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‘Social Determinants of Health’ is a module designed to provide you with a thorough grounding in the theories, conceptual frameworks and quantitative evidence on the proximal and distal social influences that impact on individual health and lead to population health inequalities. The objective is to engage and inspire you to acquire the depth of health literacy needed to make sense of the concept of health at individual and societal levels, and provide insight into how our social and economic circumstances get under our skin. More specifically, the module aims to introduce you to the core concepts of social epidemiology and public health including social, economic, and cultural determinants of health, but also to introduce you to conceptual frameworks that exist to explain the pathways between social factors and health outcomes, and public health policy implications.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

1. recognise the wider determinants of individual health and population health inequalities with examples drawn mainly from the UK, Europe, and the US
2. use transferable academic skills acquired through the module, including essay writing, referencing, and presentation skills

This is an introductory core module for Year 1 students on the BSc Population Health Sciences programme. The module is also open to UCL elective students from other departments. Spaces are limited and places are allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis on Portico.

The assessment for this module consists of two parts: one open book essay (2500 words) counting for 70% of the overall mark and a discussion piece in blog style counting for 30% of the overall mark.

Students are given the opportunity to practice essay writing and presentation skills through formative (unmarked) assessments, for which individual feedback is given.

Module Leads : Dr Sharon Cox and Dr Mikaela Bloomberg

Selected Reading List

• Social Epidemiology (2nd ed.) (2014) Berkman L F, Kawachi I and Glymour M M. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Social Determinants of Health (2006) Marmot M and Wilkinson R. Oxford: Oxford University Press.