6 ECTS credits
155 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4018317FNR for all students in the 1st semester
at
a (F) Master - specialised level.
- Semester
- 1st semester
- Enrollment based on exam contract
- Impossible
- Grading method
- Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
- Can retake in second session
- Yes
- Taught in
- Dutch
- Faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
- Department
- Sociology
- Educational team
- Sylvie Gadeyne
(course titular)
- Activities and contact hours
-
24 contact hours Lecture
155 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
- Course Content
Social epidemiology studies the social distribution and social determinants of health at the population level. The current zeitgeist often focuses on the search for individual risk factors (e.g. smoking, obesity) and places the responsibility for illness and premature death mainly on the individual. Social epidemiology wants to counteract this with the support of figures and underlines the importance of socio-economic influences in order to transcend the individual level. The lecture consists of a more theoretical part and a more applied part (cases).
In the theoretical part, an overview is first given of
- the central concepts, methods and theories of social epidemiology
- measuring social inequality: indicators of socio-economic stratification
- measuring social inequality: indicators of inequality
The next section focuses on a number of cases relevant to social epidemiology. This part of the program varies from year to year depending on the availability of guest speakers. Regular topics during the past years were
- inequality according to work-related aspects
- inequality by ethnicity
- Russian mortality crisis
- gender inequality
- inequality in mental health
- life course perspective
- Course material
- Handbook (Recommended) : Social Determinants of Health, Alan Davidson, 2de, Oxford University Press, 9780199032204, 2019
Digital course material (Required) : Slides + reader, Sylvie Gadeyne e.a., Canvas
Handbook (Required) : The Spirit Level, Why Equality is Better for Everyone, Wilkinson R. and Pickett K., Penguin, 9780241954294, 2011
- Additional info
For more information about the concrete structure of the course: see Canvas.
- Learning Outcomes
-
Algemene competenties
- Students gain insight into the most important concepts and methods of social epidemiological research
- Students gain insight into state-of-the art social epidemiological research
- Students consider health as a complex phenomenon, related to socio-economic and cultural individual and social characteristics
- Students develop a critical attitude towards social phenomena and determinants of health
- Students learn to reflect and to debate critically on social epidemiological research and the relationship between society and health.
- Grading
-
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
- Written Exam
with a relative weight of 1
which comprises 100% of the final mark.
- Additional info regarding evaluation
The exam consists of a number of open questions.
- Allowed unsatisfactory mark
- The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.
Academic context
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Adult Education: Profile Social Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Sociology: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)