Health Inequalities

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

• Critically evaluate the relationship of various determinants contributing to inequalities in health, including social, economic, and historical factors.
• Critically assess the impact of healthcare disparities and their impact on accessibility, utilisation and health outcomes.
• Cultivate knowledge and skills to formulate effective, evidence-based strategies underpinned by rigorous analysis to address health inequalities.
• Critically analyse ethical implications and social justice aspects of healthcare interventions designed to mitigate health inequalities, taking into account principles of equity, human rights and fairness.

Indicative module content includes:

• The impact of society, culture, values, and norms. 
• Equality versus equity in health
• The patterns of health and wellbeing outcomes for a range of communities, populations and conditions.
• The influence of politics and economics on health inequalities
• Organisational factors that influence health inequalities 
• Equitable frameworks, theories and practice
• Policy, ethics, social justice and lawPublic health, health promotion and communication strategies.

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• Provide students with the opportunity to critically analyse current health outcomes and practice to build a sound knowledge base.
• Utilise interprofessional learning and dialogue, that draws on the experience and perspectives of students allowing further subject complexities to be addressed. 
• Challenge values, beliefs and assumptions in relation to health inequalities. 
• Provide further opportunities to identify effective strategies that can be implemented to remove health inequalities. 

The learning and teaching methods include:

• Lectures.
• Online – captured content addressing module content, and discussion boards as a further opportunity to share multiprofessional perspectives.
• Guided learning – such as signposting to external materials and guidelines. 
• Problem based learning - to consider some of the complexities of health inequalities and how they can be approached.
• Discussion – drawing on participants’ experience and multi-profession perspectives.

Summative assessment for this module consists of:

• Poster presentation, 70%: 1000 words analysing a health inequality of their choice and proposing effective strategies to overcome this inequality (addressing learning outcomes 1,2,3,4)
• Video presentation, 30% (10 minutes) supplementary to the poster to add depth on how learning outcome 3 has been achieved (addressing learning outcome 3)