BSC 152 - MORE THAN MEDICINE: HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, AND BEHAVIORAL FACTORS IMPACT HEALTH

College of Medicine

Credit(s): 3

The U.S. has the bestâ€” and most expensiveâ€” medical treatments in the world, yet Americans have shorter life expectancies and higher infant mortality rates than most other developed nations. The failure to consider the social, psychological, and behavioral causes of health can and does cost lives. This course explores questions such as ‘What is health?’ ‘How does stress get under our skin?’ ‘Is your zip code a better predictor of health than your genetics?’ ‘How are we treated differently by doctors depending on our gender, race, or age?’ and ‘Why is it so hard to change our individual behavior?’ We will use discussions, case studies, research literature, news articles, and videos to introduce students to the social determinants of health and to identify strategies to reduce health disparities.

Prereq: Registration with consent of the course instructor.
Meets UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences.