Course syllabus

Warmly welcome to the course "Health equality and the right to health" (MPH212)

Course dates:  5 November -   19  January, 2025

Course registration via Ladok:  29  October -  12 November. You will need to  activate your  student account. To activate your student account, contact any Student servicecenter  or follow these instructions:  Student account activation.

The overall ambition with this course

With the aspiration to narrow the gap in health disparities, simplistic solutions are frequently attempted but often fall short. The primary objective of this course is to cultivate a heightened awareness of the complexity underlying the emergence and persistence of health inequalities. It also aims to provide you with a fundamental comprehension of how the lens of human rights and the right to health contribute understanding of and action on health inequalities but also potential pitfalls and trade-offs.

A brief description of the course

The course gives a more critical and deeper understanding of how different concepts, theories, and frameworks add to our understanding of health inequalities but also affect our view on potential action to handle these inequalities. Within the field of public health, concepts such as 'vulnerability', 'power', 'health behavior', 'politics', 'gender', and 'commercial actors' are frequently used. However, definitions often vary, raising the question: what do these concepts truly mean, and what roles do they play in shaping health outcomes? The course also introduces the perspective of health as a human right and legal concept and elaborates on potential challenges and opportunities in public health priorities, particularly policy, and interventions for mitigating health inequalities.

The course is planned with student-centred learning in focus which will require students to take active part, not only in reading the literature and attending lectures, but to relate to, and reflect on ones own experiences and engage in joint discussions and workshops. More on the pedagogical approach and structure can be find under the module "Course information".

Based on the learning objectives (see course syllabus) the course has three interrelated themes:

1. Conceptual and theoretical perspectives on health inequalities: The first theme introduces a deeper understanding of how different perspectives contribute to our understanding of health inequalities but also how perspective and foci guide the logic of public health priorities and action in relation to health inequalities. The areas in focus will be power, vulnerability, behavior, politics, gender, and the Commercial determinants of health.
2. Human rights and the right to health: The second theme introduces the right to health as a legal standard, non-discrimination and the rights of specific groups, and potential tensions between human rights and public health goals.
3. Theory and standards into practice: Finally, this theme introduces students to the challenges and opportunities involved in translating theories, concepts on health inequalities, including human rights theory and legal standards, into public health policy and interventions. 

Contact information

Course leader: Jesper Löve  jesper.love@gu.se

Course administrator: Teresa Petersson publichealth@medicin.gu.se Please write the course code in the subject line when sending an e-mail!

Course information

• Course syllabus
• Literature list
• Course schedule (subject to change, please pay attention to announcements on Canvas)

MPH212 is a required course as part of the Masters in Public Health Science, and is also available as a stand alone course. To make it possible for program students to also follow MPH213 these courses will run in parallel every second week (see preliminary schedule above but also the "Weekly timetable in the module "Course information").

Use of Generative AI

The Programme recently adopted a policy on the use of generative AI. It is very important that you carefully read this document to understand what applies.