Global Health

Theories and Determinants of Health Behavior is one of the more difficult, but also most eye opening courses I have taken in Public Health during my time at Clemson. Through this course, I developed an understanding of human behavior, both individually and collectively, as it relates to preventative health care. This course built upon the baseline knowledge I had up to that point on healthcare systems and disease burden in populations, while introducing new concepts on the theories and determinants of health behavior as well as program implementation and analysis. For our final paper, we assessed 3 peer reviewed articles on a health topic of our choice. This project taught me to think critically about scientific research and understand that just because a study is published, does not mean that it is up to the mark. Reviewing public health literature also clearly explicates the beneficial impacts of understanding health from a multi-level standpoint in order to decrease burden on society.  

As a final paper for HLTH 4700, I chose to analyze the overall state of health affairs in Guinea, a French speaking country on the coast of Western Africa. Throughout the semester in Global Health, I wrote multiple short papers on various health topics relating to the country. This paper focused on presenting the most salient goals from Visions of Emerging Guinea. This set of guidelines includes objectives for the country to strive for better overall wellbeing, health, and prosperity by 2040. Over the course of this Global Health class, I developed an extensive understanding of human rights and ethics, international governance, and the socioeconomic determinants of health in relation to the developing world, and more concisely, Guinea.