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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Deanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences : Global Health

Postgraduate Course: Global Challenges in Healthy Ageing (GLHE11082)

Course Outline
SchoolDeanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences CollegeCollege of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)
Course typeOnline Distance Learning AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryHealthy ageing refers to the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age, and with the continued trend towards longer life expectancies across the globe we face unprecedented challenges in supporting ageing populations to maintain their health and wellbeing. This course will critically engage with healthy ageing as a major global challenge faced by high, low and middle income countries. The core aim of the course is for students to develop a sophisticated appreciation of how healthy ageing is dependent not only on individual lifestyles and histories, but also on structural, population and environmental levels factors, which shape people's vulnerability to poor health and their resilience in maintaining health as they age.
Course description This twenty-credit course will enable students to develop critical awareness, knowledge and skills to more effectively address the multiple challenges occurring as a result of global population ageing and global shifts in the health of the aged that are occurring in response to economic development and its unevenness across the globe.

Case studies of different country examples and specific issues central to healthy ageing will be used to illustrate the differences and commonalities of key challenges in healthy ageing globally. The course will explore different practices of healthy ageing from varied (but interconnected) approaches, including health promotion, service delivery, policy and advocacy. By completion of the course, students will have developed a complex understanding of the significance and complexity of global ageing, and will be able to distinguish between the challenges in healthy ageing occurring in low, middle and high income contexts.

Over ten weeks, the course will address the following themes:
1) the implications of global demographic and epidemiological transitions for ageing populations and the associated health system challenges;
2) chronic conditions and ageing;
3) ageing and mental health;
4) inequities over the life course and implications for equitable health outcomes for aged people;
5) mobilities and ageing populations;
6) health finance and health workforce challenges in response to ageing populations;
7) health promotion and secondary prevention for healthy ageing;
8) service delivery, information systems and long-term care for healthy ageing;
9) access to and appropriate use of medicines and assistive devices;
and 10) policy, leadership and governance that respond to ageing populations.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Flexible
Course Start Date 07/04/2025
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 10, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 2, Online Activities 70, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 10, Formative Assessment Hours 10, Revision Session Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 92 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) - Contribution to the discussion board (10%)
- Group-work project (20%)
- Individual assignment with a formative element (70%)
Feedback The students will receive continuous tutor feedback on the discussion board. They will also receive mid-course feedback based on their performance in the group-work assignment. Finally, they will receive formative feedback on the draft of their individual assignment and summative feedback to their final sibmission.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Be able to appraise the significance and complexity of global population ageing in the context of demographic and epidemiological transitions
  2. Critically evaluate how healthy ageing is shaped and affected by contextual parameters, including biological, social and cultural factors, economic factors, and other inequalities and mobilities;
  3. Develop a critical understanding of current practices of healthy ageing from different (but interconnected) perspectives, including health promotion, service delivery, policy and advocacy;
  4. Distinguish between the specific challenges of healthy ageing in different populations and theorise how health systems and long term care systems must adapt to meet the needs of aged populations across low, middle and high income contexts
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Keywordsglobal population ageing,health systems,long-term care,low- and middle- income countries,health
Contacts
Course organiserProf Liz Grant
Tel:
Email: Liz.Grant@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Laura Miller
Tel: (0131 6)51 5575
Email: Laura.Miller@ed.ac.uk
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