"Population health refers to the health of a population as measured by health status indicators and as influenced by social, economic and physical environments, personal health practices, individual capacity and coping skills, human biology, early childhood development, and health services. As an approach, population health focuses on the interrelated conditions and factors that influence the health of populations over the life course, identifies systematic variations in their patterns of occurrence, and applies the resulting knowledge to develop and implement policies and actions to improve the health and well-being of those populations.”
- Federal, Provincial and Territorial Advisory Committee on Population Health (ACPH), 1997.
The bilingual PhD in Population Health challenges students to address population health issues, determinants and causes of health, design of multi-level interventions, health systems, and health policy, grounded within interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. Students integrate and apply knowledge from social, biological, clinical, organizational, and political sciences to generate new knowledge and advance the science of population health. Graduates will develop analytic and research skills to apply rigorous scientific methods to studies of population health, and develop knowledge, skills and experience to function as effective interdisciplinary researchers, health policy makers, health-care providers, legislators, and managers in the health sector.