Health Behavior and Health Promotion

Students in the MPH in Community-Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP) frequently progress to careers that require strong skills in health behavior and health promotion. Learning objectives for COPHP’s Health Behavior and Health Promotion block cover skills in program planning and assessment, theories of behavior change, and application of an equity lens in health promotion. Cases in this block explore content through specific health topics. As in other COPHP blocks, students teach themselves and each other as they review cases, write and discuss learning objectives, post research findings, and conduct practical assignments. Faculty who facilitate this block rewrite cases annually to ensure they include at least one timely topic that the students will be eager to explore, and real world practitioners lead seminars that complement the cases. Challenges of the Health Behavior and Health Promotion block include teaching complex theory and extensive skills in a short time, keeping the health topics compelling to students, and making sure students maintain an appropriate balance between exploring interesting health topics and understanding the fundamentals of health promotion.

Keywords: Assessment, Communication, Cultural competency, Ethics, Health behavior, Health promotion, Literacy, Objectives, Planning models, Prevention, Primary prevention, Program design, Program planning, Protective factors, Risk, Secondary prevention, Tertiary prevention.