students present the findings of their work in a poster session following the conclusion of the course. This public health experience is conducted under the direction of a faculty member and a community public health mentor. This class meets one hour prior to the regularly scheduled core and elective courses in the MPH Program. Prereq: Completion of core courses and permission of course instructor and MPH Program Director.
PHP 995 - Independent Study
Credits: 1-3
Directed readings and other activities to explore a specific topic related to public health. Prereq: Permission of faculty member and MPH Program Director.
Repeat Rule: May be repeated for a maximum of 3 credits.
PHP 996 - Applied Topics in the Essentials of Public Health
Credits: 3
This course will require students to attend at least six approved workshops on concepts related to the Ten Essential Services of Public Health. After attending the required workshops, a student will write an integrating paper summarizing what s/he has learned across these workshops at it relates to the Ten Essential Services and identify the types of skills s/he will need to be more effective as a public health professional.
PHP 998 - Integrating Seminar
Credits: 3
This final course in the MPH curriculum serves as the capstone to the MPH degree and provides the opportunity for students to work in teams, bringing both their individual and joint perspectives and expertise, to address a particular public health problem for a New Hampshire-based public health entity. This course incorporates substantive, analytical, administrative, and policy perspectives. Students make a formal presentation of recommendations at the conclusion of the course. This class meets one hour prior to the regularly scheduled core and elective courses in the MPH Program. Prereq: Completion of core courses and permission of course instructor and MPH Program Director.