Population and Health

2022/2023

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

5

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Demography (Vishnevsky Institute of Demography)

Course type:

Elective course

When:

4 year, 1, 2 module

Instructor

Ракша Алексей Игоревич

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course is aimed at developing students' knowledge in the field of studying the population and population health through the prism of concepts and methods developed by modern demography and epidemiology. The course is divided into two equivalent parts. In the first module, we will look at issues related to components of population change, population size and structures, population aging and the growing demographic burden on the working-age population, imbalance in the sex ratio and assess the impact of all these demographic factors on the economy, health care and social services in Russia and several other countries. The main theoretical concepts of demographic development - the theory of demographic transition and the theory of epidemiological transition - are also considered. The second part of the course focuses on population health issues. Methods for assessing population health based on mortality, morbidity (incidence, prevalence), self-assessment, and risk factors data will be considered. Particular attention will be paid to data sources, their advantages and limitations. Students will become familiar with the main study designs in epidemiology and will be able to interpret the results of epidemiological studies on their own. The course also reveals the main patterns and characteristics of the epidemiological transition in Russia compared to the other developed countries. During the practical sessions students will be able to work with demographic (macro-level) and epidemiological (micro-level) data using R. Data handling, standardization, life table construction and survival analysis will coved in the practicals.