Syllabus

Schedule

Course Dates

Each week opens on Wednesday at 12:01 AM Eastern Time (ET). Each week closes on Wednesday at 11:59 PM ET, with the exception of Week 8, which ends on Sunday at 11:59 PM ET.

Week 1: Sep 4 – Sep 11
Week 2: Sep 11 – Sep 18
Week 3: Sep 18 – Sep 25
Week 4: Sep 25 – Oct 2
Week 5: Oct 2 – Oct 9
Week 6: Oct 9 – Oct 16
Week 7: Oct 16 – Oct 23
Week 8: Oct 23 – Oct 27

Please see course for weekly readings and full assignment descriptions.

Week 1: Identifying and Evaluating Publicly Available Datasets

Learning Outcomes

• Evaluate the strength of  publicly available datasets 
• Select publicly available datasets to answer a public health question

Learning Activities

Week 1 Discussion: Introductions

• Introduce yourself. Tell us about your career aspirations and why you chose to take this course.  In addition, after reviewing the CDC’s Applied Epidemiologist Competencies, select 2 competencies you hope to gain or strengthen through this course.

Week 1 Discussion: Publicly Available Datasets

• Initial post: Identify and describe a publicly available quantitative dataset (do not use a dataset shown in Week 1’s lecture). Your 2-3 sentence description should include a summary of the data collection methods (i.e. who [population from which data were collected], when and where) and the data variables included in the dataset. Describe one example of how a public health practitioner might use this dataset and for what purpose. Be specific – state a question, the variables that could be used and an analysis that could be conducted with the selected variables (e.g. descriptive statistics, t-test, etc.). Include a link to the dataset as well as the dataset’s documentation, if available.

• Response 1: Access the dataset identified by at least one peer. Propose another question that a public health professional could utilize the dataset to answer. As with the initial post, be specific, stating the question, the variables that might be used, and an analysis you could conduct.

• Response 2: Using the data documentation and other related materials, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the dataset identified by a different peer. Your response should include at least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of the dataset, each related to the epidemiological design, data collection or analysis. For each weakness, evaluate how it might affect one or more of the analyses your peer proposed to answer with these data.

Week 2: Identifying Public Health Priorities

Learning Outcomes

• Identify a population’s public health priorities using epidemiological evidence 
• Present quantitative data using appropriate communication strategies

Learning Activities

Week 2 Discussion: ACS Data 

• Initial post: Select the County or State Health Department that employs you for the purposes of your final project. Using ACS data, obtain the total population for the selected geography as well as the breakdown of three sociodemographic characteristics. Present the data for at least two of the sociodemographic characteristics as two original figures (for example: graph, pie chart, etc). ‘Original figures’ means you will create the image using the data from ACS (you can use Excel, Powerpoint or other software with which you are familiar). Ensure your figure is properly labeled and is appropriate for the audience for which the final project is intended. For the third sociodemographic characteristic, write 1-2 sentences you might include in your report to describe that characteristic in your population.

• Response posts: For two peers, critique at least one visual representation of data. Include at least one way they might improve the visual representation of the data given the format and intended audience of the final project.

Week 2 Written Assignment: Identification of a Population’s Health Priorities

• This week’s written assignment is designed to help you identify content needed for section 2a-b of your final project. In addition to this week’s lecture and reading materials, you will apply skills learned in previous courses to identify the top four health priorities for the geography of your local health department.

Week 3: Using Computer-Based Software to Manage and Analyze Data

Learning Outcomes

• Use computer-based software to create and save data files
• Use computer-based software to prepare data for analysis
• Use data documentation for publicly available datasets
• Analyze publicly available data

Learning Activities

Week 3 Written Assignment: Analyzing Publicly Available Data

• This week’s assignment will allow you to apply data management skills learned in this course and analytic skills learned in your previous courses. The assignment will use publicly available data from the NHANES study. In addition to finding and downloading the datasets, you will need to use the data documentation to find the variables needed and to interpret the variable responses. Once you complete the series of prompts, submit a .do file and .dta file as well as a log of results of analyses. To provide a log of your results, you will need to create a log file using the assignment instructions and paste the results from your log file into a Word document.

Week 4: Analyzing Peer-Reviewed Journals

Learning Outcomes

• Analyze journals’ peer-review process
• Analyze the impact of peer-review journals

Learning Activities

Week 4 Discussion: Impact Factor

• Initial post: Consider a field of interest to you (e.g. public health, medicine, epidemiology). Select two journals that publish in this field – a high-impact journal and a low-impact journal. For each journal, state the 1-year and 5-year impact factors. Analyze the journals’ impact in the context of other journals in the field. Consider how long the journals have been publishing and change in impact over time.

• Response post: Next, for at least 1 peer, review the author guidelines or other materials for your peer’s selected journals. Summarize the journals’ peer review processes in 2-3 sentences. Consider steps in each process and length of time to publish. What are the differences and similarities in the two processes? In your opinion, is it likely that the peer-review process (broadly) differs from the journals’ impact factor?

Week 4 Quiz

Week 5: Identifying and Selecting Public Health Programs

Learning Outcomes

• Identify the strengths and weakness of public health programs based on epidemiological evidence
• Interpret results of a quantitative analysis to assess the impact of public health programs 
• Select evidence-based public health programs to address a specific health priority

Learning Activities

Week 5 Written Assignment: Selection of Programs To Address Health Priorities

• This week’s written assignment is designed to help you identify content needed for section 3a-b of your final project. In addition to this week’s lecture and reading materials, you will apply skills learned in prior courses to identify programs to intervene on the health priorities.

Week 6: Designing Questionnaires

Learning Outcomes

• Design questionnaires to evaluate a public health program
• Discuss the differences between efficacy and effectiveness

Learning Activities

Week 6 Discussion: Effectiveness Studies

• Initial post: Studies conducted in public health practice (e.g., to evaluate a program implemented by the public health department) are more likely to be effectiveness studies than efficacy studies. Thinking about one of the programs your DPH will implement, describe at least 3 differences in how you would interpret the results of an evaluation of this program designed as an efficacy study as compared to an effectiveness study. Think specifically about differences in interpretation of the results in the context of differences in the study designs; it is not sufficient to report only differences in the design.

• Response: Thinking about the evaluation of the program described by your peer, consider how the results from the two different studies would influence future implementations of the program by the DPH. How might you expect the success of future implementations of the program to compare to the results of the two studies?

Week 6 Written Assignment: Designing a Baseline Questionnaire

• For this assignment, you will design a questionnaire that will be used to identify individuals who are eligible for the program that your DPH will implement. This questionnaire should also collect baseline (pre-intervention) information that you would need to evaluate the program (e.g., if your program is designed to reduce obesity, you should measure BMI prior to program participation). Items on your questionnaire can be self-administered (filled out by the individual) or completed by a health professional (e.g., a blood pressure reading taken by a nurse or questionnaire asked by a person administering the program).

Week 7: Analyzing the Potential Impact of a Public Health Program

Learning Outcomes

• Analyze potential impact of a public health program on specific population based on interpretation of  quantitative data analysis results
• Generate public health report using appropriate communication strategies 

Learning Activities

Final Project

• Please refer to the Final Project Document in the course for detailed instructions.

Week 8: Ensuring Accuracy of Data Analysis Results

Learning Outcomes

• Describe practices that ensure the accuracy of data analysis results 

Learning Activities

Week 8 Discussion: Possible Sources of Error

• Initial Post: Imagine you and several colleagues recently published an article in a high-impact journal. You are the lead author and were the lead analyst; one colleague duplicated the analysis and another colleague was responsible for creating the tables in the article. As with most high-impact journals, your article has undergone several rounds of review and revisions since your original submission. You recently discovered an error in one of the tables. Describe at least two possible sources of the error (how could the error have occurred when the analysis was duplicated?). In 2-3 sentences, describe what next steps your team should take to rectify the error.

• Response: Thinking specifically about the possible sources of error described by your peer, describe what steps you could put in place to prevent similar errors in future publications. Name at least 3 additional precautions the team could have taken to prevent such errors. 

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