Key Courses - MPH in Epidemiology

Prerequisites: BIOS 500 or permission of instructor. For EPI students Only taken in the spring semester of their first year. The course covers fundamental concepts in applied simple and multiple linear regression analyses, one- and two-way analysis of variance and binary logistic regression. Concepts in survival analysis will also be introduced. Students will learn when and how to apply these methods. The emphasis will be on practical data analysis skills rather than statistical theory; however, wherever possible and feasible, mathematical details of regression models will be presented. In-class data analysis examples will employ SAS and R software. Homework assignments, quizzes and exams will include data analyses using SAS and R, as well as other questions designed to reinforce concepts and assess foundational competencies. Teaching assistant office hours will consist of organized review/recitation sessions, and will also include opportunities for student questions.

Prerequisite/concurrent: BIOS 500. Emphasizes the concepts and premises of the science of epidemiology. Methods of hypothesis formulation and evaluation are stressed. Techniques for quantifying the amount of disease (or other health indicator) in populations are introduced, followed by discussion of epidemiologic study designs useful for identifying etiologic factors and other relevant correlates of disease. Students gain facility with the calculation of basic epidemiologic measures of frequency, association, and impact. The concepts of random variability, bias, and effect modification are examined in detail. The use of stratified analysis, including Mantel-Haenszel techniques, is explored. Inferences from study results are discussed. Students are required to analyze and critique studies from the current medical and scientific literature.

Provides an introduction to the SAS and R programming environments and instructs students in the techniques needed to create, organize, and edit data into a final dataset that is ready for epidemiologic analysis.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with practical skills and knowledge for designing, starting and implementing epidemiologic studies in research and practice.

Prerequisites EPI 530, BIOS 500, EPI 534 and BIOS 591P or BIOS 501 concurrent. This course develops epidemiologic concepts introduced in EPI 530: Epidemiologic Methods I, providing a more advanced discussion of issues related to causality, bias, study design, interaction, effect modification and mediation. It will also provide opportunities for the application of these examples via analysis of epidemiologic data.

Prerequisites: EPI 530, 533/534, 539/540/545, BIOS 500, and 591P. Covers concepts, methods, and application of key mathematical modeling approaches used to evaluate multivariable data from epidemiologic studies: logistic regression, Cox regression, collinearity, modeling strategy for determining a best model, goodness of fit, and ROC curves. The course also teaches a broader philosophy and approach for constructing the appropriate models for answering the question under study.

An Applied Practice Experience (APE) is a unique opportunity that enables students to apply practical skills and knowledge learned through coursework to a professional public health setting that complements the student's interests and career goals. The APE must be supervised by a Field Supervisor and requires approval from an APE Advisor designated by the student's academic department at RSPH.

This course provides an opportunity for students to apply the epidemiologic and biostatistical skills that they obtained during their coursework to real-world public health data. Students are presented a problem or research question from a public health organization along with available data that can be used to address the question(s) at hand. The class will be divided into groups of five, with each group working on a distinct, but related question that is relevant for the partnering organization. Students conduct background research to understand the scope and context of the question(s) and conduct relevant analyses. The research findings are presented in a variety of formats. Throughout this course, students continue to develop their professional skills through effective teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, and journal article discussions.

Prerequisite: EPI 504 or EPI 530 and BIOS 500. This course presents issues in women of being female but not pathologies of reproduction. These include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and breast and cervical cancer. In addition, health problems related to the physiological and psychological aspects of being female are addressed. These include depression, premenstrual syndrome, addictive behavior, and violence perpetrated by and against women.

This course provides practical training in the investigation, control, and prevention of infectious diseases. Historic and current case studies will be used to teach skills for identifying infectious disease outbreaks, conducting epidemiologic analyses to describe causal factors and affected populations, and implementing public health control measures in collaboration with stakeholders. This course is cross-listed with GH517.

Prerequisite/concurrent: EPI 530. The course surveys selected chronic disease topics to illustrate applications of epidemiologic concepts. The goal of this course is to provide an overview of the descriptive epidemiology, risk factors and preventive strategies for major chronic diseases, and use chronic disease epidemiology to foster the ability to critically read and appraise the epidemiologic literature.

Prerequisite: EPI 530 or EPI 504. This course provides an overview of cardiovascular pathophysiology and applies epidemiology methods to published research studies in the cardiovascular prevention space. The course will foster students' abilities to understand and critically evaluate cardiovascular epidemiology and covers related topics involving social dterminants, disparities, and genetic/molecular mechanisms.

Prerequisites: EPI 530 and BIOS 500 or instructor permission. Explores the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic in the US through a detailed examination of the major types of epidemiologic studies that have led to our current understanding of the epidemic. Students gain an understanding of important issues in the epidemiology of HIV in the US, and, as importantly, increase their understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various epidemiologic study designs and the interpretation of data from such studies.

Prerequisite/Concurrent: EPI 504 or EPI 530. This course will introduce students to applications of epidemiologic methods and approaches to evaluating the use of human genetic discoveries in the practice of medicine and public health in the 21st century. With the completion of the human genome project, the epidemiologic approach is now urgently needed to assess the prevalence of genetic variation in the population, to characterize the burden of disease associated with genetic variation and with gene- environment interaction, and to evaluate the impact of genetic tests in reducing morbidity and mortality. At the end of the course, participants should be able to identify types of information needed to translate genetic discoveries into medicine and public health and be able to review and evaluate such information in the scientific literature. The course is designed for public health students interested in the intersection of epidemiology, genetics, preventive medicine, and health policy.

The focus of this course is on the epidemiology of obesity, its determinants, and consequences, and population-based methods for investigating obesity. The course will entail a survey of obesity research, including: (1) the biology and physiology of adiposity; (2) behavioral, environmental, social, and genetic determinants of obesity; and (3) the health consequences of obesity. Methodologic concepts in the practice of research, including those related to measurement, modeling and interpretation, will be emphasized in this course.

Prerequisites: EPI 530 or instructor permission. This course introduces the student to the epidemiology of aging populations. Aging and health are characteristics of both individuals and populations. Students will be introduced to the distribution of and trends in chronic disease morbidity, functional disability, and mortality, with a focus on methods for epidemiologic research in aging populations.

Prerequisites: EPI 530, EPI 540, EPI 534, and experience using R. The course will provide an overview of the history, concepts and analytical methods that specifically apply to the study of infectious diseases. Topics covered include measures of frequency, burden and natural history; immune-epidemiology; vaccine epidemiology; methods for emerging infectious diseases; fundamentals of modeling and the application of classic epi methods to infectious diseases. This is a required course for the Infectious Disease Epidemiology certificate program.

Pre-requisites: EPI 504 or 530 or instructor permission. The primary objective of this course is for the student to gain basic knowledge about cancer and issues and methodologies relevant to investigating cancer etiology, prevention, and control using epidemiologic methods. Secondary objectives are for the student to gain experiences in critiquing published cancer epidemiology articles and conducting a literature review and writing a summary of a topic in cancer epidemiology.

Pre-requisites: EPI 504 or EPI 530. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease. Psychosocial Epidemiology is growing subfield of Epidemiology that examines how psychological and social factors influence physical health and disease in human populations. Because the field of Psychosocial Epidemiology is heavily influenced by observational data, the concepts of confounding, mediation and effect modification

will be emphasized throughout the course. Class sessions will consist of presentations by the professor; interactive discussions about key topics, assigned readings and in-class assignments; viewing and discussion of educational DVDs; and student presentations.

Various topics by Epi faculty. Check OPUS/Atlas for current topics and descriptions.

Pre-requisites: EPI 530, EPI 533 or instructor permission. Experience with SAS preferred. This course is designed for students interested in studies of diet and health outcomes. The course provides an overview of methods for estimating dietary intakes. Issues related to the collection, processing, analysis and manipulation of dietary data in relation to foods dietary patterns, nutrients, and dietary supplements will also be addressed. Students will also have theopportunity to apply methods for manipulating dietary data including understanding variation in diet, comparing methods for energy adjustment, manipulating raw data to create food grouping variables for dietary pattern analysis and calculating a dietary score.

Pre-requisites: EPI 504 or EPI 530. This course will focus on social factors influencing health and disease in human populations. With an emphasis on theory, methods, and evidence, several topics of contemporary interest to public health research will be covered: (1) social status; (2) race, ethnicity and racism; (3) discrimination; (4) sex and gender; (5) police brutality; (6) health literacy; (7) immigration/acculturation/assimilation; (8) religion; (9) geography and place; (10) neighborhood; (11) social support; (12) stress; (13) love/compassion. This is a breadth course intended to provide an overview of the field of social epidemiology.

This course reviews the epidemiology of human reproductive function and the methodologic issues involved in studying reproduction. Topics include male and female infertility, pregnancy loss, the impact of infectious diseases on reproduction, contraceptive efficacy, unintended pregnancy, and environmental and occupational impacts on reproduction. Prerequisite: EPI 504 or EPI 530.