The purpose of the course is to provide the students with fundamental information about disease prevention strategies. At the end of the course, the students should know and understand the critical role played by prevention strategies in the management of major chronic diseases as well as be able to translate theoretical knowledge into clinical practice. In particular, students should be able to apply autonomously the acquired knowledge and to discuss appropriately problems related to health promotion and disease prevention
Provide the cognitive and methodological elements to conform professional behavior to the technical principles of hygiene. At the end of the course, the student will have to know the epidemiological methodology, the epidemiology of infectious and non-infectious diseases, prevention techniques, notions of health organization and elements of health management.
In particular, he will be able to:
1. Know the fundamental principles of epidemiology and its methodologies, measurements, study designs, biases, confounding and effect modifiers.
2. Interpret the results of descriptive epidemiology and develop hypotheses on possible risk factors of a disease
3. Organize, summarize and present qualitative and quantitative data

what is prescribed by the Academic Regulations for the third year

Health promotion and disease prevention
Epidemiology of main causes of morbidity and mortality
Levels and targets of prevention strategies
Prevention of main chronic diseases
Demography and Health Statistics: incidence and prevalence, crude, specific, standardized rates, mortality rates, lethality. Risk Assessment: Absolute, Relative, Attributable Risk, Estimated Relative Risk; causality and confounding factors. Epidemiological studies: Descriptive epidemiology. Ecological studies. Analytical epidemiology: Cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies. Experimental epidemiology. Evidence-based medicine: Measurements in EBM, meta-analysis.
Identify the "diseases" of a population
measure its frequency
study the causes
develop prevention systems
intervene on the population
measure the effect of interventions

Manuale di epidemiologia per ia sanità pubblica.
Faggiano F, Donato F, Barbone F. Centro Scientifico Editore. 2005.
Slides delle lezioni
Barbuti S., et al. Igiene medicina preventiva Sanità pubblica, Edises editore, 2022
Lesson materials

1-Concepts of health and disease
2-Communicable and non-communicable diseases
3-Health promotion and disease prevention
4-Epidemiology of the main causes of morbidity and mortality
5-Levels of preventive strategies: from primordial to quaternary prevention
6-Target of preventive strategies: high risk groups versus general population
7-Modifiable risk factors and lifestyles
8-Prevention of the main non-communicable chronic diseases (cardiovascular, tumoral, respiratory, neurocognitive, diabetes)
9- Health Sciences: Hygiene, Preventive Medicine, Public Health
10- Communication for the protection and promotion of health
11-Disease prevention and health promotion at international and national level
12-Basics of health economics
13- Healthcare planning and management
14-Principles of demography and health statistics aimed at epidemiology
15-Principles of epidemiological methodology
16-Principles of epidemiology of infectious diseases
17-Principles of epidemiology of chronic-degenerative diseases and disability
18-Methodologies for prevention and health promotion
19- The prevention of infectious diseases
20- The prevention of chronic-degenerative diseases and disability
21- Epidemiology and prevention of the main infectious diseases
22-Epidemiology and prevention of the main chronic-degenerative diseases
23- Health promotion and disease prevention in the different stages of life
24- Lifestyles and health
25-Food hygiene
26-Environment and health

Lectures accompanied by illustrative material and scientific literature loaded in Teams

In-depth web-based information on the main international public health institutions

The achievement of the course objectives will be assessed through 3 written tests relating to the 3 modules with 12 open-ended questions. The time available is 2 hours. This is followed by an oral discussion of the results.
The exam score derives from a weighted average according to the credits of the modules. The range of possible grades goes from 18/30 to 30/30 with honors. To pass the integrated exam, the score of each module must be greater than or equal to 18. To pass the exam of each module, students must answer at least 60% of the questions. Excellent (30 -30 cum laude): excellent knowledge of the topics, excellent language skills, excellent analytical skills; the student is able to brilliantly apply theoretical knowledge to concrete cases.
Very good (27 -29): good knowledge of the topics, remarkable language skills, good analytical skills; the student is able to correctly apply theoretical knowledge to concrete cases.
Good (24-26): good knowledge of the main topics, good command of the language; the student shows an adequate ability to apply theoretical knowledge to concrete cases.
Satisfactory (21-23): the student does not show full mastery of the main topics of the teaching, even if he/she possesses the fundamental knowledge; however, he shows satisfactory language skills and sufficient ability to apply theoretical knowledge to concrete cases.
Sufficient (18-20): minimal knowledge of the main teaching topics and technical language, limited ability to adequately apply theoretical knowledge to concrete cases.
Insufficient (<18): the student does not have an acceptable knowledge of the contents of the different topics of the program.

This course explores topics closely related to one or more goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs)