Course Descriptions

3 Credits, Fall Semester

Prerequisite: None

Designed to provide you with a graduate‐level overview of the role of the social and behavioral sciences in understanding and addressing public health problems. Three general topics are covered. First, we examine how psychological, social, and environmental factors influence people’s health and wellbeing. Second, we explore factors that influence health behavior, including individual, social, and environmental/community influences. Third, we explore how understanding behavior and social/environmental influences on health informs public health approaches to improving health and preventing disease. The course prepares public health students to satisfy MPH competencies in social and behavioral sciences.

Format: Seated and Online

2 Credits, Spring Semester

Prerequisite: None

This course provides students with the foundations needed for public health professionals to work with other health professionals, along with key qualitative analysis and cultural competence skills. This course will also provide students with communication and conflict resolution skills.

This course satisfies some of the requirements for IPCP Digital Badges #1 and #2.

Format: Online

Prerequisite: None

Introduction to the basic principles, methods, and uses of epidemiology. This course is a master’s/doctoral level course designed to introduce epidemiology, its methods and its role in public health. A major portion of the course will be devoted to an overview of fundamental epidemiologic methods used in public health research and practice. The student will be familiarized with basic measures used in describing disease frequency in populations. Descriptive and analytic approaches to the study of disease will be explored, and a perspective on the role of epidemiologic methods in health services planning and evaluation will be provided. Problem solving exercises will be used to provide students with an opportunity to tabulate data and apply subject matter developed during lectures and in reading assignments. At the end of the course students should have a general understanding of the uses and limitations of epidemiologic inquiry. This understanding should provide the basis for applying epidemiologic concepts in work-related settings and in other courses in the public health curriculum.

Format: seated

Prerequisite: EEH 501

Provides information on advanced topics in epidemiologic methods. Emphasis is on various concepts related to the conduct of epidemiologic research. This course extends understanding of topics presented in EEH 501 and presents new topics in advanced epidemiologic methods.

Format: seated

The course is for students in the public health sciences who seek to develop hands-on introductory data analysis skills. Students will learn basic methods for data organization and management as well as basic skills in data exploration and presentation. The course includes emphasis on the application and interpretation of commonly used introductory statistical tests in the computer laboratory using SAS software. Topics include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing for means, proportions, elementary non-parametric techniques, t-tests, ANOVA, correlations, and linear regression.

Format: seated

Prerequisite: None

Intended for students with little or no background in the biological sciences and health professions. The course provides a broad overview of public health topics related to human health and disease focusing on disease etiology with particular emphasis on parasitic and microbial infections plus a review of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of selected major organ systems and associated diseases of public health importance.

Format: seated

Prerequisite: None

Introduces students to the historical development, structure, operation, and current and future directions of the major components of the American health care delivery and public health systems. It examines the ways in which health care services are organized and delivered, the influences that impact health care public policy decisions, factors that determine priorities in financing health care services and the relationship of health care costs to measurable benefits. The course enables students to assess the role of organized efforts to influence health policy formulation, and the contributions of medical technology, research findings, and societal values to the evolving U.S. health care delivery system. Class time is also devoted to exploring emerging policy, ethical and legal dilemmas resulting from medical and technological advances.

Format: seated and online

Prerequisite: None

Allows students to synthesize the knowledge and skills developed during the academic portion of their program in a practical application setting. Field training experiences vary depending upon the student’s interest and concentration area; experiences need to be approved by the MPH concentration director.

Learn more about MPH Field Training.

Prerequisite: None

Introductory course that explores the role of environmental factors in health with an emphasis on characterization, assessment, and control of environmental hazards. Topics include application of toxicologic and epidemiologic methods in assessing risk and setting exposure limits; the nature of and control of hazards associated with food, water, air, solid and liquid waste, occupation, and radiation; risk communication and management, environmental justice; and environmental laws. The course concludes by examining the impact of human activity, such as energy use and pollution, on the environment and how human-induced environmental change, in turn, impacts public health and that of the planet as a whole.

Format: seated and online

Prerequisite: EEH 500, EEH 501

Focuses on the theory and epidemiologic methods used in the epidemiologic study of infectious diseases. Emphasis is on the investigation of infectious disease outbreaks, evaluations of vaccine efficacy and effectiveness, and surveillance for infectious diseases of public health importance. The course includes an examination of the following infectious diseases, among others: HIV/AIDs, influenza, foodborne disease, sexually transmitted infections, dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Format: seated

Prerequisite: None

This course introduces students to public health issues from a practice-based perspective. Through presentations by public health leaders and practitioners, readings, group discussion and class activities, students practice integrating public concepts to better understand issues, and develop responses. Course content focuses on public health issues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Public Health Association (APHA), World Health Organization (WHO), local and state health departments or other organizations.

This course partially satisfies the requirements for IPCP Digital Badge #1.

Format: online

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor

The purpose of the culminating projects is for MPH students to integrate core public health knowledge and skills. It will take the form of a paper prepared during the concluding semester of the student’s program.

This course is a continuation of the introduction to the statistical analysis of data and statistical design of experiments with an emphasis on regression methods. The material covered includes study design and the role of regression methods, simple linear regression, multiple regression, generalized linear models with a focus on logistic and Poisson outcomes, interactions, confounding variables, other regression models as time allows and statistical software usage. Statistical techniques will be demonstrated using real-world examples. This is a hands-on course and students will be doing calculations and analyses, not just interpreting analyses done by others.

Instructor: Kristopher Attwood, PhD

Format: seated

Prerequisite: None

An explanation of basic principles and methods of measurement and their application in public health-related research. These include development and use of different types of instruments and scales for measuring behavioral and social constructs and biological characteristics; effects of measurement error; traditional and innovative methods of data collection; validity and reliability of measurement; response rates; misuse and misinterpretation of results. Students will apply the course content to a construct or characteristic chosen at the beginning of the course.

Prerequisite: None

Provides an overview of compelling public health problems among the world’s poor. Topics addressed will include infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis; the rise of tobacco-related disease; the role of water, hygiene, and sanitation in the prevention of disease; maternal and neonatal mortality; surveillance; and disaster response in the resource-poor setting. Students will gain practical experience in developing and presenting strategies for the implementation and evaluation of public health programs in the resource-poor setting.

Prerequisite or Corequisite: EEH 544

This course is a field training experience that serves as an elective course, and must be taken concurrent with or after a student takes the required EEH 544 field training course. This elective experience allows students to synthesize the knowledge and skills developed during the academic portion of their program in a practical application setting. Field training experiences vary depending upon the student’s interest and concentration area; experiences need to be approved by the MPH concentration director.

Prerequisite: None

Provides an in depth overview of the epidemiology on various cancer sites. Standard methodologies and analytic techniques used in cancer epidemiology will be covered. Attention given to critical review of known or suspected cancer risk factors.

Prerequisite: EEH 501

The pathophysiological basis of the major cardiovascular diseases is studied in relation to their clinical and epidemiological characteristics. Findings from major epidemiological studies and clinical trials are reviewed, and their implication for preventive measures are discussed.

Prerequisite: EEH 501

Discusses the major strengths and weakness of dietary assessment methods used in epidemiologic studies to investigate associations between diet and disease (e.g., 24-hour recalls, food records, food frequency questionnaires, nutritional biomarkers). An introduction to nutritional epidemiologic analysis will be presented and discussed including analysis of nutrients, foods and dietary patterns. Critical evaluation of nutritional epidemiologic literature will be practiced.

Prerequisite: EEH 573

Advanced course studying recent outbreaks of infectious disease. Each session will deal with an individual agent, review recent outbreaks, and discuss public health implications. Emphasis will be placed on epidemiologic principles, maneuvers by public health authorities to investigate and contain outbreaks, and relationships to the media. Topics and outbreaks will be selected with immediacy and relevance to public health.

Prerequisites: EEH 500, EEH 501

Provides epidemiology and environmental health students with a working knowledge of epidemiologic theory and practice applied to issues of environmental health. Case studies and specific environmental issues will be used to illustrate the application of epidemiologic theory to understand the role of environmental factors in the etiology of disease.

Prerequisite: EEH 501

This course will provide an overview of the current field of perinatal epidemiology, including study designs, exposure and outcome measurement, data resources, and methodological challenges most relevant to the field. Topics of interest will include pregnancy and delivery complications, maternal and fetal morbidities and mortality, and maternal and paternal adverse exposures.