Courses

Courses by Department

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Biostatistics - SPH-Q
  • SPH-Q 381 Introduction to Biostatistics (3 cr.) A conceptual approach is utilized to introduce students to sources of public health data. Basic concepts and models are available to understand and analyze data and information related to prevention of diseases and promotion of health and determinants of health behavior.
  • SPH-Q 400 Introduction to Biostatistical Computing (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-Q 381 and STAT-S 320 or equivalent (or permission of instructor); for admitted Epidemiology majors. This course is designed to familiarize students with statistical computing and data management with an emphasis on SAS. The course includes both a lecture and lab component. Topics will include: Producing descriptive statistics; Combining and transforming SAS data sets; Reading and writing files that are not in a SAS format; and Using the SAS macro language.
  • SPH-Q 501 Introduction to Statistics in Public Health (3 cr.) An applied approach to the collection, organization, analyses and interpretation of data pertinent to public health and vital statistics is outlined.  The application of statistical and biostatistical methods to public health is explained.
  • SPH-Q 502 Intermediate Statistics in Public HealthTitle (3 cr.) This course covers fundamental statistical techniques and data analytical approaches that are commonly used in public health research.  It has been designed to prepare graduate students to take advanced statistics courses and to help graduate students become independent researchers.
  • SPH-Q 503 Data Mining Applications in Public Health (3 cr.) Data Mining tools extract unknown and potentially valuable information from large databases. Includes: sampling techniques; unsupervised/supervised learning methods; model validation techniques for regression and classification. Designed to provide modern data tools/methods for analyzing large datasets.
  • SPH-Q 504 Construction and Analysis of Achievement Tests in Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation. (3 cr.) Construction and Analysis of Achievement Tests in Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation.Principles of construction, selection, interpretation of written achievement tests in health and safety, physical education and recreation, and other evaluative procedures; analysis of standardized tests. Project required to apply principles involved.
  • SPH-Q 601 Experimental Analysis and Design (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-Q 502 with a grade of B or better. Principles and resources for designing and analyzing experiments using ANOVA models. Includes between and within subjects designs, factorial arrangements and nested designs, analysis of covariance, trends, statistical power and effect size. Incorporates computer programs.
  • SPH-Q 602 Multivariate Statistical Analysis (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-Q 502. Multivariate statistical techniques and analytical procedures commonly used in applied research. The topics include matrix algebra, data screening. Multiple regression, multivariate analysis of variance and covariance, discriminant function analysis, logistic regression, and principle components and factor analysis.
  • SPH-Q 603 Categorical Data Analysis (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-Q 501 and SPH-Q 502. Health and health behavior science often include discrete data. Description and inference for binomial/multinomial variables using odds ratios; analysis of contingency tables; basic methods of generalized linear models (GLM); logit/logliner methods with GLM; basic analysis of categorized data using SAS.
  • SPH-Q 604 Linear Regression (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: One graduate level biostatistics or statistics course. In this course, students will learn how to analyze bivariate and multivariate data using simple and multiple linear regression procedures; know how to build a linear including model checking, variable selection and data transformation; developing basic facility in the analysis of data using SAS.
  • SPH-Q 605 Analysis of Multi-level and Longitudinal Data (3 cr.) This course introduces modern statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis to graduate students who need to understand research reports/scientific papers, analyze empirical data, or interpret their results. The topics covered by this course include SAS tutorial, review of linear regression, linear mixed models, generalized linear mixed models, and generalized estimating equations (GEE). Students should complete a graduate level course in regression analysis before beginning this course.
  • SPH-Q 611 Statistical Packages in Research (3 cr.) This course serves as an introduction to SAS for data management, data analysis, and statistical reporting. Emphasis is placed on data management. The course will include lectures, computer lab practices, and a final project.
  • SPH-Q 612 Survival Analysis (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: One basic statistics/biostatistics course. Covers basic concepts of survival analysis, such as Kaplan-Meier estimates, hazard functions, survival functions, log-rank tests. Parametric inference includes likelihood estimation and the exponential, Weibull, log-logistic and other relevant distributions. Methods and theory for the Cox model.
  • SPH-Q 650 Special Topics in Biostatistics (1-3 cr.) Contemporary techniques in biostatistics are studied under the direction of faculty members with specialized areas of expertise. Specific topics vary. Repeatable for credit with different topic for a maximum of three enrollments.
  • SPH-Q 696 M.P.H. Field Experience in Biostatistics (1–7 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: Graduate GPA of at least 3.0 required. Public health skills are developed through professional experiences in health settings facilitated by preceptors and supervised by faculty. Regular critiques will be held with supervisors, written progress reports and development of a major independent project are required. Instructor permission required. Graded on S/F basis only.
  • SPH-Q 698 M.P.H. Culminating Experience in Biostatistics (1–3 cr.) This course provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which they have met the MPH Program Competencies in Biostatistics. Students must be in their final year of the MPH program to enroll in the Fall SPH-Q 698 course. SPH-Q 696 is a prerequisite or a co-requisite. Enrollment in the Spring SPH-Q 698 course requires successful completion (passing grade) of the Fall SPH-Q 698 course. Instructor permission required. Graded on S/F basis only. Repeatable for credit.
Epidemiology - SPH-E
  • SPH-E 250 Public Health Surveillance and Monitoring (3 cr.) The focus of this course is disease surveillance and monitoring, to investigate and track infectious and communicable diseases, as well as non-infectious chronic diseases through systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data for use in prioritizing, planning, implementing, and evaluating health programs, activities, and practices.
  • SPH-E 311 Introduction to Epidemiology (3 cr.) (Formerly SPH-H 311) Epidemiology concepts, measures, and methods are introduced and applied to explain major health problems, their risks factors, processes, and changes in specific populations. Application of epidemiological methods to identification, surveillance, prevention, and disease control in individuals, families, and communities are addressed.
  • SPH-E 350 Infectious Diseases: Outbreaks and Field Investigations (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 311; SPH-Q 381 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). Students will learn the history and the basic methods of investigation, study the epidemiology, and examine case studies of important, new and emerging diseases and syndromes that affect human populations. Instruction includes definitions and nomenclature, outbreak investigation processes and procedures, disease surveillance and monitoring, and prevention and control efforts. Case-studies focus on acute respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, sexually transmitted infections, malaria, and other vector-borne diseases.
  • SPH-E 353 Distribution and Determinants of Chronic DiseasesTitle (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 311; SPH-Q 381 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). This course will provide an introduction to chronic disease epidemiology. The course will discuss the pathogenesis and population distribution of some of the major chronic diseases that affect health (e.g. cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer). Additionally, students will learn about the major risk factors for chronic disease and strategies for population-based prevention. Finally, students will get an introduction to basic methods for ascertaining exposures and outcomes as well as research designs for studying chronic diseases.
  • SPH-E 358 Epidemiologic Methods: Concepts (3 cr.) P: Open only to admitted Epidemiology majors. Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 311; SPH-Q 381 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). This course will build upon the concepts introduced in Introduction to Epidemiology by going into further detail regarding elements of study design, data analysis, and interpretation of results. Students will learn the basic methods utilized in epidemiology and how to apply them to public health. The course is also intended to provide an introduction to the basic skills needed to critically evaluate the epidemiologic literature relevant to public health professionals.
  • SPH-E 359 Epidemiologic Methods: Applications (3 cr.) P: Open only to admitted Epidemiology majors. Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 311; SPH-Q 381 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). The course covers applications of epidemiologic methods and procedures to the study of the distribution and determinants of health outcomes including disease risk, morbidity, injuries, disability, mortality in populations, and health disparities. Other topics include quantitative aspects of epidemiology, for example, data sources, measures of morbidity and mortality, evaluation of association and causality, and study design.
  • SPH-E 496 Field Experience in Epidemiology (3-5 cr.) P: Open only to admitted Epidemiology majors. Recommended prerequisite: Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5. BSPH students in the Epidemiology concentration develop their public health skills through professional experiences in public health settings under the supervision of IU SPH-B faculty and facilitation of preceptors. The faculty coordinator and the preceptors conduct regular evaluations, provide written progress reports, and facilitate the development of the major independent project. This course requires permission of Epidemiology Field Experience Coordinator, and completion of all Public Health core and required courses. Graded S/F.
  • SPH-E 610 An Introduction to Applied Epidemiology and Biostatistics (3 cr.) Introduces basic epidemiological and biostatistical principles, concepts, and procedures for the surveillance and investigation of health-related states or events. Introduces collecting data and analyzing disease incidence and prevalence to provide analyses leading to effective interventions and preventions. Reviews sources of information, associations between diseases and precipitating factors, and statistical representations.
  • SPH-E 650 Special Topics in Epidemiology (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-E 651. This course provides students with a core set of epidemiologic concepts and skills required to critically evaluate research reports and review literature in epidemiology and public health. Students will have opportunities to lead an article discussion, present scientific information and to write a paper critique. Repeatable for credit with different topic.
  • SPH-E 651 Epidemiology (3 cr.) Epidemiology, public health's basic science, supports health monitoring, etiologic studies, intervention design and evaluation, and health policy. Health measures exercises use public data, and simulation. In a final proposal students apply epidemiologic principals to evaluate current literature, develop appropriate study design and methods, and strategies to limit threats to validity.
  • SPH-E 653 Chronic Disease Epidemiology (3 cr.) An overview of concepts in chronic disease epidemiology and etiology; study design in epidemiologic research and causal inference; major chronic diseases and trends in both the U.S. and world-wide; prevention, and screening.
  • SPH-E 655 Infectious Disease Epidemiology (3 cr.) Introduction to methods of infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, cohort and case-control studies, dynamics of transmission and prevention, and vaccination programs. Determinants of diseases, distribution within the population, and their control, along with implications for policy and prevention, are discussed. Students analyze infectious disease outbreak using case studies.
  • SPH-E 656 Genetic Epidemiology (3 cr.) Genetic Epidemiology investigates the role of genetic factors in determining complex diseases in various environmental contexts. In this course, we will introduce the basic concepts in genetics and epidemiology, and further discuss important topics in genetic epidemiology. We will also discuss other critical issues raised in the analyses.
  • SPH-E 657 Social Epidemiology (3 cr.) Introduction to social epidemiology, including methods and key study findings of how social factors affect health outcomes. Topics include the role of socioeconomic status, race, gender, neighborhoods, work place, and social networks, and upstream determinants such as social capital, income inequality and social policies on health.
  • SPH-E 658 Intermediate Epidemiology (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 651 Epidemiology and SPH-Q 501 Introduction to Statistics in Public Health or equivalents. Intermediate Epidemiology will build upon the concepts introduced in SPH-E 651 by going into further detail regarding elements of study design, data analysis and interpretation, and inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through problem sets and homework.
  • SPH-E 659 Intermediate Epidemiological Methods (3 cr.) The intermediate course in analytic epidemiology methods will focus on interpretation of findings, study design, analytic approach, and results. Students will be introduced to different viewpoints regarding controversial approaches to study design, analysis and interpretation and will complete exercises involving critiques of published work and analysis of existing data.
  • SPH-E 661 Introduction to R: Software for Statistical Computing (3 cr.) Data visualization and analysis are primary skills that all public health professionals utilize. These skills are crucial to communicate key public health messages to the stakeholders and the general public. In addition, master's level public health students are be expected to conduct data analysis upon graduation. This is an important skill-set that is valued by government agencies, research institutions, and private industries who employ public health graduates. This course is designed to provide practical data management, manipulation, visualization and analytic skills that will translate to all professional settings. This course will provide students with an opportunity to use R, a free software, to perform statistical computing. The R language provides a rich environment for working with data, especially for statistical modeling and graphics. This course will emphasize data manipulation and visualization, as well as reinforce statistical modeling courses. In particular, this course will introduce the R statistical language - which is a rich environment for working with data. Students will learn how to import, clean, manage, manipulate and display data. They will also learn how to create print quality tables using R functions. Though this course will emphasize data manipulation and visualization, it will also reinforce statistical modeling courses. Most importantly, this is a hands-on, project-based course to enable students to develop skills and to solve data problems using R.
  • SPH-E 670 Meta-analysis and Systematic Review for Public Health Research (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 651 Epidemiology and SPH-Q 501 Introduction to Statistics in Public Health or equivalents. This course will familiarize students with the tools to summarize a defined area of existing literature, culminating in students conducting their own publication-quality systematic review/meta-analysis. Topics we will cover include: literature reviews, meta-analysis and meta-regression, assessing and addressing heterogeneity across studies, and assessing and addressing bias in studies.
  • SPH-E 680 Nutritional Epidemiology (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 651 and SPH-Q 501 or equivalent. This course introduces basic concepts of epidemiology, basic methods of dietary assessment, reviews various topics in nutrition and chronic diseases and teaches the skills needed for critical evaluation of the nutrition epidemiology literature.
  • SPH-E 691 Readings in Epidemiology (1-3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 651. Planned readings in specialized epidemiology areas of professional interest are conducted under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. Enrollment is limited to advanced graduate students, and reading proposals must be approved by faculty in Epidemiology. Instructor permission required. Repeatable once for credit
  • SPH-E 692 Research in Epidemiology (1-3 cr.) Research projects are conducted under the direction of a member of the Epidemiology graduate faculty. This can be in the form of grant writing, or manuscript preparation, or data analysis. Enrollment is limited to advanced graduate students upon the approval of faculty. Instructor permission required. Repeatable three times for credit.
  • SPH-E 696 M.P.H. Field Experience in Epidemiology (1–7 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: Graduate GPA of at least 3.0 required. Public health skills are developed through professional experiences in public health settings facilitated by preceptors and supervised by faculty. Regular critiques will be held with supervisors, written progress reports and development of a major independent project are required. Instructor permission required. Graded on S/F basis only.
  • SPH-E 698 M.P.H. Culminating Experience in Epidemiology (1–3 cr.) This course provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which they have met the MPH Program Competencies in Epidemiology. Students must be in their final year of the MPH program to enroll in the Fall SPH-E 698 course. SPH-E 696 is a prerequisite or a co-requisite. Enrollment in the Spring SPH-E 698 course requires successful completion (passing grade) of the Fall SPH-E 698 course. Instructor permission required. Graded on S/F basis only. Repeatable for credit.
  • SPH-E 758 Advanced Epidemiology (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 658; SPH-E 659 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). Causal inference from observational data is a key task of epidemiology. This course will first present the concepts underlying causal theory and then show how epidemiologic concepts and methods introduced in E658 and E659 can be understood within this general framework. Epidemiologic concepts such as confounding, comparability, overall effects, direct effects, intermediate variables, selection bias, and information bias will be formally defined within the context of counterfactual theory.
  • SPH-E 759 Advanced Epidemiological Methods (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisites: SPH-E 658; SPH-E 659 or equivalent (or permission of instructor). This course will present advanced statistical methods used in Epidemiology. Topics covered include: Marginal Effects and Potential Outcomes Estimation; Propensity Scores; Analysis of Time-Dependent Treatments; Cox-Proportional Hazards Model; Longitudinal and Hierarchical Data Analysis; Generalized Estimating Equations; GLMs and GAMs.
  • SPH-E 790 Proposal Development and Grant-writing for Epidemiologic Research (3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: Enrollment in SPH-E-790 is restricted to PhD students only. This is an advanced course in the research methods that epidemiologists use to answer empirical questions. This course advances doctoral students in analytical epidemiology and the process of epidemiological research. This course provides training in constructing the argument, determining the best study design, and articulating the rationale for analysis.
  • SPH-E 792 Independent Research in Epidemiology (1–3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-E 651. Research project is conducted under the direction of faculty member of the graduate faculty. This can be in form of grant writing, or manuscript preparation, or data analysis. Enrollment is limited to advanced graduate students, and project proposals must be approved in advance. Repeatable for credit.
  • SPH-E 793 Independent Readings in Epidemiology (1–3 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-E 651. Planned readings in specialized epidemiology areas of professional interest are conducted under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. Enrollment is limited to advanced graduate students.Instructor permission; Readings proposal must be approved in advance. Repeatable for credit.
  • SPH-E 794 Doctoral Seminar in Epidemiology (1 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: SPH-E 651. This course will equip students with skills to apply epidemiological concepts to critically evaluate research reports in the public health and medical literature. Students will have opportunities to lead discussions, and present their proposed dissertation studies. The class will invite guest speakers to present their research relevant to epidemiology and public health. Graded on S/F basis only.
  • SPH-E 799 Dissertaion Research in Epidemiology (1–12 cr.) Qualifying exams must be passed prior to enrollment in dissertation credits. Repeatable for credit.
  • SPH-E 894 Doctoral Competency Evaluation (1 cr.) Recommended prerequisite: Completion of three semesters of SPH-E 794 Doctoral Seminar in Epidemiology. This course requires students to synthesize and to integrate knowledge acquired through their coursework in epidemiology. Students will be evaluated on Epidemiology PhD competencies.

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