
Courses
Official course descriptions taken from the UNC Course Catalog are below.
Additional courses may be added on a semester basis at the discretion of the department. See the UNC Registrar’s Directory of Classes page for more information.
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH (MHCH)
This survey course will briefly cover the principal topics in this broad field of knowledge, including domestic and global issues.
Permission of the instructor. For students outside the department of MCH who desire a survey of current issues and programs in maternal and child health. Three lecture hours per week.
This course covers nutrition during the life cycle. Units include women during preconception, pregnancy, and lactation; infancy; childhood; adolescence; and older adults (65+). Nutrient and energy needs, assessment of nutritional status, and cultural and socioeconomic barriers are discussed for each phase.
This course examines unintentional injuries from a public health perspective. The course covers core concepts in injury prevention and control, including the epidemiology of unintentional injury, prevention strategies, behavioral models, child and adolescent injury, messaging framing, the Haddon matrix, and injury surveillance.
This course covers core concepts in violence prevention and control, including the epidemiology of violence, prevention strategies for inter-personal and intra-personal violence, behavioral models that describe power structures that reinforce personal and societal factors affecting self-harm and violence towards others, and violence directed towards children and adolescents.
Globalization--its economic, environmental, political, technological, institutional, and sociocultural dimensions--historically and currently contributes to beneficial and adverse effects on population, community, and family and individual health.
Eliminating health disparities is a national goal for improving the health of Americans. Little to no progress has been made on eliminating disparities among racial/ethnic subpopulations compared to the population of the United States. This course treats basic concepts about the origins of and contributing factors for health disparities.
Featuring international experts from UNC-Chapel Hill and Triangle-based nongovernmental organizations, this course will offer a series of lectures, panel discussions, and debates to inform students' critical thinking on key public health issues in global sexual and reproductive health.
Through lectures and panel discussions this course will use a life span framework to examine selected aspects of sexual development, including perspectives on sexuality; the physical self; sexual attraction, behavior, and relationships; and the implications of these factors for physical and mental health. No prerequisites; all students are welcome.
Special topics in maternal health and child health. Content will vary from semester to semester.
This course introduces the major issues affecting the health and well-being of women during the reproductive years, infants, children, and adolescents in domestic and international settings. First semester of a two-semester course. Permission of the instructor for non-majors.
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Second part of a two-part course that introduces the major issues affecting the health and well-being of women during the reproductive years, infants, children and adolescents in domestic and international settings. Second semester of a two-semester course.
This independent study will include selection of a research area that would allow preparation of a coauthored paper for peer-review publication on an approved subject related to infant and young child feeding and care and associated maternal health and nutrition issues.
This course is designed to integrate the theory, research literature, and evidence-supported practices related to leadership in maternal and child health. Students will consider each of the twelve core competencies within the spheres of influence that leaders experience as they develop. Students will hear from public health professionals in the field, consider perspectives of various stakeholders and examine/apply new skills.
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. The art and science of MCH research, with an emphasis on applied survey research. Student groups will design and carry out a small study, and present their findings in a poster presentation. Focuses on assessment of MCH population characteristics, secondary data analysis, and the evaluation of MCH programs. A practicum-based course. Three lecture hours per week.
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. The MHCH 713 lab, which is a companion course to MHCH 713, introduces students to statistical analysis using Stata. One hour and 15 minutes of lab per week.
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Course provides overview of critical issues including major theoretical frameworks, patterns and trends over time, and overview of history of family planning and reproductive health policy development. Three lecture hours per week.
A faculty-supervised field experience in maternal and child health research, community practice, program planning, and evaluation. Students are supervised on-site by department-approved field instructor. An additional field fee of $350 is assessed. Minimum of six weeks.
MHCH majors only. An elective, faculty-supervised field experience in maternal and child health research, community practice, program planning, and evaluation. Students are supervised on-site by department-approved field instructor. Students choosing this elective are not exempt from MHCH 717. Variable number of hours.
Permission of the instructor. This course focuses on the design, organization, and delivery of services for children with special needs and their families, and examines current program development and public policies. Participants analyze the range of services needed by these children.
This course covers the main causes of maternal and under-five morbidity and mortality in developing countries and also the interventions, policies, and research which address these causes. Emphasis is placed on both distal and proximate determinants, measurement and indicators, and conceptual frameworks.
This course provides the students with the basic concepts and methodologies needed to monitor and evaluate programs of global health programs. Course covers M&E systems; conceptual frameworks/logic models; indicators; information sources; evaluation designs and related topics for health programs in developing country settings. This course is required for the MCFH and GH concentrations.
This course will provide an overview of the critical issues in abortion care and policy, both in the US and globally. We will cover the major theoretical frameworks defining abortion care and policy, and the epidemiology of abortion globally and nationally.
Topics covered include the epidemiology of health problems, developmental issues, health services, and psychosocial influences on adolescent problem behaviors. Course materials are useful for research generation and practical application. Three seminar hours per week.
Permission of the instructor for nonmajors. Implementation research and practice addresses the gap between the development of innovations in public health and their delivery in routine practice. Course provides an overview of core theories/methods in implementation research and practice plus implementation determinants and strategies at the intervention, individual, organizational, and policy levels.
This course examines contributions of implementation science to global maternal and child health with a focus on research methods, emphasizing implementation science theories, frameworks, and tools in their application to challenges in global health.
The MHCH Gender-Based Violence (GBV) course provides a forum for students to explore contemporary issues in GBV from both a research and practice standpoint. Students will be introduced to a myriad of domestic and international GBV issues, from intimate partner violence and campus sexual assault to sex trafficking.
Prerequisites to be arranged with departmental faculty in each individual case. Two to six hours a week.
This course is designed to integrate the theory, research literature, and evidence-supported practices that promote population health outcomes in MCH. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) offers opportunities for improving public health systems, health care financing and delivery, and health outcomes for MCH populations.
Master's or clinical four-year degree required. This two-semester clinical course is structured to provide supervised breastfeeding support education in the context of clinical lactation services and public health practice.
Master's or clinical four-year degree required. This two-semester clinical course is structured to provide supervised breastfeeding support education in the context of clinical lactation services and public health practice.
Cultural Humility is part of the required training sequence for second year MPH students in the Global Health concentration. This course is designed to provide students with the skills to work in culturally complex settings and to apply cultural humility when engaging in global health research and practice. GH concentration only.
This graduate seminar provides Maternal and Child Health (MCH) students with an opportunity to examine key theories and qualitative methodologies that advance anti-racist, abolitionist, intersectional feminist, and emancipatory scholarship for health equity and reproductive justice. Students gain a deeper understanding of the intellectual foundations of research justice. And learn to design research questions, data collection strategies, and analytic techniques that decolonize knowledge production. Preference given to students enrolled in the MCH department or MCFH concentration.
This seminar explores the origins of and developments in major maternal and child health policies and programs in order to understand their effects on the health of mothers and children.
Enrollment in MCH doctoral program required. MCH internship to enhance doctoral training in areas of: Section 1: Teaching; Section 2: Practice; and Section 3: Research.
Epidemiology of reproductive and perinatal health outcomes, including infertility, fetal loss, preterm birth, birthweight, congenital malformations, and infant mortality. Includes current knowledge regarding epidemiology of these outcomes and discussion of methodologic issues. Three lecture hours per week.
Critical review of current topics in, and methods for, perinatal and pediatric epidemiology.
A survey of theoretical models used in MCH research and program development, and how those models are used to guide the formulation of questions, hypothesis testing, and evaluation. Fall.
The course follows the research process from the formulation of a research question and the design of a research methodology to the addressing of the question through the design of an appropriate analysis strategy. Three lecture hours a week.
Required preparation, knowledge of Stata or SAS; proficiency in inferential statistics and multiple regression analysis. Instructor permission required for non-second year MCH doctoral students. Program impact evaluation analytic skills seminar. Topics: selectivity, research designs, instrumental variables, difference-in-differences, fixed and random effects, regression discontinuity, matching, and selection models.
Special topics in Maternal and Child Health for graduate students only. Content will vary semester to semester.