PUBH3954

The course Personal, Social, and Environmental Influences on the Eating and Activity Behaviors of Maternal and Child Populations provides an introduction to the epidemiology of eating and physical activity behaviors among mothers, children, and adolescents.

Assumptions of the course include (1) nutrition and physical activity are important public health issues and (2) making changes to help maternal and child populations improve their eating and activity behaviors will lead to reduced rates of associated pediatric health problems as well as chronic diseases of adulthood. With this perspective, strategies and policies are needed to promote healthy eating and physical activity behaviors among young people. Our learning community will discuss social-ecological factors that influence eating and activity behaviors, and implications for the development of interventions and policies. In particular, our discussions will address ethnic/racial and socioeconomic disparities that have resulted from structural racism and disparities in access to healthy food and recreational facilities.

The course is available at either the graduate or undergraduate level. Students seeking graduate credit should enroll in PubH 6954 and those seeking undergraduate credit should enroll in PubH 3954. The combined offering of this course to students at the graduate and
undergraduate levels further assumes the perspective that all students have rich experiences to share and everyone can learn from one another. Although different expectations have been set for the graduate-level and undergraduate-level independent projects, members of the learning community enrolled in PubH 3954 and PubH 6954 are strongly encouraged to share their experiences of relevance to the course content through the combined discussion forums.