Principles of Epidemiology

Catalog description

SS 510 / MA 544: Principles of Epidemiology (Cat. I) 3 credits Epidemiology studies the pattern of disease in populations to describe and identify distributions of diseases and opportunities for intervention. This course serves as a cornerstone for the quantitative aspects of global health and focuses on the distribution and determinants of health in human populations and communities. The goal is to provide a scientific foundation for evaluating both risk factors and interventions to improve health in a population through a strong quantitative analysis of causation, problem-solving, and analytic reasoning. The study of epidemiology evaluates the multifactorial etiology and pathophysiology of noncommunicable and infectious diseases and contributes to public health practice and policy. Specific topics include biomedical study design (i.e., experiment, cohort, case-control, cross sectional, ecological), appropriate measures of disease burden and association (i.e., prevalence, cumulative incidence, rate ratio, odds ratio), and considerations for efficacy and precision (i.e., selection bias, confounding, effect modification, measurement error, and random variation). The course also provides a framework for understanding and evaluating biomedical research publications, causal inference, and basic infectious disease modeling.