Course Descriptions

3 Credits, Fall Semester

Prerequisite: None

The course will provide students with an understanding of and appreciation for population approaches to improving the health of our nation and the world, as well as knowledge of various career paths in public health. Course content includes: public health perspectives on health, wellness, illness, and population well-being; key influences on the health and well being of individuals and populations; assessing public health problems from a population health perspective; using the five core components of public health to address health problems; effectively utilizing health information to address public health issues; and career paths in public health and the training/expertise required to pursue them. Students will engage in critical assessment of historical and current public health events, and creative application of their foundational knowledge to new public health problems. The course is particularly applicable to students preparing to pursue a health-related career and to students in health professions programs desiring a knowledge of public health approaches.

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 to inform faculty and MS and PhD students in EEH about new and continuing areas of research and public policy issues in public health and epidemiology.  Invited speakers will include EEH and Roswell Park faculty, graduate students, faculty from other departments at the University at Buffalo, and nationally and internationally recognized experts in public health and epidemiology from outside the University.

Prerequisite: None

Through the thesis students will design, implement, complete and report on significant and original, independent epidemiologic research. Students will conduct their research under the supervision of their major professor and a thesis committee.

Instructor: Staff

Students are required to sign up for 1 credit in the fall and spring semesters of the second (MS) and third (PhD) year of their program of study. MS and PhD students are required to sign up for 0 credits in all other semesters in the program.

Prerequisites: None

The goal of this course is to showcase current student research within the department and to provide a venue for constructive feedback on ongoing work in the department. EEH650 gives an opportunity for EEH students to present new hypotheses, ongoing research and manuscripts in development. Required for MS and PhD students (MPH students and postdoctoral fellows are welcome to participate).

Additionally, several sessions each semester will be devoted to practical skill development and discussions about career development. Topics may vary from year to year, but are likely to include skills like preparing effective presentations, conducting literature reviews, ethics in publishing, mock interviews, registering study protocols, (re)writing articles for different audiences, and professional development discussions on developing a scholarly/research career, building strong support networks, navigating large team dynamics, physical and mental self-care, and growing within institutions.

Corequisite: Students must enroll in STA 527 LEC and STA 527 REC in the same term.

This course is designed for students concerned with medical data. The material covered includes: the design of clinical trials and epidemiological studies; data collection; summarizing and presenting data; probability; standard error; confidence intervals and significance tests; techniques of data analysis including multifactorial methods and the choice of statistical methods; problems of medical measurement and diagnosis; and vital statistics and calculation of sample size. The design and analysis of medical research studies will be illustrated. MINITAB is used to perform some data analysis. Descriptive statistics, probability distributions, estimation, tests of hypothesis, categorical data, regression model, analysis of variance, nonparametric methods, and others will be discussed as time permits.

Instructor: Kuhlmann

Format: seated and online

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 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 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: 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.

Prerequisite: None

Through the thesis students will design, implement, complete and report on significant and original, independent epidemiologic research. Students will conduct their research under the supervision of their major professor and a thesis committee.

Instructor: Staff

3 Credits, Spring Semester

Since the completion of the human genome project, there is a burgeoning field of new applications for statistics involving high throughput experiments designed to gather large amounts of information on biological systems. This course is focused on discussing the wide array of approaches and technologies implemented to gather this information and the statistical issues involved from initial data processing steps to end stage research objectives. Specifically, time permitting, the technologies we will examine include two dimensional protein gel electrophoresis, protein mass spectrometry, and several flavors of microarray experiments. We will use the text “Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Solutions Using R and Bioconductor.” Much of the work for the course will involve analyzing data sets from class and from the text using the R language.