Ph.D. in Public Health
with a concentration in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences

Overview

The Ph.D. in public health is designed to prepare future public health leaders with the academic skills needed to enhance health in human populations. The program will focus on the preparation of individuals who will serve as researchers, teachers, public health administrators, clinicians, and industry employees competent to carry out the broad public health mission of the State of Connecticut.  The doctoral program will build specifically on the long-standing collaborations between the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Departments of Public Health and Mental Health and Addiction Services. The scientific knowledge of UConn faculty members in conjunction with practical expertise and data resources at the two state departments is an ideal foundation for doctoral training.

The evolution of health needs in Connecticut require public health interventions with a focus on the Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. Sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, tobacco use, over-indulgence in alcohol consumption, risky sexual practices and substance abuse are now among the nation's leading causes of morbidity and mortality, imposing a significant burden on our healthcare system. A public health approach to prevention, early recognition of risk factors, and disease management will help break the cycle of declining health and increasing costs and address major disparities in health among populations. Qualified public health workers are in short supply in Connecticut, and these shortages adversely affect the capacity of our workforce to respond to these emerging public health problems. The need for workforce development is reflected both in personnel shortages and in the small proportion of the overall workforce with doctoral training in public health particularly those skilled in the social and behavioral dimensions of health and illness.

Faculty resources are strong in the areas of HIV prevention, sexual risk behavior, community nutrition, women's health, behavioral risk factor intervention in primary health care, social epidemiology, psychiatric epidemiology, and tobacco control. The Social and Behavioral Health Sciences concentration within the doctoral program in public health will offer students specialized instruction in the theory and methods that emphasize the social, psychological and behavioral influences on health, illness and injury.

Curriculum

Each student’s academic program will be planned jointly by the student and the student’s major advisor based on academic and professional background and school requirements.  Students will be required to complete a minimum of 45 credits, anchored by a required seminar series (4 credits). There will be a core program of 8 credits in discipline-specific theory, and additional elective courses to complete the plan of study for Social and Behavioral Health (9 – 12 credits). Students will also be required to complete 9 credits in research methods and elective courses to provide students with the competency in advanced research methods, including hypothesis formulation, research design, quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis and computer application. After completion of course work, students will sit for a general examination, then write and defend a dissertation, which will fulfill 15 credits.

Resources

Currently there are offices allocated for the Center for Public Health & Health Policy on both the Storrs and Health Center campuses, and in East Hartford that provide adequate space and facilities for the Ph.D. program administration. These facilities include conference rooms, fax and photocopy machines, computer equipment, as well as teleconferencing equipment. Students will be housed in offices and labs provided by their major advisor.  Twenty-five faculty members from the Storrs and Health Center campuses have committed to participate in the Social and Behavioral Health concentration to advise, mentor, and provide resources and office space for doctoral students.