Principles of Epidemiology and Biostatistics for Business – HLTH 485

CG • Section 8WK • 11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 09/05/2023

Course Description

The course introduces the principles, concepts, and methods of epidemiology – the study of patterns and determinants of disease in different populations to business professionals. Topics include measures of disease frequency and effect, uses of rates and proportions and other statistics to describe the health of populations in investigating the extent of disease problems and the associations between risk factors and disease outcomes.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

This course provides an introduction to epidemiology and biostatistics to the student with minimal training in public health, the biomedical sciences, and statistics. It is important for the student to be able to identify causal factors and modes of transmission, with the assistance of statistical tools and biomedical information, and reflect the primary aim of epidemiology.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (2)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided prompt. Each thread must be at least 500 words, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and include at least 1 scholarly reference, 1 textbook reference and 1 reference from the Bible. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be at least 250 words and include at least 1 scholarly reference and 1 reference from the Bible.

Activity Assignments (7)

The student will complete 7 activity assignments, provided by the instructor, that contain various tables, matching, and listing questions. These activities will help the student understand bio-statistical and epidemiological issues, measures, and computations.

Case Study Assignment

The student will evaluate a case study of an epidemiological issue. The case study will contain multiple calculations and short answer questions that must be completed and submitted.

PowerPoint Presentation Assignment

The student will use a descriptive epidemiologic approach to explore a health problem in detail and create a thorough PowerPoint presentation on the topic. Through this project, the student will gain experience in describing and analyzing the distribution of a health disorder in a population. The student will become familiar with various sources of data for the epidemiologic description of a health disorder. In addition, the student will enhance his/her ability to make sound epidemiologic judgments related to public health problems. This assignment is separated into 3 parts: Topic Selection, Reference and Outline, and Final Presentation. Refer to each assignment's instructions and grading rubric for details.

Quizzes (3)

Each quiz will cover the Learn material for the assigned Modules: Weeks. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 25 multiple-choice and true/false questions, and have a 2-hour time limit.