This course aims to give students an understanding of some key themes in environmental epidemiology, with particular emphasis on methods of investigation. Emphasis is given to critical interpretation of scientific evidence relating to potential environmental hazards to health. Lectures using examples from the literature and the instructor’s field studies in China will be used to illustrate basic methods.
The course will be a mixture of lectures, directed readings, and classroom exercises that will cover epidemiologic study designs, issues of validity, measurement of exposure, ascertainment of health outcomes and approaches to analysis.
Instruction will be in English.
Course Prerequisites
Coursework in statistics
Course Goals and Objectives
By the end of the course, students will gain a basic understanding of the application of epidemiologic methods to the study of environmental exposure-disease relationships to help facilitate their comprehension of published epidemiologic literature and prepare them for more advanced coursework.
Teacher introduction
Dr. Jill Baumgartner obtained her MSc from Harvard University and her joint-PhD in Population Health Sciences and Environment & Resources from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Baumgartner is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Minnesota. Her main interests are the health effects of air pollution and the potential health and climate benefits of improved energy interventions and policies in developing countries.
Students will be assessed by two short quizzes at the beginning of days 2 and 3 of the course. They will also complete a short 2-page critical review of an assigned environmental epidemiology paper.
