The Need for an Increased Emphasis on Health and Aging in Public Health Education

Abstract

To assess the adequacy of training in public health and aging, all accredited schools of public health, as well as other departments offering a Masters in Public Health degree, were surveyed. Results suggest that the current scope and quantity of training in public health and aging is inadequate, except for in a few schools of public health. Barriers and facilitators, such as finances, were similar for all institutions. The lack of appropriately trained faculty was a problem, particularly for institutions with no health and aging courses. A relatively small number of public health graduate students take courses in health and aging. In contrast, there are thousands of public, nonprofit, and private agencies that could use public health professionals with such education. It is concluded that the modest scope of health and aging course work and the small number of students in those courses does not come close to meeting the need for knowledgeable public health and aging practitioners.