Course Descriptions - Week 2

Social epidemiology is the branch of epidemiology that considers how social interactions and purposive human activity affect health. Community assessment is about the “which” and “how” community-level exposures should be measured and evaluated. Accordingly, this course considers the dynamic social relationships and human activities that ultimately locate toxic dumps in one community instead of another, make fresh produce available to some and not others, and permit some to enjoy resources such that they can purchase salubrious environments and excellent health care. We focus on conceptual models, measurement issues, and analytic approaches, including the strength and weaknesses of the multilevel model.

The course begins with a review of causal models and the linear regression equation, including violation of ordinary least squares assumptions, particularly the assumption of non-stochastic explanatory variables. We will also explore specification tests and corrections for endogenous explanatory variables including instrumental variables and selection correction models. We also will extend those methods to discrete and limited dependent variables.

This course will provide a summary of the epidemiologic study designs and methods for investigating health hazards associated with environmental exposures. Related topics that will be covered include: case cluster investigation methods, approaches to characterizing environmental exposures, sources of and methods to minimize study bias, and applications of epidemiologic data, such as for environmental risk assessment. Methodological concepts will be illustrated with examples of research on environmental risk factors for cancer, neurological diseases, respiratory diseases, and adverse reproductive outcomes. Lectures will be supplemented by discussions of selected journal articles and with in-class exercises that emphasize the roles public health practitioners play in the conduct of environmental epidemiology.

Applied Survival Analysis

This course focuses on applications of the analysis of time to event data. The first part of the course deals with methods for estimation, interpretation and comparison of survival functions. The second part of the course considers regression methods within the context of the semi-parametric proportional hazards model (Cox model). Topics covered in this section include: variable selection; scaling of continuous covariates; inclusion of interactions; assessment of model fit and diagnostics for the proportional hazards assumption and individual subject influence on the fitted model. Special emphasis is placed on the interpretation and presentation of the results. Examples are drawn primarily from medical studies.

This course uses a series of classroom-based interactive case studies to teach the principles and practice of field epidemiology, ranging from descriptive epidemiology to surveillance to outbreak investigation to field surveys. The course focuses on the use of sound epidemiologic judgment, particularly when epidemiologic theory and practical considerations conflict. Following this course, the student will be familiar with the principles of epidemiology relevant to public health practitioners, and should be able to apply those principles to address acute public health problems in the community.

Intermediate Epidemiology using Activ-Epi

This course covers the fundamental concepts and methods of epidemiology as relevant to practicing epidemiologists and/or other professionals in the public health field. The course will be based on Dr. Kleinbaum’s Activ-Epi CD ROM “electronic textbook.” Topics to be covered include: types of case-control studies and what is estimated by the odds ratio; simple analysis of 2x2 data; selection, information, and confounding biases; options for control of covariates, including stratified analysis, matching, and math modeling (introduction). The course will include an evening tutorial/laboratory session that will review homework assignments and classroom lecture material, and discuss real-world applications to public health practice.