Unit Synopsis
Chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and heart disease are the leading causes of death and disability in Australia. From a public health perspective, the prevention of chronic disease is of fundamental importance and is a core skill set for any public health professional. This unit provides an introduction to public health and chronic disease. It will examine biological determinants, the influence of social factors on incidence and prevalence, and behavioural and environmental factors found to be conducive to the development and growth of chronic disease in Australia. Students will also explore individual and population level interventions aimed at reducing chronic disease.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Group Discussion | 20% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 30% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 92.86% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 17.72% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student feedback via SUTE
Add transcripts to recorded lectures.
Contact the Teaching Technology team to investigate if transcripts can be added to recorded Echo 360 lecture videos.
The Teaching Technology team confirmed Echo360 supports automated transcripts for the lecture videos in the unit. Transcripts were enabled for all recorded lectures in 2025.
Source: Unit coordinator reflection.
Continue providing live Zoom support sessions over the term to prepare students for upcoming written assessments.
Provide the same number of Zoom assessment support sessions in the unit in 2025.
The same number of Zoom assessment support sessions were delivered in 2025, maintaining consistent support for students in preparing for written assessments.
Source: Student feedback via SUTE
Adjust timing of Assessment 1 due date to ensure students receive feedback before submitting their final assignment
Bring forward the due date for Assessment 1 to ensure students receive feedback prior to submitting their final assignment.
In Progress
Source: Unit coordinator reflection
Maintain high-quality feedback processes
Continue refining guidance for casual markers to ensure consistency and depth of assessment feedback, building on the improvements observed in 2025.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe risk factors and aetiology for lifestyle related chronic diseases.
- Collaborate with others to explain the impact of chronic diseases in the context of individual and population health.
- Identify and analyse primary, secondary and tertiary prevention approaches for lifestyle related chronic diseases.
- Identify and analyse upstream determinants of health impacting on lifestyle related chronic diseases.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | |||
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| 5 - Team Work | • | • | • | • |
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | |||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | |||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Group Discussion | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | ||||||||