PBHL11002 - Public Health and Chronic Disease

General Information

Unit Synopsis

Chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease are the leading causes of death and disability in Australia. From a public health perspective, the prevention of chronic disease is of fundamental importance and is a core skill set for any public health professional. This unit provides an introduction to public health and chronic disease. It will examine biological determinants, the influence of social factors on incidence and prevalence, and behavioural and environmental factors found to be conducive to the development and growth of chronic disease in Australia. Students will also explore individual and population level interventions aimed at reducing chronic disease.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 1
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Online

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Group Discussion 20%
2. Online Quiz(zes) 30%
3. Written Assessment 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 81.82% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20.75% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student unit evaluation, unit coordinator reflection
Feedback
Provide additional content within lectures that describe the impact of chronic disease on the Australian population
Recommendation
New content will be added to the weekly lectures for 2023 regarding the impact of chronic diseases on the Australian population, including public health action to address these.
Action Taken
New lectures and content were provided in 2023 that had a greater emphasis on the impact of chronic diseases on the Australian population.
Source: Student unit evaluation
Feedback
Well-structured unit with a reasonable and manageable weekly learning workload
Recommendation
Continue with the current level of support offered to students to help them with meeting unit milestones and assessment deadlines.
Action Taken
The unit structure, pace and level of support provided were continued in 2023.
Source: Student unit survey.
Feedback
Introduce an additional choice of topic for the final assessment task to help cater to the varied disciplinary backgrounds of students.
Recommendation
Offer a choice from two topics for the final written assessment in 2024.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student unit survey.
Feedback
Students enjoyed the unit content, assessment structure, and delivery, allowing them to pace their learning over the term.
Recommendation
Continue with the current unit structure and delivery in 2024.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Describe risk factors and aetiology for lifestyle related chronic diseases.
  2. Collaborate with others to explain the impact of chronic diseases in the context of individual and population health.
  3. Identify and analyse primary, secondary and tertiary prevention approaches for lifestyle related chronic diseases.
  4. Identify and analyse upstream determinants of health impacting on lifestyle related chronic diseases.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Group Discussion • • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) •
3 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication • • • •
2 - Problem Solving • • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • •
4 - Information Literacy •
5 - Team Work • • • •
6 - Information Technology Competence •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 - Group Discussion • • • • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • • • • • •
2 - Online Quiz(zes) • • •