Five Big Issues in Health

Overview courses

• Health @ Work

  The course focuses on several big issues in occupational health. It gives insight in workplace factors affecting health and tools for keeping chronically ill patients working. It also addresses the influence of health on work (participation). Students will work on a specific occupational group, map the most important risks for developing a work-related disease, and develop a worksite health intervention to reduce those risks. The occupational group will be used as guidance to gain insight into the models, theories, and methodological issues relevant for occupational health in general, and on aging workers and prolonged work participation in particular.

• Sexual Health: Threats and opportunities

  In this course, the focus will also be on opportunities of sexual behavior, such as creating new life and enjoying the presence of the other, being either male or female. Ethical dilemmas in relation to new methods of artificial human reproduction are discussed. Information is presented on sexual identity, transforming one’s identity and its relation to health.

• Food for Thought

  This course focuses on how food consumption practices are influenced by the wider food system, including the food supply chain as well as the food environment we live in. Food consumption will be discussed from a systems perspective and we will zoom in on the roles of citizens, consumers and  other relevant stakeholders in the food system. Students will work in small teams on a real-life question from an external stakeholder.

• Moving Matters in Health

  The course ‘Moving matters in health’ introduces theoretical concepts and empirical methods and findings in the domain of exercise and its relation to (psychological and physiological) health.

• Drugs and Addiction

  The course will allow students to become familiar with the epidemiology, psychology, neurobiology, psychopharmacology and therapy of addictive behaviour with a focus on nicotine, psychostimulant, heroin, cannabis and alcohol addiction as well as compulsive gambling.  Political and societal aspects of addictive behaviour will also be addressed.