Methods in Community Health Research

Catalog description

Research in communities and natural (non-laboratory) settings requires flexibility and adaptability, especially when conducted in global sites where conditions are dynamic and often uncontrolled. This 1.5 credit doctoral -level course will explore approaches to conducting research with and in communities experiencing health disparities, in particular, the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. Participants will become familiar with the historical, theoretical and philosophical perspectives that have informed CBPR. The course will review research methods utilized in conducting community health research including qualitative methods such as ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews (individual or focus group), use of quantitative surveys in combination with qualitative data or other data sources such as analyses of clinical or administrative data, geospacial methods (GIS) and Photovoice (Mixed Methods). Students will have the opportunity of interviewing collaborating community and academic partners. This course assumes the student has had previous coursework in research design and data collection in both quantitative and qualitative methods.