Epidemiologic Methods and Prevention

This unit develops practical skills in measuring disease frequency, conducting surveillance and case finding, and applying prevention strategies across the life course. Students will also learn screening test properties, causal inference tools, and ethical and environmental considerations that shape public health action.

Learning Objectives

• Calculate crude morbidity and mortality rates and other commonly used epidemiologic rates, and interpret demographic data and population pyramids to identify populations at risk
• Analyze types of surveillance and step-by-step case-finding procedures by comparing passive, active, sentinel, and syndromic systems and conducting a simulated surveillance activity
• Apply principles of screening and prevention (primary, secondary, tertiary), including screening test attributes and childhood and cancer-preventing vaccine schedules, to design and justify a screening or vaccination plan for a target population
• Evaluate causal relationships using Hill’s criteria and Rothman’s causal pie, identify potential confounding, and assess ethical and environmental factors that influence study design and public health decisions