Content Overview

This course introduces participants to cultural ideas and practices relevant to health and disease as a key to understanding peoples’ behaviour. It gives an overview on medical systems as cultural systems, explanatory models, and health seeking behaviour. Course participants apply qualitative research methods, tools used for data-collection and analysis of data using Nvivo.This course enables participants to apply anthropological approaches to public health care looking at case studies in the field.

Course Topics

Introduction to Public Health Anthropology (25 hours)

• Cultural ideas and practices relevant to health and disease, as a key to understanding people’s behaviour
• Overview of medical systems as cultural systems
• Explanatory models and health seeking behaviour

Research methods in Public Health Anthropology (30 hours)

• Ethnographic methods as a basis for qualitative research
• Overview of tools used for data collection
• Preparing and conducting in-depth interviews and-, focus group discussions
• Practicing observations
• Analysing qualitative data using NVivo 11
• Rapid Appraisal Methods

Applying Public Health Anthropology in the field of (15 hours)

• Reproductive health
• malaria, diabetes
• interdisciplinary and transcultural competences

Learning Objectives

At the end of the module, participants should be able to:

• Reflect on the use of ethnographic methods to conduct research in order to identify cultural paradigms and practices related to health and illness
• Employ an anthropological perspective in identifying problems and finding solutions to public health problems encountered in the field
• Apply the knowledge and skills acquired in class to develop research questions and define the methodology needed to do public health anthropology research
• Apply public health anthropology tools to collect and analyze data, including the use of software technology