Public Health is a multidisciplinary area of research and study that focuses on measuring, understanding and improving the health of the population, including assessing the health needs of vulnerable populations, understanding the causes and determinants of health challenges and problems, and identifying ways to improve the public health system and the health of the population.
Traditionally, Public Health was taught as a professional masters (MPH) degree with an emphasis on clinical trials and epidemiology. Recent years have seen three changes in Public Health teaching and training, including an increased emphasis on prevention and intervention research and training (particularly health promotion/communication and health services research) due in part to the increased rates chronic disease in society.
Public Health studies at UC Merced is offered at the graduate and undergraduate level:
- graduate students are engaged in Public Health research, pursuing PhD and research-based Master's within the Social and Cognitive Science emphasis of the UC Merced Individualized Graduate Program (IGP); and
- undergraduate students are working towards (or have graduated with) a minor in Public Health, which has been offered since the Spring of 2010, and can now enroll in the new major in Public Health (as of Fall 2014).
As the primary research university in the San Joaquin Valley, students who study Public Health at UC Merced are in a unique position to receive a research based masters and PhD as a track within the Social and Cognitive Sciences emphasis of the Individualized Graduate Program (IGP). We are in the process of developing a Masters in Science in Public Health*, that will allow students to focus upon a number of areas relevant to Public Health, including health promotion and communication as they relate to the preventive of chronic diseases, and an environmental health concentration that examines the role of the physical environment plays in determining the health of the population and interventions that can reduce the negative impacts on human health. It is expected that students who study Public health at UC Merced will be able to focus on topics that include:
- Disease prevention and self-management, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, and obesity and diabetes;
- Health promotion across the life course, with special strength in adolescent health, women's health, and health disparities;
- Community-based participatory research;
- Community, worksite, school, and clinic interventions and evaluations; and
- Health communication and e-health.
For more information, contact Professor Paul Brown at pbrown3@ucmerced.edu
* Pending CCGA and WASC approval
Updated 2021
