LAW7 836 - Public Health Law and Chronic Disease
Chronic diseases account for seven out of ten deaths in the United States. Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke), cancer, and diabetes are among the most prevalent, costly, and preventable of all health problems. Traditional public health law has its roots and focus on infectious disease, but this is changing. In this course we will explore how law can be used as a method to prevent and control chronic disease. We will examine the legal frameworks that have developed to work with public health systems and consider structural changes that could be made to those frameworks to deal better with chronic disease. We will study specific issues such as prevention of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, asthma, obesity, cancer, or complications of diabetes and health promotion, such as reducing tobacco use, increasing physical activity, and improving nutrition.
Credits: 3