Health, disease and death are phenomena that reflect a dynamic and sometimes dramatic interaction between man and various physical-chemical, psychological and social contexts and systems. The biology, the physical and social conditions of life, the mental constitution, the will and the behaviour of man are of vital importance for his attempts to fight disease and lack of health: health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Despite his good intentions not every attempt is successful, and the preservation and development of health becomes a lifelong challenge. 

In its contribution to meet this challenge, the Danish Master programme in Public Health is based on a multidisciplinary concept focussed on theory. It targets the development of the students' general knowledge and skills with respect to theory, systematic scientific documentation and factual health conditions with special emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention.

The objective is not to produce scientists, but instead professionals who can evaluate the quality and validity of the existing evidence on a scientific basis, and who can produce systematic evidence and through this contribute to optimize the planning and management, in particular in the health and social services. Some main topics thus are assessment of health risks; evaluation of the effect and economy of health intervention; organization; ethics; principles for the development and evaluation of comprehensive programmes and strategies. 

Please note that the present homepage in English for the Master programme in Public Health at the University of Aarhus is a limited edition, only providing the main ideas of the programme, contact details, abstracts of MPH dissertations and relevant links. Please do not hesitate to contact us for more details.