Introduction to Epidemiology

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This introductory course presents the principles and methods of epidemiology, including descriptive and analytic approaches to assessing the distribution of health and disease in populations and the factors that influence those distributions. The emphasis is on understanding concepts rather than quantitative computing, although calculations are involved. The course also provides basic research skill training, including formulating research hypotheses, discussing the characteristics of different study designs, basic data analysis strategies, and scientific presentation on disease epidemics. At the end of the course, students should be able to interpret and critique a public health journal article, be familiar with standard epidemiologic study designs and the biases associated with observational studies, and have a basic understanding of the applications of the latest technology in epidemiology, such as disease surveillance, molecular epidemiology, cancer epidemiology, epidemiology in health policy research, disease modeling and cost-effective analysis, etc. Through the combination of readings, short lectures, guest lectures, discussions and practices in class, critical review of papers, and case studies, students without prior coursework in epidemiology will acquire the core competencies in epidemiology expected of all Global Health undergraduate and graduate students.