Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - BarcelonaEpidemiology, Public Health and Qualitative Methodology
Main language of instruction: English
Other languages of instruction: Catalan, Spanish
Head instructor
Dr. Adrián GONZÁLEZ - agonzalezm@uic.es
Office hours
Lecturer: Adrián González (agonzalezm@uic.es)
Contact by email to request an in-person class.
The dental profession is not only significant in terms of the provision of services at the individual level, but also the work of the dentist at the population level can have a major relevance. Dentistry as a science plays an important role within the broad and complex universe of public health because of the influence of oral health on health as a whole. For this reason, public dental health is a specialty recognized by different associations, such as the American Dental Association. Moreover, dentists are explicitly recognized within the "One Health" initiative, a widespread and multidisciplinary movement that brings together professionals of diverse fields in public health.
In this context, the dentist must be familiar with the main concepts of public health as well as the transversal methodologies that govern this discipline, such as biostatistics and epidemiology. While the former will be seen as an independent subject in the Master’s, in this subject we will analyze the basic principles of epidemiology.
Finally, the course ends with an approach to qualitative methodology, which has become very popular in many disciplines of Health Sciences, including dentistry.
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On completing this subject, the student should:
1. Introduction to public health
Concept of health. Illness-wellness continuum. Natural history of disease.
Concept of public health. Strategies for action in public health: protection and promotion of health and prevention of disease.
Levels of prevention: primordial, primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary prevention. The prevention paradox. The "dark side" of prevention.
Determinants of health. Multi-level model of the determinants of health.
Main health problems in the world.
Public health in the context of dentistry. Dental public health.
2. Introduction to epidemiology
Concept of epidemiology. The history of modern epidemiology: from John Snow to Doll & Hill.
Measures of frequency, association and impact: calculation and interpretation.
Types of epidemiological studies. Strengths and weaknesses.
3. Introduction to qualitative research
Concept of qualitative research. Qualitative research vs. quantitative research.
Data collection in qualitative methodology: conversation, observation and documentary methods.
Qualitative methodology in the context of dentistry.
Although the evaluable content will be the one that uploaded for each lesson in the slides, there are other very interesting resources related to the subject:
Epidemiology for the uninitiated.
This webpage addresses the basic aspects of epidemiology. Highly recommended.
https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-readers/publications/epidemiology-uninitiated
Basic Epidemiology.
Book edited by WHO that, as the title says, addresses the basic aspects of epidemiology. However, it is very didactic. Recommended chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.
Essential dental public health.
Available in the UIC library.
A Textbook of Public Health Dentistry.
The strength of this book is not so much the general part, but the specific ones of dental public health. You have to be selective with reading.
In Spanish:
Medicina preventiva y salud pública (Piédrola).
Available in the UIC library. It is probably the most important public health manual published in Spanish.
Manual de epidemiología y salud pública para grados en ciencias de la salud de Hernández-Aguado y Lumbreras.
Available in the UIC library. Although at a more basic level, it is a reference manual in public health.
Journal of Public Health Dentistry.
It should be a mandatory periodic visit for any researcher in community dentistry.