PHT 535 - Research & Evaluation Methods in Population Health, 3 credit hours

Prerequisite(s): PHT 525
This is a course designed around modules whose objective is to provide students with greater familiarity in a range of methods essential to public health practice. The course will be framed around an in depth needs assessment and community public health planning in Northeast Ohio. Topics covered will include data collection and evaluation, both quantitative and qualitative, uses of informatics in public health, analysis of vital statistics, working with communities, methods for developing and facilitating solutions to public health problems. The course demonstrates how core public health competency areas in data analysis and communication provide foundations for applications for both practice and practice-based research. Students will learn to identify the kind of research problems for which qualitative and quantitative methods are appropriate, and to critique research in terms of design, technique, analysis and interpretation. Students will use SAS, NVivo and related software for quantitative and qualitative analysis.