The School of Public Health, Degrees, Special Programs PUBLIC ...

254. Occupational and Environmental
Epidemiology. (3) Two one-and-one-halfhour
lectures per week. Prerequisites: 250A.
Epidemiological methods for designing,
conducting, and interpreting epidemiological
studies of persons occupationally or environmentally
exposed to chemical and physical
agents. A. Smith (Sp)
255A. Social Epidemiology. (3) Three hours
of lecture/discussion per week. Prerequisites:
Consent of instructor. 142, 145, and
250A-250B recommended. This course is
designed to introduce students to the field
of social epidemiology and its role in understanding
the social determinants of population
health and health disparities. This course will
provide a systematic and selected overview
of literature in the field covering the history
and development of the field of social epidemiology,
theoretical perspectives, major
topical areas, conceptual approaches, and current
controversies related to theory, research
methods, and research findings. Three
principles will be emphasized throughout
the course: (1) the ecological model, (2) the
lifecourse approach, and (3) causality. These
principles will provide a framework for the
critical analysis of scholarly journal articles
and the synthesis of information across content
areas. This is a breadth course intended
to provide an overview of the field of social
epidemiology; and expose students to relevant
areas of study. This is not a Methods
course. Nuru-Jeter (Sp)
255C. Mental Health and Psychopathology.
(3) Three hours of seminar per week. Prerequisites:
Open only to graduate students. This
graduate seminar is designed to provide
an understanding of the complex (and often
interactive) individual and environmental
conditions that increase the risk of psychopathology
in individual across the life span.
We will start by learning about general
concepts important to and understanding of
psychopathology and prevention of psychopathology,
including the “biopsychosocial
model,” “psychological resilience,” and different
levels of preventive interventions. For
each different area of psychopathology, we
will consider: (1) the core features of the disorder;
(2) key theory and empirical evidence
regarding etiology and course, with a particular
emphasis on understanding the range of
risk and protective factors on the individual,
family, and community level; and (3) the
implications of etiological understanding for
public health efforts to prevent the particular
disorder. Ozer (F)
255D. Methods in Social Epidemiology. (2)
This course is designed to review, evaluate
and apply methods currently used in the field
of social epidemiology. The course aims to
teach approaches to forming clear research
questions, and selecting the best method(s)
to answer the questions posed. Initially we
will discuss approaches to defining clear and
specific research questions. We will then discuss
recent controversies around the meaning
of questions posed in social epidemiology,
and the ability of currently used methods to
answer questions in social epidemiology.
Finally, we will review, evaluate and apply
a range of different methods that are or
could be used to answer questions in social
epidemiology, again emphasizing the types
of questions answered by these methods,
and their ability to address the challenges to
effectively answering questions in social epidemiology.
There will be a mixture of discussion
and lecture depending on the topic, with
student participation and questions strongly
encouraged. Ahern, Hubbard (Sp)
255E. Structural Inequalities and
Reproductive Health. (2) This course will
address the role that structural inequalities
assume in shaping reproductive health disparities.
We will examine relevant epidemiological
research, review and critique public
health interventions, and discuss how research
in this area can inform policy. The course
will be organized around three modules,
each linked to reproductive health: poverty;
gender-based violence; and migration. Within
each module, students will examine measurement,
research design and ethical challenges.
Krishnan, Minnis, Dunbar (Sp)
256. Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology.
(4) One two-hour lecture and one one-hour
labo-ratory per week. This course will cover
designs and methods for genetic epidemiology
studies of unrelated individuals and families.
Concepts in population genetics relevant
to understanding approaches in genetic epidemiology
are introduced, including Hardy-
Weinberg equilibrium and linkage disequilibrium,
genetic risk models, admixture, and
methods for haplotype estimation. Evaluation
of single and multiple loci in the context of
direct and indirect associations with human
disease is also addressed. Linkage analysis
to identify disease genes in different family
structures will be introduced. Methods for
gene-gene and gene-environment interaction
assessment are also presented. The lecture
material will be supplemented with examples
using real and simulated data and currently
available software in a computer laboratory
setting. Molecular epidemiology and the use
of biological markers will be explored with
the goal of illustrating both the power and
limitations of biomarkers currently available for
epidemiological research. Laboratory work and
Internet demonstrations will provide hands-on
experience with modern methods of molecular
epidemiology. Holland (F)
257. Outbreak Investigation. (1,3) One onehour
seminar per week and field work outside
class time. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
This course will teach students why and
how clusters of illnesses/epidemics are investigated.
Methods and approaches required for
such investigations will be discussed in detail,
using published articles from the scientific
literature to provide examples. Field work, to
be conducted outside regular class hours, will
involve the investigation of actual outbreaks
and clusters in conjunction with nearby county
health departments and under the supervision
of the instructor. Students may opt to take the
seminar component without the field work for
one unit. Reingold (F, Sp)
257A. Disaster Epidemiology: Methods and
Applications. (2) Two hours of lecture per
week. This course is an introduction to disaster
epidemiology. Epidemiologists play an
important role in assessing the health effects
of natural and man-made disasters and in
identifying the factors that contribute to these
effects. The emphasis of this course will be
on the application of epidemiologic methods
to the study of the public health consequences
of disasters with the purpose of identifying
lessons learned from previous disasters,
highlighting key skills that an epidemiologist
would need to be a part of a response, identifying
methodological issues for future work.
Enanoria, Aragon (Sp)
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