|
Health Promotion, Education,
and
Behavior The Department of Health Promotion, Education, and
Behavior (HPEB) at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of
Public Health has as its focus understanding how policy, environmental,
institutional, and individual actions can improve the public’s health. This
work, usually done in partnership with organizations and communities, uses
principles and methods from the social and behavioral sciences to promote
health in diverse settings across South Carolina, the US, and the globe.
As a public university, we are committed to a three-part mission of:
- Conducting timely interdisciplinary research that attracts extramural funding
and generates knowledge leading to improvements in public health practice and outcomes
- Attracting and training talented and motivated students who will work to
improve public health
- Providing research-linked service to professionals and communities to advance practice,
support the profession, and improve public health
An important motivation for our work is that, in many cases, scientists
and practitioners have identified which actions should and can be taken to
improve public health, but these actions are often either carried out
ineffectively or at too small a scale. For example, at least half of the
worldwide annual deaths of 11 million children under 5 years old can be
prevented by proven actions, but we lack sufficient understanding of how to
effectively mobilize sociopolitical processes, program design and
implementation, and community partnerships to enact these actions.
Behavioral and social research, training, and outreach aimed at acquiring,
sharing, and applying knowledge about effective mobilization and
coordination processes can therefore have large public health impacts.
|