Upcoming Course Highlights

SHDH 288, Qualitative Research Methods in Public Health
Dr. Roberta E. Goldman
Fall 1, 2012 – Fridays 9:30-12:20
Location: Kresge 203
Course description: qualitative research methods are increasingly used alone or in combination with quantitative methods to investigate public health questions. This introductory-level course covers diverse qualitative research approaches, the nuts and bolts of choosing and using qualitative methods, and applications of these methods for public health research. Course topics include: developing research questions for qualitative inquiry; “entering” the community to design and conduct qualitative research; applying theory to study designand developing open-ended questions; ensuring study validity, credibility and rigor; data collection methods (including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation); choosing qualitative methods for mixed-methods qualitative/qualitative or qualitative/quantitative studies; sampling; data management, coding and analysis; publishing results; and writing qualitative research proposals. Students will be required to read assigned materials, participate in class discussions,apply concepts covered in class by collecting and analyzing qualitative data for written assignments, critique qualitative works, and propose a qualitative study.

WGH 220, Sexuality and Public Health
Fall 2
Friday, 1:30 – 4:20 pm
This student-centered, engaging course promotes active learning on gender, sexuality, and health and covers a broad range of sexual health topics from sexual well-being over the life course to sex ed in high schools and much more.There are only a few spots left!  Register now and don’t miss your chance to take part in this exciting class!

SHDH 504, Substance Abuse and Public Health
Fall 1
2.5 credits
Mondays and Wednesday, 1:30-3:20 pm
Sustance abuse is a major public health problem which impacts society on multiple levels. The purpose of this course is to develop an understanding of factors that contribute to substance abuse, and its consequences. The course will cover the biological, psychological and social underpinnings of substance abuse behavior, and the nature and scope of this public health problem. Mechanisms of action, prevalence of use and health outcomes, treatment and prevention approaches, and public policy approaches, will be contrasted for major licit and illicit abused substances. Students will use this background to critically evaluate scientific evidence relating to national and international drug policies.

Reorganized SHDH Theory Course. Starting in Fall 2012, a course that has been required for SHDH doctoral students, SHDH 215 (“History, Politics, and Public Health: Theories of Disease Distribution and Health Inequities”), taught by Professor Nancy Krieger, will be discontinued. In its place will be two NEW courses that will be to the benefit of SHDH masters students and doctoral students, as well as to students throughout HSPH more generally. Specifically, the course, renamed “Theories of Disease Distribution & Health Inequities: History, Politics, & Public Health,” is divided into two NEW courses, each 2.5 credits: SHDH 506 (Fall 1, Part A) and SHDH 507 (Fall 2, Part B).

SHDH 506 (Fall 1, Part A) is an INTRODUCTORY course that will be open to all students, and also required of SHDH doctoral students.

SHDH 507 (Fall 2, Part B) will be an ADVANCED level course, required of all SHDH doctoral students, and restricted to 25 students (with a prerequisite of SHDH 506 or SHDH215).

This new approach to teaching the unique materials covered in this course will enable many more students, including masters as well as doctoral students, from all departments in HSPH, not just SHDH, to gain access to the key ideas of the course, regarding critical analysis and use of theories of disease distribution. It likewise will enable our SHDH doctoral students to acquire deeper skills in engaging with complex ideas, as argued in books (the foci of SHDH 507), as well as continue to provide in-depth training in how to use libraries to conduct research.

NEW – SHDH 506, Theories of Disease Distribution & Health Inequities: History, Politics, & Public Health
Fall 1, Part A
Dr. Nancy Krieger
2.5 credits
Friday, 9 am – 12 noon
This course offers an introduction to the social and scientific contexts, content, and implications of theories of disease distribution, past and present. It considers how these theories shape questions people ask about – and explanations and interventions they offer for – patterns of health, disease, and well-being in their societies. Designed for both master level and doctoral level students, SHDH 506 also serves a pre-requisite for SHDH 507, the in-depth continuation of the course required for SHDH doctoral students. SHDH 506 accordingly begins by reviewing the role of theory in the production of scientific knowledge. It next introduces both text-based theories of disease distribution developed in ancient Greece and China, and also oral traditions reflecting diverse American Indian, Latin American, African, and medieval European explanations of disease distribution, followed by an overview of  theories employed during the rise of epidemiology as a distinct discipline in both Europe and the United States, from 1700 to 1950. It then introduces current theories and controversies, and employs selected case examples to illustrate their application to – and implications for understanding – current and changing population distributions of disease and health inequities, especially in relation to class, race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Emphasizing relationships between epidemiologic theory and practice, theories and frameworks covered include: miasma, contagion, germ theory, biomedical model, lifestyle, social production of disease/political economy of health, Latin American social medicine, health & human rights, social determinants of health, population health, psychosocial, lifecourse, and ecosocial theory.

NEW – SHDH 507, Theories of Disease Distribution & Health Inequities: History, Politics, & Public Health
Fall 2, Part B
Dr. Nancy Krieger
2.5 credits
Friday, 9 am – 12 noon
Prerequisite: SHDH 506 or SHDH215
This course builds on the prerequisite course SHDH 506 and its critical focus on theories of disease distribution, past and present. Intended for doctoral students (and required of SHDH doctoral students), SHDH 507 deepens historical and present-day understanding of contemporary mainstream theories of disease distribution and their social epidemiologic alternatives. Pairing 20th and 21st CE historical and contemporary books (not articles!), the course both builds substantive knowledge regarding the content and public health implications of diverse theories of disease distributions while also developing skills in conducting literature searches about and engaging with complex scholarly arguments and discourse.

NEW – SHDH 508, Successes & Challenges in Health Behavior Change
Alan Geller
Fall 2
2.5 Credits
Mondays and Wednesdays 1:30 – 3:20
Many large-scale, population-wide initiatives and campaigns have resulted in profound behavioral changes-including those for tobacco use, sun protection, cardiovascular risk reduction, and cancer screening. We will carefully examine these efforts, synthesize these lessons, and seek to provide guidance for current public health campaigns such as obesity control, reduction of tanning bed use for children, and HPV and HBV campaigns. Our objectives will be to a) critically synthesize and evaluate criteria for successful population-wide interventions in population health improvement, including cancer control and cardiovascular risk reduction, b) carefully critique the key components of historically successful large-scale cancer control and cardiovascular risk reduction interventions both for US and internationally (tobacco, skin cancer prevention, cervical cancer, mammography), and c) by using lessons from above, coupled with changing context, critically analyze current large-scale health behavior change interventions for obesity control, tanning beds, and HBV vaccination programs.