Introduction to Epidemiology

3 Units

This course begins with the exploration of the history, philosophy and uses of epidemiology. It then moves to the basic descriptive functions of epidemiology such as condition, frequency and severity. Data is used to describe qualitatively and quantitatively diseases and injuries in a population. Applications include identifying patterns of disease and injury over time and geography. The course then moves to analytical epidemiology with focus on estimation, inference, bias, confounding and adjustment in the determination of what factors are associated with, or cause disease or injury. The different kinds of study designs are introduced including ecologic, cross-sectional, case-control, retrospective and prospective cohort, and experimental designs such as clinical trials. Students are introduced to evidence-based public health with analysis of harm, benefit and cost, and intervention effectiveness. The course concludes with applications to policy, covering outbreak investigation/testing/screening, public health policy and special epidemiologic applications including molecular and genetic epidemiology, environmental health and safety, unintentional injury and violence prevention and behavioral sciences. Recommended preparation: A course in statistics taken before or concurrently with MPHP 301 .