Linkage of public health education, research and practice via thesis work supervision

Background

Despite all efforts to harmonize public health training across Europe and success in administrative harmonization little progress has been made in harmonization of content. Public health research and practice seems to be even less coordinated; substantial differences persist in understanding of public health research and practice.

Methods

Using possibilities of master thesis supervision we aimed to compare public health research education and practice on local level on issue of global climate change and public health in Denmark and Slovak Republic. Two independent master thesis’s were conducted in University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark and Trnava University, Trnava, Slovak Republic  on knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of local level administrators and politicians on global climate change and human health supervised by a lecturer from University of Southern Denmark.

Results

Master thesis conduct and examination is very different still in Denmark and Slovak Republic despite the effort of harmonization.  As of research, use of common tools is possible, though complicated due to language differences. English was used as common language; the interview process and questionnaire employed were done in Danish and Slovak language.  The research discovered differences in understanding of potential human health risks of global climate change among local level politicians and administrators in two countries. These differences could be explained by different culture, history, tradition and public health understanding.

Conclusion

Conduct of same topic master thesis in different countries under different public health education systems might disclose gaps in harmonization of public health education. It also provides an excellent method to compare public health research and practice. Furthermore, it allows for collection of pilot data for larger international collaboration based research proposals.