What is public health?

For many, the term 'public health' primarily brings to mind the practice of public health, which has the overall purpose of preventing disease and promoting health. This ambition was also behind the establishment of public health as an academic discipline. For public health practice and public health research alike, there are tensions between a medical model that focuses on individual risk factors for disease as well as medical treatments, and a social model that emphasises the role of societal structures and living conditions.

At the Department of Public Health Sciences, we jointly consider these models in our multidisciplinary approach to public health. Our research - and education - is nevertheless firmly rooted in the social sciences and insights from, for example, sociology and psychology regarding the complex interplay between social structures and individuals.

Master's programme in public health sciences: Societal and individual perspectives (PHSAN)

This multidisciplinary programme provides a broad overview of the field of public health research, both in the past and the present. As a student, you will gain a deeper understanding of individual health outcomes and the distribution of health at the population level, determinants of health across the life course, as well as public health-related policy and practice. Qualitative and quantitative methods will be utilized and practiced throughout the programme.

Our "Master's programme in public health sciences: Societal and individual perspectives" (PHSAN) offers two tracks; Societal perspectives on public health (PSOC) and Individual perspectives on public health (PIND). The courses within blocks A-D and F are the same for both tracks, whereas block E differs depending on the track.

You choose your track when you apply for the programme:

Societal perspectives on public health (PSOC)

Individual perspectives on public health (PIND)

 

Doctoral studies in Public Health Sciences

The doctoral level education in public health sciences at Stockholm University puts emphasis on perspectives that illuminates the causes of health inequalities, how various living conditions and opportunities influence the individual's health across the life course as well as how structural factors, individual actions, and biopsychological mechanisms interact. Theoretical as well as methodological skills and abilities are central, as are knowledge and reflections concerning interventions aimed toward more equal health.

Doctoral level studies in Public Health Sciences

Photo: Ingmarie Andersson/Stockholm University