Preventive Care Concentration

Program director
Hildemar Dos Santos

The Doctorate of Public Health in Preventive Care program prepares high-level professionals for wellness and lifestyle-management intervention. Emphasis is on academic preparation, practical skills, and administrative abilities in developing, implementing, and evaluating programs and protocols designed to address a wide spectrum of health issues—particularly those dealing with chronic disease. These programs and protocols include physical and mental health-risk appraisal, nutritional assessment and recommendations, exercise testing and prescription, and smoking-cessation counseling. 

The program focuses on chronic disease prevention and offers a holistic approach to preventing diseases like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, hypertension and other lifestyle-related conditions. Graduates address the combined influences of nutrition, exercise, stress, smoking, and other lifestyle factors on the promotion of health and the prevention of disease. The training also includes an individual approach to lifestyle counseling based on the principles of health coaching. Graduates of this program are prepared to sit for the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching Certificate exam. 

This program is offered online (combination of synchronous and asynchronous coursework).

Program learning outcomes

By the end of the program, graduates should be able to:

  1. Design a professional practice to assist clients individually or in groups by applying lifestyle modification strategies.
  2. Apply preventive skills to design a health intervention that addresses lifestyle-related diseases (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease).
  3. Develop strategies for weight management, including health-risk assessments, adequate diet, and exercise guidance.
  4. Develop smoking cessation strategies for communities and individuals.
  5. Design and advocate for the integration of health coaching within healthcare practices.

Educational effectiveness indicators

  • Applied project presentation.
  • Publishable paper.
  • Doctoral project presentation.

See entrance requirements for all DrPH degrees.

Corequisites

In addition to standard Dr.P.H. corequisites, the preventive care concentration requires the following courses in addition to units required for the degree.  It is recommended these courses be taken early in the program.

HPRO 526 Lifestyle Diseases and Risk Reduction
HPRO 573 Exercise Physiology I

Degree requirements

Critical analysis
PHCJ 600Overview of Research Methodologies3
HPRO 604Research Seminar2
PHCJ 615Intermediate Biostatistics3
STAT 568Data Analysis3
Leadership, management, and governance
PHCJ 617Building Healthy Systems3
PHCJ 619Organizational Management & Leadership3
Education and workforce development
PHCJ 614Pedagogy: The Art and Science of Teaching2
Policy, advocacy, and programs
PHCJ 609Building Healthy Individuals3
PHCJ 610Building Healthy Communities3
Doctoral Seminar
PHCJ 608ADoctoral Seminar for Public Health1
PHCJ 608BDoctoral Seminar for Public Health1
Preventive care major
HPRO 527Obesity and Disordered Eating3
HPRO 529Preventive and Therapeutic Interventions in Chronic Disease3
HPRO 580Preventive Care Management3
HPRO 644Health and Wellness Coaching3
NUTR 656Nutritional Applications in Lifestyle Intervention3
Electives0-6
Select the recommendation below or discuss alternate options with your advisor:
HPRO 542Wellness Coaching II (for students seeking eligibility for NBHWC certification)3
Religion
RELE 534Ethical Issues in Public Health3
RELR 540Wholeness and Health3
RELT 540World Religions and Human Health3
Integrated learning experience
PHCJ 698Doctoral Project4-8
Total Units58-68

Applied practice experience

Practicum units are in addition to the minimum didactic units required for the degree
PHCJ 795Applied Practice2
1

Fulfills service learning requirement

2

Requires multiple registrations to fulfill total unit requirement