Online

Climate Change and Health by CCOUC

Organizer(s) Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response Oxford University Chinese University of Hong Kong, the
Date
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Course overview

Climate change is an important topic for public health practice. As the frequency and severity of climate-related disasters increase, in order to protect health and well-being, the need to understand and prepare for unforeseeable events is rapidly growing. This course will provide participants with an overview of issues in relation to climate change and health in the context of public health practice. Furthermore, it introduces important concepts of how to tackle climate change related health impacts and how to support community preparedness, response, policy formulation and implementation.

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to:

  • Understand and discuss climate change impact on health in the context of public health
  • Understand key climate change events and existing studies and their link to public health related actions
  • To explore what has been and can be done to minimise health impacts of climate change from public heath perspectives: adaptation and mitigation
  • To introduce recent research findings and policies in relation to climate change and health 

Course features

Knowledge

  • The principles of public health and determinants of health 
  • The relationship between climate change and disasters
  • The definition of different types of natural disaster and weather-related events, such as extreme weather event, drought, flood, etc.
  • The association between the change of temperature and rainfall and the transmission of infectious diseases

Understanding

  • The overview of climate change, its causes and classification
  • The global health burden and human health challenges related to climate change events
  • The health risk perception and the common human behavioural patterns related to the climate change
  • The policy implication for different adaptation and mitigation strategies related to the climate change

Skills

  • To identify the methods to measure the burden of disease attribute to climate change related event
  • To interpret the biostatistics model and epidemiology studies that predicting the association between climate change and health outcomes 
  • To describe the strengths and weakness of these biostatistics models to assess future health risks
  • To outline the potential strategies and public health action that can mitigate the adverse health impacts under the extreme weather events or climate-related disasters 

Target audience

The target audience for the course is individuals studying and working in health, policy, education and humanitarian sectors. Students may be civil servants, healthcare personnel, frontline disaster relief practitioners, and undergraduate or postgraduate students of closely-related disciplines. This online course will be available to anyone in the world. 

Tuition

As part of CCOUC’s knowledge transfer endeavour, this course is offered free of charge. There is limited quota for enrolment on a first-come-first-served basis.

Course structure

The course involves a total of 8 lessons, 4 short quizzes and one final assessment. Each lesson requires about one to three hours of study. All assessments are in the form of multiple-choice questions to be completed online with unlimited attempts. To progress through the course, students must obtain 80% or above in each short-quiz. Students enrolled in the course may access all learning materials and go through all learning activities online within a maximum period of seven months.

Topics covered in the course are as follows:

  • Introduction to Climate change
  • Health challenges Related to the Impacts of Climate Change I
  • Health challenges Related to the Impacts of Climate Change II
  • Health challenges Related to the Impacts of Climate Change III
  • Impacts of Climate Change On Communicable Diseases
  • Impacts of Climate Change on Non-Communicable Diseases
  • Response to Climate Change: Adaptation
  • Response to Climate Change: Mitigation

Course completion and certification

Students who obtain 60% or above in the final assessment will be issued a printable certificate in recognition of completing the course. 

Registration

Registration for this free online course is open until 30 November 2017. Students are allowed to study the course until 31 December 2017 at their own pace. To start studying the course now, please visit the course website.

Stay connected

For units interested in promoting and recommending this course, please send an email to ccouc@cuhk.edu.hk for further information.

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