PDF version of this chapterCourses of Instruction
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Studies (HP)
The terms indicated are expected but are not guaranteed. For the courses offered during any given term, consult the Schedule of Classes.
200 Introduction to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (4, FaSp) Introduction to strategies for promoting health and wellness. Includes self monitoring of health risk behavior, goal setting, and behavior changes.
230 Nutrition and Health (4, FaSp) Nutrition as it relates to health promotion across the lifespan and disease prevention. Discussion of nutrients, factors affecting food choices, food safety and global nutrition issues.
290 Introduction to Research Apprenticeship (2-8, max 8, FaSpSm) Individual research apprenticeship in health related fields under supervision of a departmental faculty member. Graded CR/NC. Departmental approval.
300 Theoretical Principles of Health Behavior (4, Fa) Overview and analysis of predictors and consequences of health-related behaviors; theoretical viewpoints and strategies for behavior change. Recommended preparation: HP 200. Prerequisite: PSYC 100.
320 Biological and Behavioral Basis of Disease (4, Fa) Examination of the major systems of the human body; disease processes and behavioral risk factors. Prerequisite: BISC 120L or BISC 121L.
340L Health Behavior Statistical Methods (4, FaSp) Intermediate statistics for health behavior studies; topics include descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression, and use of computer software in data analysis.
350L Health Behavior Research Methods (4, Sp) Introduction to the design, conduct and evaluation of health behavior research studies; quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and analysis. Recommended preparation: HP 340L.
400m Culture, Lifestyle, and Health (4, Fa) Comparison of national and international differences in health status as influenced by cultural practices and lifestyles within geographic, economic and political environments.
401 Cultural Competence: Promoting Health in Diverse Communities (4, Sp) Systematic development of specific professional skills for providing effective, culturally sensitive health services to diverse populations. Prerequisite: HP 200; recommended preparation: ANTH 101.
402 Maternal and Child Health (4, Sp) Health issues of women of childbearing age from pre-pregnancy through the postpartum period, and of children from their development in utero through early adolescence. Prerequisite: HP 200; recommended preparation: PSYC 100.
403 Behavioral Medicine (4, Sp) Examines behavioral risk factors for illness, health enhancing and health compromising behaviors, stress/coping in promoting health and preventing illness, and behavioral management of chronic illness. Prerequisite: HP 200, PSYC 100.
410 Issues in Prevention and Cessation of Drug Abuse (4, Sp) Examination of factors related to drug abuse behaviors; overview and assessment of drug abuse prevention and cessation programs; relapse prevention programs. Recommended preparation: HP 300.
411 Drug Intervention Program Design and Evaluation (4, Sp) Strategies for drug abuse prevention and intervention; introduction to techniques and research methods used in designing, conducting, and evaluating drug abuse prevention programs. Recommended preparation: HP 410.
412 Health Promotion and Prevention Policy (4, Sp) Overview of health promotion and drug prevention policy at local, state, and federal levels; methods for evaluating policy effectiveness and cost effectiveness.
420m Gender and Minority Health Issues (4, Fa) Examines the nature and roots of health disparities among women, men, and different ethnic and age groups; methods for reducing such disparities; strategies for prevention services.
421 Violence as a Public Health Issue (4, Fa) Patterns and prevalence of violence; psychosocial, environmental, and biological influences on violent behavior; youth gangs; drugs and violence; family violence; and prevention and intervention strategies.
422 AIDS in Society (4, Sp) Provides a broad examination of issues in HIV/AIDS, including behavioral, social, biological, clinical and ethical dimensions of the pandemic in the U.S. and elsewhere.
430 Nutrition and Exercise Epidemiology (4, Fa) Principles of nutritional assessment and dietary needs of special population groups; meal planning and exercise prescriptions during the lifecycle and for groups with chronic diseases. Prerequisite: HP 230.
431 Behavior and Education Strategies for Nutrition and Fitness (4, Sp) Examination of dietary intake and exercise behaviors as they relate to health and illness; methods for measuring diet and exercise. Recommended preparation: HP 430.
432 Clinical Nutrition (4, Sp) Metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein; introduction to vitamins, minerals and dietary modifications in various pathological conditions. Prerequisite: BISC 306Lx, CHEM 322aL.
433 Advanced Topics in Nutrition (4, Sp) In-depth discussion of vitamins and minerals and their role in human nutrition; introduction to the role of vitamins and minerals in selected pathological conditions. Prerequisite: HP 432.
441 Health Promotion in the Workplace (4, Fa) Covers phases of worksite health promotion; research, design, implementation and evaluation; concerns regarding escalating medical costs and the role of health promotion in offering solutions.
442 Chronic Disease Epidemiology (4, Sp) Overview of causative factors and demographic distributions of the major chronic diseases in the western world; epidemiologic concepts and research designs. Recommended preparation: HP 320.
443 Health Communication Strategies and Evaluation (4, Fa) Examination of how communication affects health behavior; role of doctor-patient contacts, social groups, community health campaigns, images in media, and advanced communication technologies.
450 Traditional Eastern Medicine and Modern Health (4, Fa) Overview of traditional Eastern approaches toward health and disease; relevance to modern health issues, emphasizing a comparison between traditional Chinese and modern Western medicine. Recommended preparation: fundamentals of medicine.
460 Adolescent Health (4, Fa) Survey of the development of healthy and the prevention of health-risk behaviors during adolescence. Prevention and promotion techniques will be explored emphasizing cultural differences. Prerequisite: HP 200, PSYC 100.
480 Internship in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (2-4, max 4, FaSpSm) Field placement in a community agency such as a county health services agency, a not for profit voluntary agency or a health care setting. Open to majors only. Graded CR/NC. Prerequisite: completion or concurrent registration in required core courses.
490x Directed Research (2-8, max 8, FaSpSm) Individual research and readings. Not available for graduate credit. Open to HP majors only. Corequisite: HP 340L; recommended preparation: HP 350L.
Preventive Medicine (PM)
500 Foundations of Health Behavior (4, Fa) Overview of behavioral theory and research in disease prevention and health promotion and in adaptation of chronic disease, including an introduction to measures of outcomes. Prerequisite: admission to Ph.D. in Preventive Medicine or departmental approval.
501 Foundations in Health Education Behavior (4, Fa) Overview and application of behavioral theories to the field of health education and promotion. Examines the determinants of health behavior and strategies for change at the individual, group and community level.
505 Training and Curriculum Design in Public Health (4, Fa) Curriculum writing and training skills applied to public health needs and settings. Covers adult learning theories, assessment of learning needs, curriculum design, training design, conduct and evaluation. Recommended preparation: PM 500.
508 Health Service Delivery in the U.S. (4, Fa) Historical development of the American health care system; determinants of health care utilization; role of health care providers; health policy; public health services; and health care finance.
510L Principles of Biostatistics (4) Concepts of biostatistics; appropriate uses and common misuses of health statistics; practice in the application of statistical procedures; introduction to statistical software including EXCEL, SPSS, nQuery. Laboratory.
511abL Data Analysis (4-4, a: Fa, b: Sp) a: Major parametric and nonparametric statistical tools used in biomedical research, computer packages including SAS. Includes laboratory. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 1 hour. Prerequisite: PM 510L. b: Exploratory data analysis, detection of outliers, robust methods, fitting data with linear and nonlinear regression models, computer packages including BMDP. Includes laboratory. Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 1 hour. Prerequisite: PM 511aL.
512 Principles of Epidemiology (4, Fa) Terminology/uses of epidemiology and demography; sources/uses of population data; types of epidemiologic studies; risk assessment; common sources of bias in population studies; principles of screening. Recommended preparation: algebra.
513 Experimental Designs (3, Sp) Statistical methods for analysis of various experimental designs. Parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA), repeated measures methods, crossover designs, non-parametric ANOVA. Prerequisite: PM 510L.
514 An International Perspective on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (4, Sm) Design and management of STD prevention and control programs in international settings; overview of major STDs and regional differences; strategic planning and evaluation of STD programs. Recommended preparation: PM 500.
515 Behavioral Epidemiology (3, 2 years, Sp) Basic understanding of behavioral risk factors in chronic disease and premature mortality; epidemiological research methods for studying behavioral risk factors. Recommended preparation: PM 512.
516ab Statistical Problem Solving (1-1, FaSpSm) An overview of the tools used by statisticians for solving statistical problems. Prerequisite: PM 510L.
517ab Research Methods in Epidemiology (a: 3, Fa, b: 3, Sp) a: Study design, ascertainment of study objects, questionnaire development, various methodological issues in data analysis and interpretation including bias, measurement error, confounding and effect modification. Prerequisite: PM 511aL, PM 518a. b: Overview of epidemiologic research in cancer. Selected cancer sites will be covered to highlight study design and conduct, exposure assessment, data analysis and interpretation. Prerequisite: PM 517a.
518ab Statistical Methods for Epidemiological Studies I, II (3-3) a: Principles and methods used in epidemiology for comparing disease frequencies between groups. Restricted to the analysis of binary outcome variables. Prerequisite: PM 512. b: Statistical methods for binary outcomes by introducing techniques for cross classified risks and rates and regression models for individual data. Prerequisite: PM 518a.
519 Introduction to Human Nutrition (4, Sp) Dietary role of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals in metabolism; nutritional assessment; nutritional deficiencies. Focus on the role of nutrition in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. (Duplicates credit in former PHNU 527.) Recommended preparation: PM 530.
520L Advanced Statistical Computing (3, FaSm) Techniques for the solution of statistical problems through intensive computing; iterative techniques, randomization tests, the bootstrap, Monte Carlo methods.
521ab Seminar in Nutrition (2-2, FaSp) (Duplicates credit in former PHNU 520ab.)
522ab Introduction to the Theory of Biostatistics (4, Fa; 4, Sp) a: Density distribution and hazard functions; normal, chi-square, student's t and F distributions; and sampling procedures for single factor and multiple factor designs, distributions. Prerequisite: undergraduate differential and integral calculus. b: Theory of estimation and testing, determining structure in data, and sampling methods. Prerequisite: PM 522a.
523 Design of Clinical Studies (3) Design, conduct, and interpretation of results of clinical trials; emphasis on principles affecting structure, size, duration of a trial, and the impact of ethical and practical considerations. Prerequisite: PM 511abL, PM 513.
524abc Practicum in Health Behavior (2-2-2, FaSpSm) Practical experience in a variety of field settings to gain a certain type of skill such as curriculum development, media production, and patient education. a: Practicum in prevention; b: practicum in compliance; c: practicum in health behavior topics. Recommended preparation: PM 500.
525 Culture and Health: An International Perspective (4, Fa) International variations in health status with a focus on the impact of socioeconomic status, politics, environment, education and gender in etiology of illness, access to health care, progression of disease, and recovery.
526 Communications in Public Health (4, Sp) Application of communication theories and methods to community health problems. Includes background assessment, program design, evaluation, social marketing, media advocacy, review of major health campaigns. Recommended preparation: PM 500.
527 Epidemiology of Infectious Disease (3, FaSp) Survey of natural history of infectious disease, methods of disease control and outbreak investigation. Prerequisite: PM 512.
528 Program Design and Evaluation (4, Sp) Core concepts, methods and values of public health program planning and evaluation, including community needs assessment, writing objectives, designing health promotion programs, process and outcome evaluation. Recommended preparation: PM 500.
529 Environmental and Occupational Health: An Epidemiological Approach (3, Sp) An overview of environmental health, identifying issues in assessing effects of exposure on health and potential interventions for reducing adverse health risks. Prerequisite: PM 510L, PM 512.
530 Biological Basis of Disease (4, 2 years, Sp) With a physiological overview, differentiates genetic and environmental disease; emphasis on the relationships between lifestyle, behavior, and health. Prerequisite: admission to Ph.D. in Preventive Medicine, Health Behavior Research or basic biology.
533 Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology (3, Fa) Genetic principles; design and analysis of family studies; introduction to likelihood estimation; segregation and linkage analysis; biomarkers of exposure, susceptibility, and disease; laboratory methods; susceptibility genes; association and linkage disequilibrium. Prerequisite: PM 510L, PM 511a, PM 512, PM 518a.
534 Statistical Genetics (4, Sp) Familial aggregation, segregation analysis, linkage analysis, association, regressive models, gene-environment interactions, genetic heterogeneity and linkage disequilibrium. Prerequisite: PM 518a, PM 522a.
535 Nutrition in Public Health (4, Fa) Principles related to developing effective programs and services to improve the health and nutrition within a community. Attaining and maintaining nutritional health related to biology, lifestyle choices, environments, and health care delivery systems. (Duplicates credit in former PHNU 523.) Recommended preparation: PM 530.
536 Program Evaluation and Research (4, Fa) Overview of concepts, tools, data collection, analysis methods and designs used to evaluate health promotion programs. Examples from substance abuse prevention, family planning and reproductive health programs.
537 Chronic Disease Epidemiology (3, Sp) Overview of causative factors and demographic distribution of major chronic diseases in the western world. Epidemiologic concepts, methods and research design as applied to chronic disease prevention will be emphasized. Prerequisite: PM 512; recommended preparation: PM 527.
538 Introduction to Biomedical Informatics (3, Fa) Overview of current topics, enabling technologies, research initiatives, and practical considerations in biomedical informatics.
539 Nutrient-Drug Interactions (4, Fa) Examines the various ways foods, and the nutrients contained in them, interact with medications used to treat chronic health conditions. Prerequisite: PM 519; recommended preparation: PM 530.
540 Maternal and Child Health and Nutrition (4, Sp) Public health issues and appropriate interventions relating to maternal and child health and nutrition. (Duplicates credit in former PHNU 540.) Recommended preparation: PM 530.
541 Obesity, Metabolism and Health (4, Fa) Overview of the epidemiology of obesity, related health conditions and mechanisms related to energy balance, food intake and genetics. Discussion of prevention and treatment strategies. Recommended preparation: PM 530.
542 Social Network Analysis (4, Sp) Theory, methods and procedures of network analysis with emphasis on applications to public health programs.
543L Nonparametric Statistics (3) (Enroll in MATH 543L)
544L Multivariate Analysis (3, 2 years, Sp) Exploratory and inferential techniques for multivariate data, Hotelling's T2, multivariate analysis of variance, classification analysis, principle components, cluster analysis, factor analysis. Involves computer use. Prerequisite: PM 510L, PM 522a.
545L Introduction to Time Series (3) (Enroll in MATH 545L)
550 Sample Surveys (3) (Enroll in MATH 550)
552 Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials (3, 2 years, Sp) Stochastic failure process; parametric models for survival data; sample size estimation procedures for clinical trials; multivariate regression models for binary outcome and censored survival data; computer programs; multiple failure modes and competing risks. Prerequisite: PM 518a, MATH 408.
561 Behavioral Theories in Nutrition and Fitness (4, Fa) Overview of behavior theory as it pertains to nutrition and fitness; the use of theoretical models to develop dietary and physical activity intervention models. (Duplicates credit in former PHNU 561.) Recommended preparation: PM 501.
570 Statistical Methods in Human Genetics (4, Sp) An introductory course in the statistical methods used in the analysis of human genetic data. Prerequisite: PM 533.
571 Applied Logistic Regression (3, Sm) An introduction to the logistic regression model, emphasizing practical data analysis techniques. Prerequisite: PM 510L; PM 512; and PM 511aL or PM 518a.
590 Directed Research (1-12, FaSpSm) Research leading to the master's degree. Maximum units which may be applied to the degree to be determined by the department. Graded CR/NC.
592abz Directed Field Research in Health Behavior (1-12, Sm) Research leading to the advanced degree. Graded CR/NC.
593 Public Health Practicum (4 or 8, FaSpSm) Field placement in a community agency, such as a county health department or community-based organization. Open to MPH candidates only. Graded CR/NC. Recommended preparation: completion of all course work.
594abz Master's Thesis (2-2-0, FaSpSm) Credit on acceptance of thesis. Graded IP/CR/NC.
599 Special Topics (2-4, max 8, Irregular) Special topics relevant to the study of selected issues and areas of health behavior research or other aspects of preventive medicine.
601 Basic Theory and Strategies in Prevention (4, 2 years, Fa) Psychosocial basis of health-hazardous lifestyle behaviors and preventive strategies. Recommended preparation: PM 500, PM 515.
602 Basic Theory and Strategies for Compliance/Adaptation (4, 2 years, Fa) Behavioral and psychosocial demands of acute and chronic diseases. Comparison of theoretical models of compliance and adaptation with intervention methods to improve compliance and adaptation. Recommended preparation:PM 500, PM 515.
603 Factor Analysis (4, 2 years, Fa) Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches to health behavior research-conceptual, practical and mathematical. Prerequisite: at least two graduate level statistics courses.
604 Health Behavior Research Methods (4, Sp) Health research/evaluation philosophies, approaches, and development of skills for development and critique of health behavior research projects/studies. Recommended preparation: PM 511.
610 Seminar in Biostatistics and Epidemiology (1, max 4, FaSp) Special topics of current interest to provide background for research in biostatistics and epidemiology. Based largely on student dissertation research. Graded CR/NC. Prerequisite: Ph.D. level or departmental approval.
611 Advanced Topics in Epidemiology (3, Irregular) Review of current epidemiologic research contained in recent medical literature; emphasis on critique of studies and interpretation of findings.
690abcdz Directed Research in Health Behavior (2-2-2-2-0, FaSpSm) Independent research at an advanced level on a problem in the field of Health Behavior. Graded CR/NC. Recommended preparation: PM 604.
756 Research Seminar in Health Behavior (1, max 6, FaSp) Short seminar presentations and discussions on issues accompanying the development of the field of health behavior and implementation of research in this field. Graded CR/NC.
790 Research (1-12, FaSpSm) Research applicable to the doctorate. Maximum units which may be applied to the degree to be determined by the department. Graded CR/NC.
794abcdz Doctoral Dissertation (2-2-2-2-0, FaSpSm) Credit on acceptance of dissertation. Graded IP/CR/NC.