Population Health Minor

Discover a Rewarding Career in Population Health

The Department of Sociology offers the Minor in Population Health starting in Fall 2023. The interdisciplinary Minor in Population Health provides students with a critical perspective needed to consider the full range of factors which impact the health and well-being of populations. This Minor is based on the premise that complex issues require an understanding of theories, concepts, and data from multiple disciplines to create, implement, evaluate, and sustain effective solutions.The Minor in Population Health prepares students for various career paths in multiple sectors, including health care, business, social services, research, public administration, education, housing, and transportation.  Graduates with this minor will often seek further education or positions in health departments, government/regulatory agencies, hospitals, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), industry, foundations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), non-profit organizations, research institutes, etc.

Population Health Minor Program Benefits

Population Health Outcomes

Learn how biological, social, behavioral, economic, and political factors interact to impact population health outcomes and disparities among sub-populations.

Understand Institutional Policies

Acquire the knowledge and tools needed to understand how institutional policies and practices independently and collaboratively impact on population healt

Explore Health Disparities

Explore how health disparities have implications for overall population health, and well-being in order to consider interventions that can reduce disparities, achieve health equity, and improve the quality of life for all.

Application Details

Requirements

A minimum of 15 semester credit hours, consisting of 2 required courses (6 hours) and 3 electives (9 hours).
9 semester hours must be completed in residence, of which 6 must be at the advanced level (3000/4000).
At minimum, a cumulative 2.0 GPA is required for all courses in this minor.

Required Courses (6 Hours)

POPH 2300 Introduction to Population Health
Students must earn a minimum grade of C in POPH 2300 in order to advance in the Population Health Minor
And one of the following two courses:
SOC 3352 Social Demography
SOC 3353 Health Disparities in Society

Elective Courses (9 hours)

Three elective courses must be chosen from the list of approved courses below. The courses on the list are divided into three Areas of Study: Population Health Science, Population Health Equity, or Population Health Informatics and Analytics. Students are not required to take electives only from one Area of Study. That is, electives may be fulfilled from any combination of courses from any of these areas. Please check the PH Minor Checklist.

Population Health Science:

SOC 3357 Urban Sociology
SOC 3380 Introduction to Sociology of Health Care
COMM 3300 Health Communication
COMM 3301 Doctor-Patient Interaction
COMM 3303 Health Literacy
COMM 3340 Health Campaigns
ECON 3368 Economics of Health Care
ECON 4345 Social Economics
ECON 4374 Behavioral Economics
HIST 3303 Disease, Health, and Medicine in American History
HIST 3316 Race and Racism in American Science and Medicine
PHIL 3354 Medical Ethics
POLS 3319 Politics of Social Policy
POLS 3375 Health Policy and Politics

Population Health Equity:

Population Health Analytics and Informatics:

POPH 3330 Introduction to Population Health Informatics
POPH 3331 Consumer Informatics and Data Health
COSC 2306 Data Programming
COSC 3337 Data Science I
COSC 4337 Data Science II
MATH 4322 Introduction to Data Science and Machine Learning

Contact Information

H.K Quinn Valier
Director of the Population Health Minor
Health 2, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Phone: 713-743-9021
Email: hkvalier@uh.edu