Department of Health Policy and Management, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University , Statesboro, GA , USA ; Department of Epidemiology, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University , Statesboro, GA , USA.
Department of Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health, The University of Georgia Health Sciences Campus , Athens, GA , USA.
Front Public Health. 2015 May 11;3:71. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00071. eCollection 2015.
Undergraduate public health education has received growing attention in recent years. This includes a Washington Post article referring to undergraduate public health education as a "hot field" for a global generation, the Critical Component Elements of an Undergraduate Major in Public Health developed by the Association of School and Programs in Public Health (ASPPH), and a recent report from the de Beaumont Foundation and ASPPH. To evaluate the demand for the degree and assess the current state of undergraduate public health education, the researchers examined the number and characteristics of publicly reported U.S. baccalaureate public health programs.
The researchers reviewed three 2013 college directories and the ASPPH website and identified 112 institutions that used the term "public health" in their baccalaureate degree listings that guide prospective students in selecting an academic program. The researchers defined the undergraduate degree in public health as a major leading to a B.S., B.A., or other baccalaureate degree in public health or public health studies that provides students with a strong general background in areas of knowledge basic to public health, or a specialized training in at least one of the five core disciplines of public health. The researchers then compared the degree contents as listed in the directories to the institutions' websites to verify offering a public health curriculum. Carnegie Commission on Higher Education's classifications of colleges and universities were applied to assess the characteristics of institutions offering baccalaureate degrees in public health.
Only 54 of the 2,968 U.S. institutions of higher education provided online information meeting the definition of an active undergraduate public health degree program.
While public health may be a "hot" field in terms of the interest that it generates, the actual number of verified undergraduate programs presently available is relatively modest.
近年来，本科公共卫生教育受到越来越多的关注。这包括《华盛顿邮报》的一篇文章，将本科公共卫生教育称为“全球一代的热门领域”，美国公共卫生协会（ASPPH）制定的本科公共卫生专业的关键组成部分，以及德博蒙特基金会和 ASPPH 的最新报告。为了评估该学位的需求并评估本科公共卫生教育的现状，研究人员检查了美国本科公共卫生课程的数量和特征。
研究人员审查了三份 2013 年的大学目录和 ASPPH 网站，并确定了 112 所机构在其本科学位列表中使用了“公共卫生”一词，这些列表指导潜在学生选择学术课程。研究人员将本科公共卫生学位定义为主要授予理学学士、文学学士或其他公共卫生或公共卫生研究学士学位的学位，为学生提供公共卫生基础知识领域的强大通识背景，或至少在公共卫生的五个核心学科之一提供专门培训。然后，研究人员将目录中列出的学位内容与各机构的网站进行比较，以验证提供公共卫生课程。卡内基高等教育委员会的大学分类被用来评估提供本科公共卫生学位的机构的特点。
只有 2968 所美国高等教育机构中的 54 所提供了符合本科公共卫生学位课程定义的在线信息。
虽然公共卫生在引起人们兴趣方面可能是一个“热门”领域，但目前实际可用的经核实的本科课程数量相对较少。
