MPH Occupational Health

The practice of occupational medicine covers a broad range of industries, jobs and hence ‘exposures’, against changing demography and culture within the workplace and wider society.  The identification, prevention and management of occupationally linked disorders can be challenging and these issues are discussed within this unit, illustrated by specific industry examples. Topics explore occupational disorders within the context of respiratory, musculoskeletal, skin, infectious diseases, occupational cancers and medically unexplained symptoms (including bio-psychosocial challenges). 

This unit aims to enable students to develop an understanding of the steps required to identify whether a disease is work-related or not and to critically evaluate the prevention and management of specific occupationally linked disorders including aspects of chronic disease management. 

The learning outcomes intend to:

• provide an understanding of the main occupational disorders in terms of epidemiology, investigation, diagnosis, management and prevention;
• enable students to critically examine the methods of identification of occupational disorders and their causes and to know when reporting of an occupationally related disorder is required;
• illustrate the role of early detection of occupational diseases in their prevention and management and the range of methods by which this might be achieved; and
• enable students to evaluate the role of risk assessment in the management and prevention of occupational disorders.

• Respiratory Disorders
• Occupational Dermatoses
• Musculoskeletal Disorders
• Occupational Cancers
• Aviation Medicine
• Occupational Infections
• Medically Unexplained Symptoms

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically evaluate occupationally related diseases by body system, and advise on their prevention and management
• demonstrate understanding of the range of industrial situations where disorders may occur, and be able to make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of these diseases;
• critically examine methodologies to classify and investigate occupational diseases;
• identify and evaluate risk factors for occupational diseases; and
• demonstrate understanding of the fundamental principles of risk assessments in relation to causal agents.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• critically examine knowledge limitations within occupational health, and identify the need to seek further (specialist) advice;
• reflect on the impact of a wide range of influences (such as cultural background and intellectual capacity) on the working environment;
• synthesise and evaluate the relevant medical and scientific literature relating to occupational health practice; and
• demonstrate the ability to solve problems and make decisions about occupational health issues.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• make an initial differential diagnosis and assessment of occupational diseases;
• apply the principles of assessing fitness to work for people with occupational diseases; and
• assess medically unexplained symptoms in the context of a workplace setting.

On completion, the student should be able to:

• independently gather, organise, and evaluate information from a variety of sources and develop an evidence-based approach to clinical practice;
• integrate knowledge of health, legislation, and business in the management of work-related issues affecting both individuals and groups of employees; and
• apply the clinical knowledge of occupational diseases to wider clinical practice.

• Agius R, Seaton A. Practical occupational medicine 2nd ed. London: Hodder Arnold 2005. ISBN 034075947X OR Tar-Ching A, Gardiner K, Harrington, JM. Occupational health (Pocket Consultants) 5th ed. Wiley-Blackwell 2006.  ISBN- 10 1405122218; ISBN-13 978-1405122214.
• Hobson J and Smedley J (Eds). Fitness for Work: the medical aspects 6th ed. OUP 2019. ISBN 9780198808657.
• Hendrick DJ, Burge PS, Beckett WS (Eds). Occupational disorders of the lung: recognition, management and prevention. London: WB Saunders 2002. ISBN 0702025070.
• Hunter D. Hunter’s diseases of occupations 9th ed. London: Arnold 2000.  ISBN 0340677503.
• Adams RM. Occupational skin disease 3rd ed. London:  WB Saunders & Co 1999.  ISBN 0721670377.
• Adams JC, Hamblen DL. Outline of Orthopaedics 13th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone 2001. ISBN 0443070245.
• Davis JR, Johnson R, Stepanek J and Fogarty JA (Eds). Fundamentals of aerospace medicine 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2008. ISBN 0781774667.
• Waddell G. Models of Disability. Royal Society of Medicine 2002. ISBN-10 1853155314; ISBN-13 9781853155314.

If you have any questions regarding the content of this unit, please contact the Course Unit Leader, Melanie Carder, via melanie.carder@manchester.ac.uk.

If you have any other queries, please contact the Programme Admin team via shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.