Principles of Public Health

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Principles of Public Health Peter N. Tabbot 10:832:232, Sect. B6:80645 973-983-2848 Summer 2012 ptabbot@aol.com T, TH 6:00 -9:40 Office hours by appointment 5/29/11 – 7/5/11 Scott Hall Room 202 Public Health Paper: Epidemiology As learned in class, epidemiology is at the very heart of public health and prevention. Public health professionals use epidemiological studies to verify connections between exposures and disease, and often derive information that proves critical in the prevention of illness and death. In performing or examining epidemiological studies, one must grapple with the facts and study design to determine whether the study was victim to potentially significant flaws, thereby making it less effective in proving a hypothesis. During our epidemiology lecture, we discussed the main differences between several types of studies (i.e., case control, cohort, clinical trial, cross-sectional). We also reviewed factors like confounding, biases, chance and causation criteria – potential problems that may skew information in a study and, in fact, could invalidate its results. Your assignment will be a review of an epidemiological study for its characteristics and validity, and discussion of possible flaws in study design that may have contributed to the study’s findings, or lack thereof. In general, consider the comparability among subject groups, methods used, any errors that may have been committed, and the magnitude of the effect caused by the error. To complete the assignment, you will read a brief epidemiological study (Lyme Disease Study), which is available through our course website at www.sakai.rutgers.edu, and critique it using the criteria below. You will also be required to read materials on epidemiological study design and flaws, which may be found on the course website (Epidemiology Reading Packet, Epi Packet Missing Pages). Use these readings, as well as the cursory information from our epidemiology lecture, to write a two page, single-spaced…