GCHB Courses

View current course offerings at the Office of the Registrar.

GCHB 6030 Social and Behavioral Aspects of Global Health (3) This course covers the behavioral, social and cultural aspects of health and disease. Students learn how behavioral and social theories are relevant to health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Factors that protect or erode health operate at multiple levels (including individual, community, societal and global levels) will be discussed. The development of interventions to improve health by addressing critical factors at these levels will be presented. Faculty: M. Begalieva, C. Kendall, K. Welch. Offered: Every Semester. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6110 Program Planning for Public Health (3) This course will apply principles of program planning and evaluation to developing health communication/education program plans. It will cover topics of educational assessments; setting program objectives; designing intervention strategies, designing program organization/management, resource allocation and evaluation. Practical skills will be developed through the process of writing a health program grant proposal. The course will develop the ability to plan for the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies to improve individual and community health. Faculty: A. Lederer, A. Wennerstrom. Offered: Fall and Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6120 Introduction to Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Education and Community Programs (3) Program evaluation is an essential component of the health promotion specialist's expertise. This is an introductory course designed for future health promotion practitioners in the fields of health education, maternal and child health, nutrition, and other disciplines in which practitioners design and deliver interventions to the public. The course content includes rationales for evaluation; the political, organizational, theoretical and educational aspects of evaluation; and methods for implementing a sound evaluation. This course will help future practitioners to participate in the design, development, and implementation of evaluations, as well to be a "wise consumer" of evaluation reports and reports for program planning and improvement purposes. Faculty: F. Grossmann. Offered: Fall and Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6130 Health Economics for Developing Countries (3) The overall objective of this course is to provide students with the background and tools to understand, analyze, and evaluate economic aspects of health systems problems of low- and middle-income countries. Students will develop the ability to understand and to assist in developing long-run health systems solutions to these problems. Faculty: D. Hotchkiss. Offered: Fall-odd years. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6140 Development of Leadership and Communication Skills in Public Health (3) This course combines practical, skills-based exercises with strategic thinking approaches to personal, professional, and organizational leadership development. Leadership: The ability to create and communicate a shared vision for a changing future; champion solutions to organizational and community challenges; and energize commitment to goals. Faculty: C. Johnson. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6150 Taiwanese Community Health Practices (3) This course is designed to provide a field study opportunity for learning global public health practices, cross-culture communication and interaction, and alternative community health strategies. About 10 students each from Asia University and from Tulane University will be paired to form cross-culture teams to research and solve community health problems identified in the field study. In this course students will be housed at the Asia University campus and will be led to visit health organizations at national, provincial, city, county and community levels. Lectures and discussions will be provided by experienced faculty from both universities and from practitioners in Taiwan. At the end of the course the cross-culture student teams will be required to submit written and present in class project papers. Faculty: D. Seal. Offered: Summer Intercession. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6200 Evaluation of Program Interventions in Global Health (3) This course introduces students to the basic concepts, principles, and practices for the impact evaluation of public health programs and interventions. It focuses primarily on impact evaluations for sexual and reproductive health interventions. Lectures, discussion and assignments will emphasize impact evaluation strategies for health promotion and disease prevention in international settings. Faculty: D. Meekers. Offered: Spring, period 2 Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6240 Health Problems of Developing Societies (2) Health Problems of Developing Societies is tailored to students entering the International Health and Development program within the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. The course provides an overview of the major health problems facing resource-poor or "developing" societies; the divergent historical patterns of public health in rich versus poor societies; the links among public health, development, and culture; and strategies for improving public health in poor societies. There is no prerequisite for the course. Faculty: M. VanLandingham, K. Andrinopoulos. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6270 Monitoring of Program Interventions in Global Health (3) This course provides students with an introduction to program monitoring, a widely-valued set of skills for managing and tracking results in public health programs in both domestic and international contexts. Students will gain practical experience in translating concepts into applications for actual programs. Faculty: M. Do. Offered: Spring Period 1. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6310 Public Nutrition and Health in Complex Emergencies (2) This course is designed to familiarize students with methods and approaches for coping with public nutrition and health problems in complex emergencies. It addresses the control of malnutrition (general and micronutrient) through general ration distribution and selective feeding programs, emergency public health measures, and key policy issues. Outside speakers with recent experience in this field contribute to specific topics and with illustrative case studies. Faculty: N. Mock. Offered: Summer Intercession. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6360 Sexual Health: A Public Health Perspective (3) Sexual health is a growing component of public health outreach. The goal of this course is to provide students with a foundational understanding of sexual health from a public health perspective. Faculty: D. Seal. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6370 Grant Writing for Health and Development Projects (3) This course is an intensive workshop-style class designed to teach students how to identify, research, and prepare grant proposals in the fields of public health, focusing on key areas of research and program development in GCHB. Specific emphasis is given to the idiosyncrasies of developing proposals for federal funding agencies and foundations. By the end of the course students will know how to identify prospective funders, conduct proposal research, and develop and write a full proposal, evaluations, devising budgets, and providing supplementary material. Faculty: R. Oberhelman. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6460 Child Health and Development in Public Health (3) This course covers child health and development, addressing important health issues in each stage of childhood, the biologic, genetic, psychosocial, and environmental influences upon these issues, medical aspects of their management and most importantly, fundamental public health approaches to intervention. Population based approaches to elimination of disparities in the maintenance of health and access to primary and secondary care of children will be presented with a focus on children with special health care needs, children within immigrant families, children with developmental and psycho-social challenges, and other groups of children who carry a disproportionate burden of disease. Faculty: M. Dal Corso. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6470 Issues in Adolescent Health (3) Issues in Adolescent Health is designed to describe and compare both mortality and major morbidity in adolescence with a focus on domestic U.S. populations. Adolescent development and culture are considered as they relate to the specific health issues causing morbidity and mortality in adolescence. The course emphasizes critical-thinking skills and is oriented toward those interested in considering service delivery in adolescence. Faculty: A. Madkour, P. Sirois. Offered: Spring-even years. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6490 Key Policies and Programs in Maternal and Child Health (3) This course examines maternal and child health policy in the US, with a focus on the history, organization, delivery, and financing of maternal and child health, and related public health and social services at the national, state and local levels. This course will emphasize the evolving Maternal and Child Health (MCH) -Title V Block Grant program legislative mandates; the national, state and local structures and roles; and how MCH fits into the overall US public and private health systems. Faculty: T. Evans. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6500 Violence as a Public Health Problem (3) This course is designed to give an overview of the problem of violence as viewed from a public health perspective. We will look at the epidemiology of violence (scope, causes, risk factors, and consequences) along with public health approaches to the problem. The course aims to balance a review of the problem with ideas and evidence for solutions. Local academics in other relevant disciplines, including social work, psychology, law, and pediatric psychiatry, and community leaders working in the field of violence prevention will lend their expertise to help students understand and address violence as a public health problem. Faculty: C. Taylor. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6510 Essential Issues in Maternal and Child Health (3) This course is designed to present current issues and trends in maternal and child health. The course offers an introduction to MCH-related issues primarily in the United States from a multidisciplinary perspective. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an overview of the health, social, economic, and environmental issues currently affecting women of reproductive age, infants, and children. This course is unique in that it relies on the expertise of guest lecturers whose work is germane to the field of maternal and child health. Discussion and debate with fellow students, the professor, and the guest lecturers is integral to the class. Critical thinking and writing across scientific, clinical, social and political aspects of each issue is essential. Faculty: G. Clum. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6610 Community Nutrition (3) Community nutrition is a discipline that strives to prevent disease and to improve the health, nutrition, and well-being of individuals and groups within communities. Nutritional problems in communities range from obesity to food insecurity in units from families to governments. The causes of poor nutrition are multiple and complex, involving biological, economic, social, cultural, and policy issues. This course explores various communities and the influences on their eating habits and nutritional status, as well as programs and policies designed to address nutritional problems in certain communities. Faculty: J. Sheats. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 6690.

GCHB 6690 Introduction to Nutrition (2)  This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the basic principles of nutrition. It is recommended for graduate students who have not had a prior course in nutritional science. Subjects include basic nutrients with emphasis on their sources, function, and metabolism in the human body. Other topics include food selection for optimal health, energy balance and weight control, and lifecycle nutrition. An emphasis will be placed on the major nutrition-related problems in the world today and strategies to address them. Faculty: P. Chaparro. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6750 Nutrition Assessment and Monitoring (3) This course offers a thorough review of the tools used for the assessment of nutritional status of populations. Topics include anthropometric, biochemical, and socioeconomic indicators of nutritional status; methods for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of dietary data; measurement of household food security; and the use of data from nutrition monitoring and surveillance sources. Faculty: D. Rose. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6760 Programs for Health and Nutrition of Women and Children in Resource-Poor Countries (3) The purpose of this course is to introduce students to methods for contributing to the design of programs and supporting policies for improving health and reducing malnutrition in populations in developing countries. This means learning about experiences in specific countries, and generalizations from these, in recent successful efforts to reduce malnutrition and improve health. Students will also learn how public health and nutrition programs are set up to address key child health issues in resource poor areas through both preventive services and disease management programs. Faculty: A. Bazzano, R. Oberhelman. Offered: Spring Period 2. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6770 U.S. Food and Nutrition Policy (3) This course surveys domestic policies and programs that affect nutrition at the population level.  Subjects include: dietary policy, including the politics of the food guide pyramid: food labeling policy; food access policy, including the U.S. food assistance programs; food safety and food supplies policy; the obesity epidemic, including the role of the food industry; environmental determinants of nutrition outcomes and efforts to improve them; actors and agencies involved in making policy; and nutrition advocacy. Faculty: D. Rose. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6780 The Double Burden of Malnutrition (2) The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the concepts of the Double Burden of Malnutrition (DBM): the co-existence of over- and under-nutrition, both contributing to disease, and acting as risk factors for each other, as well as to engage them in understanding how to prevent it and mitigate its consequences across the life course, especially in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Students will learn the various definitions of the DBM, how to measure the problem, as well as to understand its causes and consequences from a life-course perspective. Students will also explore ways to resolve DBM problems through developing case studies on specific aspects of the DBM in selected LMICs. Faculty: P. Chaparro. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6790 Food Security and Resilience (3) Students will examine the impacts of rapidly globalizing food systems on food and nutrition security at local, household, and intra-household levels in this course. This topic is especially relevant now because of the increased policy attention and resources for programming that are focused on promoting improved food security, nutrition and sustainability. This course will provide students with the analytical skills for identifying the elements of resilient food systems and the outcomes of food and nutrition security, access to organizations prominent in international food security policy discussions, and a background in readings relative to this debate. Faculty: N. Morrow. Offered: Summer Period 1. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6800 Training Methodologies for Health Professionals (2) This course introduces students to the concepts and methods which will enable them to effectively train adults to perform health care functions in the community. Knowledge about how adults learn coupled with attitudes toward participatory learning methods will be presented in a way which will permit the students to exhibit behaviors which will enable them to in effect "train trainers" to multiply themselves and to multiply healthy practices in a community. Emphasis will be placed upon developing a positive attitude toward interactive learning and combining this with a variety of training methodologies which will together help to create an atmosphere where communities are empowered to improve their health. Faculty: M. Dal Corso. Offered: Spring Intercession. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6830 International Health Policy (3) This course examines the process of designing and implementing health policy, mainly focusing on developing countries. The diversities of policies are illustrated using case studies, group debates and in-class lectures. Constraints such as lack of resources, multiple stakeholders, corruption and historical conditions will be discussed and analyzed with both the practical and the ethical considerations of how the policy process operates in different culture. This course helps students develop their own capacities to analyze, criticize, evaluate, and construct policy-oriented arguments. Faculty: D. Hotchkiss. Offered: Fall-even years. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6860 Public Health in Cuba (3) The course addresses how the Cuban government has prioritized the development of universal health care in the last five decades, with a special emphasis on the efforts to strengthen primary health care (PHC) and to articulate PHC with more complex levels of care. The course contextualizes and analyzes the programs to prevent infant mortality and to prevent and control infectious diseases such as polio, malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, and HIV, as well as the economic and political context in which these public health initiatives developed. The course takes place in Havana and in rural areas in partnership with the National School of Public Health of Cuba. Faculty: A. Castro. Offered: Summer Special Offering. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 6870 Adolescent Health Policies and Programs (3) This course provides students with an understanding of the context, design, and effectiveness of the main interventions to prevent and reduce adolescent health risk-taking and develops students' professional skills in the use of quantitative methodologies to determine the health needs and problems of adolescents in developing countries and the formulation of workable strategies for responding to identified needs. The course begins with a discussion of major policy issues and controversies surrounding specific program approaches to reducing adolescent health risk-taking. Students will compare interventions for addressing common health problems in adolescence as well as services for meeting the needs of special youth populations in emerging and developed countries. The key components of successful and unsuccessful programs in specific health areas will be addressed. Faculty: A. Gage. Offered: Fall-even years. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6030, BIOS 6040 or Permission of Instructor.

GCHB 7010 Health Communication Theory and Practice (3) This course is designed to examine research and practice in the area of health communication, with a special focus on how health media campaigns are planned and executed in order to stimulate change in knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and subsequent health outcomes. This examination will include the review of the history of health communication campaigns, selected case studies of campaigns, and the theoretical foundation for the design and implementation of campaigns. Faculty: K. Schoellmann. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 6030 (may be taken concurrently).

GCHB 7020 Communications Research for Family Planning and Health (3) This course constitutes a practical introduction to the research methodologies used in planning a communication program for promoting desirable health behaviors, designing appropriate messages, pre-testing communications and evaluating program effectiveness. Most examples and data sets will involve international family planning and sexual risk behaviors, but will be applicable to other areas of public health. Lectures will be combined with exercises in which students carry out communication pretests, conduct and analyze the results of focus groups and do secondary analysis of existing communication data sets using statistical software. These skills are basic to the systematic approach in designing, implementing, and evaluating a health communication program. Faculty: D. Meekers. Offered: Spring Period 2. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6240 or Instructor Approval.

GCHB 7070 Social Determinants of HIV/AIDS (3) The goal of this course is to provide students with the skills to critically reflect on current strategies to stem the epidemic through a sociological approach to understanding epidemiological patterns. Students will participate in group work and individual assignments that apply concepts discussed in class.  The course format combines presentations and small group activities to highlight the complexities of the epidemic and equip students with the skills, resources, and agency to become active participants in the global response. Faculty: K. Andrinopoulos. Offered: Fall Period 2. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7100 Public Health Policy and Practice (3) This course introduces students to the broad context of public health practice, including the mission, core functions, structure, policy role, program activities, cultural competency, ethics, and collaborative endeavors of public health agencies, as well as the value conflicts inherent in public health leadership works at the local, state, national, and global levels through non-profits and governmental agencies. Faculty: M. Dal Corso. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7120 Monitoring and Evaluation of Maternal and Child Health Programs (3) This course is designed to serve the purpose of (1) providing students with an understanding of the context and design of the main interventions to improve maternal and child health in developing countries, (2) developing professional skills in the use of quantitative analytical tools and technologies to appropriately monitor and evaluate maternal and child health programs in developing countries, and (3) increasing students' abilities to use monitoring and evaluation results to improve the planning and delivery of maternal and child health services in developing countries. Faculty: A. Gage. Offered: Summer Period 1. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6030.

GCHB 7140 Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Programs (3) This course focuses on the monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS program. The course is intended to: (1) provide an introduction to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs; (2) strengthen skills in the application of tools for global- and national-level monitoring of the HIV epidemic and response; (3) provide a foundation for monitoring and evaluating specific HIV/AIDS programmatic areas (prevention, testing and counseling, treatment, community and home-based care, tuberculosis/HIV integration, orphans and vulnerable children, key populations, and behavior change communication); and (4) demonstrate how M&E findings are used to prioritize options for improving the national HIV/AIDS response. Faculty: A. Gage. Offered: Fall-odd years. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6030.

GCHB 7200 Development Issues: Theory and Measurement (3) This course critically reviews major theories, concepts and debates about social, human and economic development in the developing world. These concepts are useful to public health researchers and practitioners aiming to advance human well-being. We compare and contrast major development theories: economic growth, modernization, dependency, neoliberalism, sustainable development, human development, and human rights approaches. Then we address contemporary, critical perspectives that are reshaping development practice: the Capabilities Approach, Human Rights, and Post-Development thought. These challenge notions of: poverty, participation, gender, culture, technology, globalization, and sustainability, foreign aid, and development actors/institutions. Insights from critical research on development agencies and projects show how theories, worldviews and assumptions translate into real "development" programs and projects that have often unexpected, unintended outcomes. Faculty: L. Murphy. Offered: Fall Period 2. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7210 Survey Data Analysis in Family Planning and Reproductive Health Research (3) This course is intended for advanced Masters students and doctoral students. The course will introduce students to a number of key concepts and measures used in the monitoring and evaluation of family planning and reproductive health programs. Students will gain an understanding of a variety of reproductive health and health service indicators, data sources and their strengths and limitations. This course also provides basic hands-on quantitative skills that are essential in conducting monitoring and evaluation exercises in family planning and reproductive health programs. Students will learn how to use the STATA statistical software package to manage and analyze survey data and to construct reproductive health indicators. Students will also learn to interpret and present quantitative data, using graphs and tables, in ways that are suitable for scientific manuscripts. Faculty: M. Do. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7220 Community Organization (3) This course emphasizes community organization as a major approach to social change and community participation in addressing health problems. The course will explore concepts relevant to community practice. We will discuss methods for identifying and analyzing community health problems, their causes and solutions. We will examine roles of community residents, public health practitioners, and others in improving and degrading community health. The course stresses a theoretical foundation and application of community organization skills with an emphasis on community assessment, group process for partnership development and evaluation of community-level programs. Common strategies for community-level change will be discussed in the context of case study reviews. Faculty: I. Scherl. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7250 Evidence-Based Methods in Social and Behavioral Sciences (3) The purpose of this course is to train students in how to collect and analyze data on social phenomena in a rigorous and scientific manner through 1) inquiry and research design, 2) data collection, and 3) data analysis. Topics will include focus groups and in-depth interviewing, transcribing and reporting, survey design and modes of collection, descriptive statistics and quantitative methods. Students will learn the basic concepts and techniques that are used in social science research.  Above all else, this course will prepare students to better understand the limits and potential of social science research, to understand the content of future classes in the social and behavioral sciences, and to perform your own inquiries into social and behavioral phenomena. Faculty: M. Wallace. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6030.

GCHB 7260 Social Marketing (3) This introductory course provides and overview of the concepts and strategies used in social marketing and public information campaigns in the U.S. and other countries. The course outlines basic principles and methods followed by social marketers and provides a framework for carrying out social marketing. Contributions of commercial marketing will be discussed and real world applications of the approach will be integrated into the course. Faculty: K. Schoellmann. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7280 Qualitative Methods I: Basic Foundations (2) Qualitative methods can be highly useful in the conduct of community-based population health research and evaluation.  This course, part of a two course sequence, will provide introductory classroom and field-based learning experience in qualitative methods research and evaluation.  Students will receive foundational training in the design, implementation, analysis, and synthesis of qualitative methods.  Emphasis will be given to the appropriate uses of commonly-used methods in community-based health research and evaluation.  This course is for graduate students in the SPHTM. Faculty: D. Seal. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7290 Qualitative Methods II: Theory and Methods (2) This course builds on Qualitative Methods I to provide students hands-on experience conducting a qualitative rapid assessment on a topic of their choice and to complete a qualitative research proposal. In addition to enhancing in-depth interviewing and textual data management skills, students will be exposed to theories of qualitative research, social network research and the use of formal methods in rapid assessment research, as well as the digital tools that are used to facilitate this research. Class time will be divided into lecture, discussion, computer lab, and fieldwork.  The course is designed to permit the student to use the skills and knowledge developed in the two courses to produce a final report of substance on a health related topic. Faculty: C. Kendall. Offered: Spring Period 1. Prerequisite(s): GEHS 6280 or Instructor permission for students who have completed equivalent coursework and/or fieldwork.

GCHB 7510 Maternal and Child Health: The Lifecourse Perspective (3) In this course students are taught to use a life course perspective to approach important issues of public health. Over the semester, basic principles of human development, from preconception to end of life, are explored and examined through the conceptual framework provided by life course theory. Particularly, students will learn about the mechanisms, timing and dynamics of health as a developmental process, which can inform development of early interventions. In addition to providing a conceptual framework for understanding public health issues, the course will illustrate the application of this framework to gain practical insight into maternal and child health. Faculty: A. Bazzano. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 6510, GCHB 6030.

GCHB 7800 Introduction to Population Studies (3) This course introduces students to key concepts and measures; major theoretical perspectives and central debates; empirical material on population size, distribution, and trends; and basic methodological tools used in the field of demography, the study of population processes. There is no prerequisite for the course, but much of the material is quantitative in nature and so students considering taking the course should be comfortable performing computations and comfortable with basic algebra. Familiarity with a spreadsheet package such as Excel will be helpful for completing the homework problem set assignments. Faculty: P. Anglewicz. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7950 ISPP/Dietetic Internship Part 1 (3) Supervised practice for students with DPD Verification statements. Experiences are provided in food service management, medical nutrition therapy, and community nutrition at various facilities in Southeast Louisiana. Faculty: M. Piacun. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 7960 ISPP/Dietetic Internship Part 2 (3) Supervised practice for students with DPD Verification statements. Experiences are provided in food service management, medical nutrition therapy, and community nutrition at various facilities in Southeast Louisiana. Faculty: M. Piacun. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 7950.

GCHB 7990 Independent Study (1-3) Masters students and advisor select a topic for independent study and develop learning objectives and the expected final product. Faculty: Faculty. Offered: Every Semester. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 8200 Evaluation Theory (3) This course presents the theory of evaluation, and the theoretical assumptions that underlie evaluation organized around the five components that Shadish, Cook, and Leviton consider to be important in evaluation theory; theories of knowledge, value, use, social programming and practice. The course is a seminar course that will focus on the key figures in the field and exemplary evaluations. This is an active learning course applying evaluation principles. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and write critiques of evaluator's work. Faculty: C. Kendall. Offered: TBD as required for doctoral students. Prerequisite(s): CHSC 6120, CHSC 6130, Doctoral Students Only.

GCHB 8250 Advanced Research Methods in Global Health (3) This course is intended for upper-level masters students interested in applied research methods and doctoral students working towards their dissertations. The focus is on providing skills for conducting program, impact or other forms of evaluation using econometric methods to analyze health, population and nutrition data. Of particular focus will be analyses of population-based household surveys using the Stata 9.0 statistical software package. Key topics that will be covered are: research methods and designs, linear regression models with their assumptions and limitations, limited dependent variable models (logit, probit tobit, multinomial logit), instrumental variables and two-stage least squares, sample selection and censored regression models, multilevel models, propensity score matching, applications of program evaluations, and time series analysis with pooled and longitudinal data. Faculty: P. Hutchinson. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): BIOS 6030, BIOS 6040, EPID 6030, or permission of the instructor.

GCHB 8750 Social Determinants of Health I: Concepts, Theories and Interventions (3) There are four overarching objectives for this course: 1). To synthesize knowledge about the empirical etiologic relationship between social determinants and health outcomes. 2). To hypothesize causal chains linking social determinants to health outcomes through the application of relevant social theories. 3). to examine and critique various approaches to addressing the social determinants of health. 4). to plan an investigation of at least one social determinant of health within research. Faculty: A. Madkour. Offered: Special one-time offering Spring 2018 Period 1. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 6030, GCHB 6110, Doctoral Students Only.

GCHB 8760 Social Determinants of Health II: Measurements and Methods (3) This course prepares students for practical applied research on the social determinants of health. The first half of the course will focus on 1) measurement of key constructs 2) common study designs. The second half of the course will focus on 1) common biases and limitations to social determinants research and methods to address limitations and 2) analytic strategies and interpretation. Students will gain hands-on experience in analyzing and interpreting data. Students will also review and critique empirical applications in the public health field. By the completion of the course, the student will have the skills necessary to design, analyze and present data from a range of studies that consider social determinants of health. Faculty: K. Theall. Offered: Special one-time offering Spring 2018 Period 2. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 8750, GCHB 6030,  BIOS 6030, BIOS 6040,  EPI 6030, Statistical Packages Course, Doctoral Students Only.

GCHB 8800 Senior Graduate Research Seminar 2 (1) This course is required for all doctoral students in the GCHBS department for the duration of their tenure as doctoral students. It is intended to increase student's proficiency in 1) analyzing and interpreting current public health research, as represented in peer review journals; 2) determining how to apply research findings to the practice of public health, especially by developing community-based programs for disease prevention; and 3)presenting and discussing research-related topics. These objectives will be attained through a variety of activities, including faculty-and student-led discussions of required readings; faculty and student oral presentations of ongoing research projects (including the prospectus and dissertation research), and small group projects. All students will be expected to make a research-related oral presentation at least once. Faculty: D. Seal. Offered: Spring. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 7270 or equivalent; Doctoral status. 

GCHB 8820 Advanced Program Planning and Grant Writing for Research (3) This is a "skills" course for the purpose of which is to guide students through the process of planning, developing, and evaluating the major components of a research proposal. Students will develop the skills needed to write a successful research grant proposal focused on a significant public health topic. They will identify an idea for a prevention research project (behavior change, environmental change, or policy change). They will plan, develop, and write the major sections of the proposal. The instructor will guide the students through the grant writing process, help them to plan and develop their ideas, provide personal tutorials as needed, and provide individual feedback and support. Faculty: C. Johnson. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 6030 (Concurrent okay). GCHB 6120, Doctoral Students Only.

GCHB 8830 Senior Graduate Research Seminar 1 (0) This course is required for all doctoral students in the GCHBS department for the duration of their tenure as doctoral students. It is intended to increase student's proficiency in 1) analyzing and interpreting current public health research, as represented in peer review journals; 2) determining how to apply research findings to the practice of public health, especially by developing community-based programs for disease prevention; and 3)presenting and discussing research-related topics. These objectives will be attained through a variety of activities, including faculty-and student-led discussions of required readings; faculty and student oral presentations of ongoing research projects (including the prospectus and dissertation research), and small group projects. All students will be expected to make a research-related oral presentation at least once. Faculty: D. Seal. Offered: Fall. Prerequisite(s): GCHB 7270 or equivalent; Doctoral status. 

GCHB 8990 Doctoral Independent Study (1-3) Doctoral students and advisor select a topic for independent study and develop learning objectives and the expected final product. Faculty: Faculty. Offered: Every Semester. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 9970 Dissertation (0) Doctoral candidates who have defended their prospectus and are engaged in research. Faculty: Faculty. Offered: Every Semester. Prerequisite(s): None.

GCHB 9990 Dissertation Research (2) Doctoral students who have completed course work but not defended their prospectus. Faculty: Faculty. Offered: Every Semester. Prerequisite(s): None.