Several courses covering special topics are listed below under the number PUBH-EPI 794. Please check the Master Schedule of Classes carefully when registering to be certain that you are choosing the correct section for the topic of interest.
PUBH-EPI 510 Introduction to Epidemiology (Undergraduate)
Winter and Spring Quarters
Faculty: Harris
This course provides an introduction to many important topics in epidemiology, including: • the evolution of the discipline; • causal concepts in the natural history of disease; • critical features of infectious and chronic diseases; • elements of screening for disease; • the international classification of disease system; • basic measures used in epidemiology; • the importance of age adjustment of mortality and morbidity data; • experimental design of epidemiologic investigations; • consideration of random error and systematic bias; • calculation and interpretation of confidence intervals and p values; • discussion of confounding and interaction; • criteria for evaluation of cause and effect relationships; • survival analysis and life tables; • disease clusters; • and epidemics. Students are expected to gain a foundation for the application of epidemiologic methods for exploration of the causes and conditions that influence the origin, propagation, mitigation, and prevention of diseases that afflict the human population.
PUBH-EPI 700S Epidemiology for Experienced Health Professionals
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Schwartzbaum
This course focuses on the use of epidemiologic concepts and methods to understand and control infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health hazards and accidents. It stresses practical rather than theoretical application of these principles. Students will learn about basic study designs and inferences that can be made from each. Students will be able to explain the function of disease screening programs and the trade off between sensitivity and specificity. By the end of the course students will be able to use epidemiology to understand causal associations between exposure and disease and identify the health needs of populations. After taking this course, students will be able to describe the major epidemiologic aspects of infectious and chronic disease. Most important, students will become a sophisticated interpreter of epidemiologic literature.
PUBH-EPI 705: Design and Implementation of Health Surveys
Winter Quarter
Faculty: Anderson
This course covers the fundamentals of survey methodology with an emphasis on the practical skills necessary to design and conduct sample surveys in public health. Students gain perspective on the types of biases and errors that arise in survey research, and learn how to minimize their effect. Major topics covered are sample selection, methods of survey administration, questionnaire design and evaluation, and survey operations. Formal lectures are supplemented with in-class activities. Student grades are determined by performance on homework assignments, exams and a grant proposal that involves the design of a health survey.
PUBH-EPI 710: Principles of Epidemiology
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Schwartzbaum and Fisher
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to epidemiological study methods and how epidemiologists decide that a particular exposure causes a specific disease. By the time students finish the course they will know how to compare the health status of populations, the basic study designs that epidemiologists use and how epidemiologists deal with problems resulting from systematic and random error. Students will also learn about screening programs and how screening the wrong population can produce false positive results. Finally, students will be given an overview of some of the issues related to identifying genetic markers of disease risk.
PUBH-EPI 711: Epidemiology I
Winter and Spring Quarters
Faculty: Wilkins
Epidemiology I focuses on epidemiologic methods, primarily methods used in cohort studies, case-control studies and clinical trials. With respect to cohort studies, topics covered include cohort identification, ascertainment of exposure status, follow-up of cohort members, measuring outcomes, sources of bias and interpretational issues. Case-control topics include issues around retrospective exposure assessment, defining cases and controls, control of confounding, and sources of bias/systematic error. Topics around randomized trials include randomization procedures, defining and assembling treatment arms, selecting study subjects and approaches to data collection. Other topics covered in this course include surveillance and ecologic studies. Pros and cons of all study designs will be discussed, in part through readings of published papers. Fundamentals of data analysis will also be addressed, but a detailed discussion of that material is left to Epi II.
PUBH-EPI 712: Epidemiology II
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Murray
This course provides instruction and hands-on experience in the analysis and interpretation of data from epidemiologic studies. The course is required for all M.P.H. and Ph.D. students in Epidemiology. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: 1) describe the research questions that can be addressed by case-control and cohort studies; 2) describe the rationale underlying the major techniques used to analyze data from case-control and cohort studies; 3) explain the conditions under which these methods are appropriate and their relative advantages and disadvantages; 4) explain how interactions, confounders and nonlinear relationships among variables are addressed with these analysis alternatives; 5) interpret SAS output from epidemiologic studies employing these designs and analysis methods; 6) use the results from these analyses to help interpret the findings from such studies.
PUBH-EPI 713: Epidemiology in Environmental Health
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Wilkins
Epidemiology in Environmental Health is designed to familiarize students with important aspects of human responses to environmental/occupational exposures. The course addresses the application of epidemiologic methods to studies of environmental health hazards, both ambient and occupational in origin. After considering the “Natural History of Environmental Pollutants” model, course content focuses on ecologic studies. Several class sessions are devoted to exposure assessment, the Achilles heel of environmental epidemiology. Other topics of interest include biomarkers (of disease and exposure), interaction stemming from multiple simultaneous exposures, SMRs/PMRs and the interface between epidemiology and toxicology. A recurrent theme is how to deal from a study design point of view with the unique strengths and weaknesses of epidemiologic methods applied to environmental/occupational health investigations. Current literature is reviewed and major issues in the field are discussed.
PUBH-EPI 714: Epidemiology of Injury
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Comstock
Injuries have been the leading killer of children and adolescents in the United States for decades and are among the leading causes of death and disability for all age groups. Injuries occur in predictable patterns and are often preventable; however, effective prevention strategies must be built upon a sound epidemiologic foundation of injury rates, patterns of injury, and risk factors for injury. This course introduces injury epidemiology through an exploration of epidemiologic knowledge and prevention strategies. After establishing the historical context and public health importance of injury epidemiology, methodological issues will be discussed. Once students have acquired a working knowledge of injury epidemiology research skills, the course will review the current state of knowledge and prevention in an array of important injury topics.
PUBH-EPI 715: Methods of Clinical Investigation
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Harris
Randomized clinical trials are comparative studies in which individuals are randomized to study conditions and observed to assess the impact of an intervention. This course presents basic principles and procedures in the design, conduct, and analysis of randomized clinical trials. Topics will include: (1) historical perspectives of clinical trials, (2) development of hypotheses, objectives, and specific aims, definition of the study population, and eligibility criteria of participants, (3) features of study designs, the randomization process, matching, and blinding, (4) sample size calculations, (5) development of measurement instruments, (6) recruitment strategies, (7) prospective monitoring of participants and data collection, monitoring and adjudication of response variables, (8) assessment of adverse events, (9) assessment of adherence (10) survival and recurrence risk analysis, life tables, stratified analysis, and Cox regression analysis, (11) measurement of random error, confounding, interaction, and bias, (12) closeout and reporting of results, (13) multi-center trials, meta-analysis, and (14) criteria for evaluation of cause and effect relationships.
PUBH-EPI 793: Doctoral Seminar in Epidemiology
Autumn, Winter, Spring Quarters
Faculty: Schwartzbaum
The purpose of this course is to give the students the opportunity to actively critique talks and articles on epidemiology. Students will attend seminars on topics related to epidemiology given in the College of Public Health and later meet to discuss and critique them. During weeks when there are no seminars, students will discuss recent epidemiological articles. This course is designed to give students the chance to practice what they learned in previous epidemiology courses with the ultimate goal of teaching them to successfully present their own research in oral and written form.
PUBH-EPI 794: Psychiatric Epidemiology
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Pajer
This course is an introduction to the field of psychiatric epidemiology. Clinical aspects of adult and child psychopathology serve as the basis for teaching students about the design, instrumentation and data analytic strategies used to study these populations. Classic studies are used to demonstrate key features of psychiatric epidemiologic theory. The course is intended for master’s and doctoral degree students in public health, nursing or related fields who are interested in learning how to conduct mental health research. Students will be graded on the basis of class discussion, homework, and two projects. Note: Background work in basic statistics and general epidemiology are necessary.
PUBH-EPI 794: Biological Basis of Disease
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Harris
This course chronicles the epidemiologic evidence supporting the role of various biological mechanisms (e.g., inflammation, lipid peroxidation, mutagenesis, infection) in the pathogenesis of major chronic diseases including arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, neurodegenerative disease and other life-threatening and debilitating conditions. Preventive and therapeutic effects of natural and pharmaceutical agents with chemopreventive potential for disease control are discussed. Methods of research include cohort studies, case-control studies, clinical trials, and molecular epidemiology. A basic framework is developed for epidemiologic investigation of disease pathogenesis. The course reflects the impact of new discoveries in molecular biology and epidemiology on the future of public health and medicine.
PUBH-EPI 794: Epidemiology of Tuberculosis
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Wang
Tuberculosis is a major public health concern world-wide. This course is designed for students interested in general overview of tuberculosis epidemiology and pathogenesis. The course will include description of TB distribution in the United States and world-wide, relative risk factors for developing tuberculosis, and review of the clinical features of tuberculosis including pathogenesis, transmission, host immune response, laboratory diagnosis, and treatment. In addition, the course will cover basic background and understanding of tuberculosis epidemiology, key concepts and terminology, relating to tuberculosis studies and how new epidemiological tools and related tuberculosis research can be applied to tuberculosis control efforts. No prerequisite courses.
PUBH-EPI 803S: Health Data: Sources and Uses
Summer Quarter
Faculty: Ferketich
The focus of this class is on the many sources of data that officials use in public health practice, including those used to estimate disease incidence, monitor the health of individuals in the United States, as well as births and deaths. Students will read examples of how health statistics are used to shape public policy. Half of the course involves formal lectures and group discussions, while the remaining time is spent in the computer lab where students download data sources and perform analyses to answer health-related questions. Final grades are based on homework assignments, a final exam, and a final project that involves analyzing data from a large health survey to answer a question that the student generates.
PUBH-EPI 810: Epidemiologic Methods
Winter Quarter
Faculty: Schwartzbaum
The purpose of this class is to read about and discuss selected methodological topics in depth. Although the topics change from year to year in the past we have discussed causal modeling, selection bias and critiques of hypothesis testing and p-values. We look at old topics from new angles and focus on critical thinking. This class involves intense participation and students come prepared for interesting and challenging discussions. At the end of the quarter students present talks on a methodological topic of their own.
PUBH-EPI 814: Chronic Disease Epidemiology
Winter Quarter
Faculty: Harris
This course will give the student current information on the etiology, pathogenesis, and risk factors of common chronic diseases through a series of lectures coupled with student presentations and discussion of the current literature. Topics will include basic methods in epidemiology; the epidemiology of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and neurodegenerative conditions. Student presentations will focus upon controversial topics in the epidemiology of these conditions with teams presenting the “pro” and “con” of the controversy. This format facilitates active discussion of molecular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and the relevant epidemiologic issues pertaining to the prevention and control of chronic diseases.
PUBH-EPI 815: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Stevenson
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the principles and practices of infectious diseases epidemiology with focus on how the presence and control of communicable diseases affects public health locally, nationally and internationally. Learning objectives for this course include a greater understanding of: 1) general principles of infectious diseases epidemiology, including outbreak investigation, surveillance, analysis of infectious diseases data, and laboratory testing of specimens; 2) major modes of transmission of infectious diseases, including airborne, food and water, zoonotic, insect vector, blood, and sexual transmission; 3) different control strategies for infectious diseases, including infection control, antimicrobial management, immunization, risk factor modification, and screening; 4) the practical application of epidemiologic tools for the understanding and control of infectious diseases.
PUBH-EPI 816: Cancer Epidemiology
Autumn Quarter
Faculty: Harris
The course reviews the epidemiology of major cancers by anatomic site including lung, breast, colon, prostate, oral cavity, esophagus, stomach, urinary bladder, pancreas, ovary, uterine cervix, urinary bladder and the hemoatopoeitic system. Lectures focus on: • the distribution of cancer by time, space and person; • gender and ethnic differences; • mortality and morbidity; • fundamental histopathology; • major and minor risk factors; • genetic polymorphisms that influence cancer predisposition; • primary, secondary and tertiary prevention; • screening techniques for early detection; • and therapeutic modalities that have proven effective. Selected publications from the epidemiologic literature provide examples for student discussion.
PUBH-EPI 818: Women's Health Issues
Winter Quarter
Faculty: Paskett
This 3-credit hour seminar seeks to augment participants’ understanding of some of the numerous issues impacting women’s health domestically and internationally. Through lecture, readings and discussions, participants will gain familiarity with research from and beyond the medical/public health literature and how it can enhance understanding of women’s health issues and public health interventions. Participants will also have the opportunity to further develop their written and oral communication skills.
PUBH-EPI 819: Epidemiology of Obesity
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Anderson
Obesity has become a significant public health problem in the United States and in many other countries. In this course, students will gain perspective on prevalence, trends, risk factors, measurement, outcomes, and issues related to obesity throughout the life course. Through critical reading and discussion of published research, aspects of epidemiology of particular importance for the study of obesity will be emphasized.
PUBH-EPI 821: Design and Analysis of Group-Randomized Trials
Spring Quarter
Faculty: Murray
Group-randomized trials are comparative studies in which identifiable social groups rather than individuals are randomized to study conditions and members of those groups are observed to assess the impact of an intervention. These studies are increasingly common in public health and medicine and are appropriate whenever the intervention involves social processes, manipulates the physical or social environment, or cannot be delivered to individuals without risk of contamination. At the end of the course, students will be able to: 1) explain the components of group randomized trials including specification of the research question and selection of the proper design, measures, study populations and analysis procedures; 2) describe the factors that affect the validity of these trials; 3) explain the strengths and weaknesses of several design alternatives; 4) critique existing trials; 5) discuss the strengths and weaknesses of several analysis alternatives; 6) select an appropriate analysis for a particular design; and 7) employ SAS to analyze data from group-randomized trials. Students who complete this course should be better able both to plan and to critically review group-randomized trials in epidemiology.
