Applied Health Sciences, _MSc

15 Credit Points

This course in Applied Statistics focuses on the application of statistical techniques in postgraduate research for health professionals, with a particular emphasis on the correct interpretation of statistical analyses results. The course will NOT focus on the statistical theory underlying the subject. An important component of the course is the use of a statistical package (IBM SPSS), which can be used to implement all the methods taught on this course.

15 Credit Points

This course in applied epidemiology gives an introduction to disease measurement at a population level, basic epidemiological study design and analysis, and provides an understanding of key methodological issues needed to apply when designing – or critically appraising – an epidemiological study.

15 Credit Points

Resources available for the provision and payment for health care are limited. However, knowledge of economics helps ensure that available resources are used in the most effective way possible. Economics allows more informed decision making about a variety of issues: choosing between alternative treatments; setting priorities between patients; choosing between alternative new technologies; organising the provision of health care.

In this course students will acquire a knowledge and understanding of:

• Key themes of economic theory applied to health care
• Some of the main techniques of health care evaluation
• Main arguments concerning alternative systems for organising and financing health care

15 Credit Points

What can health professionals and health care promoters do to improve their own and others health and wellbeing? What influences people’s health behaviours? Why do people find it difficult to change their health behaviour? What are the most promising strategies for improving health and well-being?

Health behaviours cover a wide range of behaviours (e.g. smoking, physical activity, vaccination, diet, taking medication, and practicing safe sex) and have a major impact on peoples’ health, quality of life, and (healthy) life expectancy. Nevertheless, many people have an unhealthy diet, exercise too little, don’t take their medication as prescribed, smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, and so forth.

In this course, we will address these challenges and students will learn key theories about health behaviour and behaviour change, including behaviour change techniques, in order to understand how health behaviours can be influenced by a variety of factors within an individual (e.g., conscious and unconscious thoughts, emotions, goals, and decisions), and also by factors in the environment (e.g., the behaviours and expectations of society; the quality of the communication by health care professionals; or availability and affordability of healthy options in the environment).

Health psychologists and health professionals are expected to be able to develop, evaluate and implement intervention programs to promote healthier behaviour, through changing individuals and their environment.

Within this course you will develop your understanding of health behaviours, what influences them and how to change them. You will experience the role of health behaviours from both the participant’s and researcher view, by developing, participating in and analysing your own behavioural intervention.

15 Credit Points

Fundamentals of research design provides the student with skills in both quantitative and qualitative design enabling the student to plan ethical research in a health context. Students are taken through each step - from formulating the research question, to study design, sample selection, methods for data collection to dissemination of results.

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:

1. Summarise the key factors involved in the research process
2. Evaluate the appropriateness of study designs commonly used in applied health research studies
3. Identify the advantages and disadvantages associated with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
4. Develop a research proposal to answer a health-related research question which maximises research quality and rigour.

15 Credit Points

Course Aims:

The course aims to enable you to develop a broad knowledge, understanding, and application of the scientific basis of human nutrition.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. Summarise the underlying physiology related to human nutrition.
2. Explain the key concepts of nutrient and energy metabolism.
3. Distinguish between the metabolism of different macronutrients.
4. Outline the role of micronutrients and non-nutritive dietary components in human nutrition.
5. Assess the interactions between nutrients as part of a whole diet.
6. Prepare, process, interpret, and present topics in human nutrition using formal presentation.

15 Credit Points

This course will give you a detailed theoretical and practical understanding of the methods used to assess nutritional status, including dietary intake, assessment of body composition and energy expenditure applied in the context of energy balance. Theory will be put into practice through a series of practical workshop and laboratory sessions to give you ‘hands-on’ experience of using a range of assessment techniques using state-of-the-art equipment routinely employed by nutritional scientists.

15 Credit Points

This course focuses on the issues that affect the health of all nations of the world, the problems that unite developing and developed countries – the shared risks and vulnerabilities. This is not merely the study of emerging diseases and epidemic threats such as HIV, Ebola, Zika and Sars Cov-19 but also the dual burden of over and undernutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases, the impact of war, conflict and climate change on the health of individuals, nations and world populations.

15 Credit Points

This course will equip students with the relevant skills to interpret and conduct systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions. Using lectures and practical sessions, students will understand the principles of systematic reviewing and the differences between narrative and systematic reviews. They will learn to formulate a clear research question and undertake each stage of systematic reviewing of randomised controlled trials. They will also learn about the importance of the levels of evidence and systematic reviews of other different study designs. This course will also introduce the students to advances in systematic reviews such as network meta-analysis and use of Individual Patient Data (IPD)

15 Credit Points

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences. The course is delivered by experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences. The course is delivered by experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

15 Credit Points

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a government/public, civic or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a competitive basis.

15 Credit Points

Public health is the art and science of improving health through the organised efforts of society. This course provides an introduction to a population-based perspective on health, illness and disease. The course illustrates the practical application of numerical ways of thinking about the health of a population. The course covers the three major public health domains of Health Improvement, Health Protection and Healthcare Public Health.

This course aims to support students in developing a critical understanding of the breadth of public health approaches to protecting, promoting, monitoring and improving health among a population as a whole.

15 Credit Points

This course provides up-to-date knowledge of the biological and molecular science research methods relevant to understanding the role food and nutrients in health and disease. A combination of lectures, seminars and laboratory classes will help you integrate the practicalities of undertaking nutrition research with the biological processes involving nutrition and its roles in both clinical and public health nutrition. During this course you will be required to contribute to lively discussions of the application of the research methods, study and intervention design.

15 Credit Points

Clinical nutrition is the study of diet in relation to the development and treatment of human disease. This specialism course provides an up-to-date and detailed knowledge on the role of nutrition in the aetiology, prevention and treatment of disease in humans, with particular emphasis on disease prevention. The course covers key topics surrounding nutrition and disease, and how clinical nutrition links with public health and molecular nutrition. The course also provides an overview of research tools widely used in clinical nutrition research, and a training on evidence-based analysis of nutrition case studies.

Please note, some of the material on this course will discuss animal research.

15 Credit Points

This course will provide a detailed knowledge of the relationships between diet, human development, health, and disease. Topics covered include diet and nutrition across the life course, integration and adaptability of different metabolic pathways to e.g. starvation, exercise, and the role of diet in the development of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, it will also provide insight into the effects of malnutrition and food processing on health. A combination of lectures, and a laboratory class will help consolidate your understanding of the impact food and nutrients on health.

90 Credit Points

This course offers students the opportunity to lead a substantial piece of data-driven, empirical work within their field of study, under the supervision of an experienced researcher. Topics available will be varied but within the domain of their field of study. Alongside supervisors, students will identify a suitable topic area, develop a research protocol, design and implement an empirical study. Students will be involved alongside the supervisors in the process of defining the research question, and developing the research protocol, and where appropriate obtaining all regulatory approvals.

60 Credit Points

This course offers students the opportunity to complete a substantial piece of data-driven, empirical work within their field of study under the supervision of an experienced researcher.

Topics available will be varied but within the domain of their field of study. Alongside supervisors, students will identify a suitable topic area, describe an appropriate study design and implement an empirical study to be completed within a laboratory setting. Students will be involved alongside the supervisors in the process of defining the research question, and developing the research plan and, where appropriate, obtaining regulatory approvals. This course is for non-laboratory based projects (if you are intending to undertake a project in a scientific laboratory setting you should register on MB5913)

60 Credit Points

This course offers students the opportunity to complete a substantial piece of data-driven, empirical work within their field of study under the supervision of an experienced researcher.

Topics available will be varied but within the domain of their field of study. Alongside supervisors, students will identify a suitable topic area, describe an appropriate study design and implement an empirical study to be completed within a laboratory setting. Students will be involved alongside the supervisors in the process of defining the research question, and developing the research plan and, where appropriate, obtaining regulatory approvals. This course is for laboratory-based projects (if you are intending to undertake a project in non-laboratory setting you should register on PU5913)

30 Credit Points

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a civic, government, industrial, public, research or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a best match basis.

15 Credit Points

This course focuses on the issues that affect the health of all nations of the world, the problems that unite developing and developed countries – the shared risks and vulnerabilities. This is not merely the study of emerging diseases and epidemic threats such as HIV, Ebola, Zika and Sars Cov-19 but also the dual burden of over and undernutrition, communicable and non-communicable diseases, the impact of war, conflict and climate change on the health of individuals, nations and world populations.

15 Credit Points

This course will equip students with the relevant skills to interpret and conduct systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions. Using lectures and practical sessions, students will understand the principles of systematic reviewing and the differences between narrative and systematic reviews. They will learn to formulate a clear research question and undertake each stage of systematic reviewing of randomised controlled trials. They will also learn about the importance of the levels of evidence and systematic reviews of other different study designs. This course will also introduce the students to advances in systematic reviews such as network meta-analysis and use of Individual Patient Data (IPD)

15 Credit Points

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences. The course is delivered by experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

This course provides a sound overview of the methods involved in qualitative health research. You will consider the relevance and value of different qualitative methodologies which respond to current health agendas. The course covers planning to conduct qualitative research and a range of methods to generate, handle and analyse qualitative data. You will gain insight into issues of rigour, quality and ethics, and understand the importance of engaging with relevant audiences. The course is delivered by experienced qualitative researchers, and you will gain insight into the practicalities of undertaking qualitative research via practical workshops and lecture sessions.

15 Credit Points

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a government/public, civic or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a competitive basis.

15 Credit Points

Public health is the art and science of improving health through the organised efforts of society. This course provides an introduction to a population-based perspective on health, illness and disease. The course illustrates the practical application of numerical ways of thinking about the health of a population. The course covers the three major public health domains of Health Improvement, Health Protection and Healthcare Public Health.

This course aims to support students in developing a critical understanding of the breadth of public health approaches to protecting, promoting, monitoring and improving health among a population as a whole.

15 Credit Points

This course provides up-to-date knowledge of the biological and molecular science research methods relevant to understanding the role food and nutrients in health and disease. A combination of lectures, seminars and laboratory classes will help you integrate the practicalities of undertaking nutrition research with the biological processes involving nutrition and its roles in both clinical and public health nutrition. During this course you will be required to contribute to lively discussions of the application of the research methods, study and intervention design.

15 Credit Points

Clinical nutrition is the study of diet in relation to the development and treatment of human disease. This specialism course provides an up-to-date and detailed knowledge on the role of nutrition in the aetiology, prevention and treatment of disease in humans, with particular emphasis on disease prevention. The course covers key topics surrounding nutrition and disease, and how clinical nutrition links with public health and molecular nutrition. The course also provides an overview of research tools widely used in clinical nutrition research, and a training on evidence-based analysis of nutrition case studies.

Please note, some of the material on this course will discuss animal research.

15 Credit Points

This course will provide a detailed knowledge of the relationships between diet, human development, health, and disease. Topics covered include diet and nutrition across the life course, integration and adaptability of different metabolic pathways to e.g. starvation, exercise, and the role of diet in the development of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, it will also provide insight into the effects of malnutrition and food processing on health. A combination of lectures, and a laboratory class will help consolidate your understanding of the impact food and nutrients on health.

30 Credit Points

This work-based placement elective offers a professional placement with a civic, government, industrial, public, research or voluntary health and/or development sector organisation. You will undertake a ten-week placement with your host organisation, either within the organisation, remotely from Aberdeen, or using a combination of both. Placements are subject to availability and are offered on a best match basis.

15 Credit Points

This course in Applied Statistics focuses on the application of statistical techniques in postgraduate research for health professionals, with a particular emphasis on the correct interpretation of statistical analyses results. The course will NOT focus on the statistical theory underlying the subject. An important component of the course is the use of a statistical package (IBM SPSS), which can be used to implement all the methods taught on this course.

15 Credit Points

This course in applied epidemiology gives an introduction to disease measurement at a population level, basic epidemiological study design and analysis, and provides an understanding of key methodological issues needed to apply when designing – or critically appraising – an epidemiological study.

15 Credit Points

Resources available for the provision and payment for health care are limited. However, knowledge of economics helps ensure that available resources are used in the most effective way possible. Economics allows more informed decision making about a variety of issues: choosing between alternative treatments; setting priorities between patients; choosing between alternative new technologies; organising the provision of health care.

In this course students will acquire a knowledge and understanding of:

• Key themes of economic theory applied to health care
• Some of the main techniques of health care evaluation
• Main arguments concerning alternative systems for organising and financing health care

15 Credit Points

What can health professionals and health care promoters do to improve their own and others health and wellbeing? What influences people’s health behaviours? Why do people find it difficult to change their health behaviour? What are the most promising strategies for improving health and well-being?

Health behaviours cover a wide range of behaviours (e.g. smoking, physical activity, vaccination, diet, taking medication, and practicing safe sex) and have a major impact on peoples’ health, quality of life, and (healthy) life expectancy. Nevertheless, many people have an unhealthy diet, exercise too little, don’t take their medication as prescribed, smoke, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, and so forth.

In this course, we will address these challenges and students will learn key theories about health behaviour and behaviour change, including behaviour change techniques, in order to understand how health behaviours can be influenced by a variety of factors within an individual (e.g., conscious and unconscious thoughts, emotions, goals, and decisions), and also by factors in the environment (e.g., the behaviours and expectations of society; the quality of the communication by health care professionals; or availability and affordability of healthy options in the environment).

Health psychologists and health professionals are expected to be able to develop, evaluate and implement intervention programs to promote healthier behaviour, through changing individuals and their environment.

Within this course you will develop your understanding of health behaviours, what influences them and how to change them. You will experience the role of health behaviours from both the participant’s and researcher view, by developing, participating in and analysing your own behavioural intervention.

15 Credit Points

Fundamentals of research design provides the student with skills in both quantitative and qualitative design enabling the student to plan ethical research in a health context. Students are taken through each step - from formulating the research question, to study design, sample selection, methods for data collection to dissemination of results.

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:

1. Summarise the key factors involved in the research process
2. Evaluate the appropriateness of study designs commonly used in applied health research studies
3. Identify the advantages and disadvantages associated with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies
4. Develop a research proposal to answer a health-related research question which maximises research quality and rigour.

15 Credit Points

Course Aims:

The course aims to enable you to develop a broad knowledge, understanding, and application of the scientific basis of human nutrition.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. Summarise the underlying physiology related to human nutrition.
2. Explain the key concepts of nutrient and energy metabolism.
3. Distinguish between the metabolism of different macronutrients.
4. Outline the role of micronutrients and non-nutritive dietary components in human nutrition.
5. Assess the interactions between nutrients as part of a whole diet.
6. Prepare, process, interpret, and present topics in human nutrition using formal presentation.

15 Credit Points

This course will give you a detailed theoretical and practical understanding of the methods used to assess nutritional status, including dietary intake, assessment of body composition and energy expenditure applied in the context of energy balance. Theory will be put into practice through a series of practical workshop and laboratory sessions to give you ‘hands-on’ experience of using a range of assessment techniques using state-of-the-art equipment routinely employed by nutritional scientists.