Professorship of Public Health and Prevention, School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62, Munich, 80992, Germany.
Department of Public Health and Healthcare Management, Faculty of Medicine, Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, 46000, Ukraine.
BMC Med Educ. 2024 Aug 13;24(1):872. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05855-8.
Well-trained public health professionals are key to addressing both global and local public health challenges of the twenty-first century. Though availability of programs has increased, the population health science (PHS) and public health (PH) higher education landscape in Germany remains scattered. To date, no comprehensive overview of programs exists.
This study aimed to map PHS and PH master's and structured doctoral programs in Germany, including selected program characteristics, curricula and target competencies.
We conducted a systematic mapping of PHS and PH programs in Germany following a prospectively registered protocol ( https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KTCBA ). Relevant master's and doctoral programs were identified by two study authors independently searching a comprehensive higher education database, which was, for doctoral programs, supplemented with a google search. For PHS programs, general characteristics were mapped and for the subset of PH programs, in-depth characteristics were extracted.
Overall, 75 master's and 18 structured doctoral PHS programs were included. Of these, 23 master's and 8 doctoral programs focused specifically on PH. The majority of PHS master's programs awarded a Master of Science degree (55 out of 75 programs). The PH master's program curricula offered various courses, allowing for different specializations. Courses on topics like public health, epidemiology, health systems (research) and research methods were common for the majority of the master's programs, while courses on physical activity, behavioral science, nutrition, and mental health were offered less frequently. Structured PH doctoral programs were mainly offered by medical faculties (6 out of 8 programs) and awarded a doctorate of philosophy (Ph.D.) (6 out of 8 programs). PH doctoral programs were very heterogeneous regarding curricula, entry, and publication requirements. There was a broad geographical distribution of programs across Germany, with educational clusters in Munich, Berlin, Bielefeld and Düsseldorf.
Germany offers a diverse landscape of PHS and PH master's programs, but only few structured doctoral programs. The variety of mandatory courses and competencies in these programs reflect Germany's higher education system's answer to the evolving demands of the PH sector. This review may aid in advancing PH education both in Germany and globally.
在应对 21 世纪全球和地方公共卫生挑战方面，训练有素的公共卫生专业人员是关键。尽管项目的数量有所增加，但德国的人口健康科学（PHS）和公共卫生（PH）高等教育领域仍然分散。迄今为止，还没有关于这些项目的综合概述。
本研究旨在绘制德国 PHS 和 PH 硕士和结构化博士课程图，包括选定的课程特征、课程和目标能力。
我们按照预先注册的方案（https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KTCBA）对德国的 PHS 和 PH 课程进行了系统的绘制。两位研究作者独立搜索了一个综合高等教育数据库，以确定相关的硕士和博士课程，为博士课程补充了谷歌搜索。对于 PHS 课程，我们绘制了一般特征，对于 PH 课程的子集，我们提取了深入的特征。
总共包括 75 个硕士和 18 个结构化博士 PHS 课程。其中，23 个硕士和 8 个博士课程专门针对 PH。大多数 PHS 硕士课程授予理学硕士学位（75 个课程中的 55 个）。PH 硕士课程的课程提供了各种课程，允许不同的专业。大多数硕士课程都提供了公共卫生、流行病学、卫生系统（研究）和研究方法等主题的课程，而体育活动、行为科学、营养和心理健康方面的课程则较少开设。结构化 PH 博士课程主要由医学系提供（8 个课程中的 6 个），并授予哲学博士（Ph.D.）学位（8 个课程中的 6 个）。PH 博士课程在课程、入学和出版要求方面非常多样化。课程在德国各地广泛分布，慕尼黑、柏林、比勒费尔德和杜塞尔多夫是教育集群。
德国提供了多样化的 PHS 和 PH 硕士课程，但只有少数结构化博士课程。这些课程中必修课程和能力的多样性反映了德国高等教育系统对 PH 部门不断变化的需求的回应。本综述可能有助于在德国和全球范围内推进 PH 教育。
