Obesity Program

For Students

Prospective students interested in the Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention Concentration should indicate their interest in their application to Harvard Chan. As it is difficult to fulfill the requirements of the concentration in one year, the concentration is restricted to doctoral and two-year master’s students in the Departments of Epidemiology, Nutrition, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Global Health and Population, Environmental Health and Health Policy and Management.

Students are responsible for fulfilling the masters or doctoral degree requirements of their respective departments, in addition to the requirements of the concentration. The students in the concentration must take three required core courses on an ordinal grading scale (7.5 credits total), in addition to the research methods and biostatistics requirements of their respective departments.

Requirements for Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention Concentration

Students Eligible
  • 2-year Masters
  • 65 credit MPH
  • Doctoral
  • Departments: Epidemiology, Nutrition, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Global Health and Population, Environmental Health, Health Policy and Management

Core courses  (7.5 credits, Ordinal grading)
  • ID 537 Obesity Epidemiology OR ID 221 Nutritional Epidemiology II (2.5)
  • ID 214 Nutritional Epidemiology (2.5)
  • ID 541 Advanced Topics in Public Health Nutrition Research and Practice (2.5 credits)

Methods Requirement
  • Met as a part of departmental requirements
Thesis/Practicum Requirement
  • Thesis work or Practicum (for MPH students) must be relevant to the topic of obesity epidemiology and/or prevention

Process for documenting completion of the concentration

Upon completion of the program requirements, students are required to fill out the Application for Certificate of Completion.  In turn, the curriculum committee will provide the students with a certificate recognizing the completion of requirements for the concentration, upon successful verification from the registrar’s office. The co-Chairs will review any requests for exceptions and make recommendations if necessary to accept or deny exceptions.

Competencies

The students in the Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention concentration should fulfill their department/program competencies. In addition, they need to fulfill the competencies specifically required for the Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention concentration (see below for Competency Development Grid).

Specific Competencies Course Options Course Work/Exam Oral Exam Written Exam Dissertation
Design, conduct, and analyze research on obesity and nutritional epidemiologic and prevention studies

 

 Obesity Epidemiology (ID 537) OR Nutritional Epidemiology II (ID 221)

Nutritional Epidemiology (ID 214)

Advanced Topics in Public Health Nutrition Research and Practice (ID 541)

 

 X X X X
Analyze and interpret research on community based interventions for the prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases

 

 Obesity Epidemiology (ID 537)

Advanced Topics in Public Health Nutrition Research and Practice (ID 541)

 

 X X X X