Courses
The course descriptions below are correct to the best of our knowledge as of August 2011. Instructors reserve the right to update and/or otherwise alter course descriptions as necessary after publication. The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. The Course Rotation Guide lists the expected semester a course will be taught. Paper copies are also available in the BUSPH Registrar’s office. Please refer to the published schedule of classes for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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SPH MC 705: Safer Sex in the City: from science to policy
Why do you need research-based knowledge about sex, sexuality, and how to apply this to public health? So you can understand and debate public health issues and controversies, such as STDs, contraception, and donor sperm and eggs. And maybe learn a little about yourself. This course will cover a range of topics related to sexuality and health application of this knowledge to program planning and policy. -
SPH MC 725: Women, Children and Adolescents: Public Health Approaches
Women, Children and Adolescents: Public Health Approaches This course introduces students to the principles and practices of public health and maternal and child health. Using the life-course perspective, this course examines the social determinants of health and development of women, infants, children and adolescents. Selected current topics, such as asthma, adolescent pregnancy, infant mortality, and childhood obesity, are studied in depth and used to illustrate how problems are understood, their distribution in diverse populations, and the content and quality of programs required to address them. Throughout the course, special attention is given to the impact of poverty, poor access to health care, and racial inequities on the health of families, as well as to the strengths that individuals and communities bring to the creation of solutions. By the end of the course students will be able to formulate an MCH-related public health question, conduct and write a literature review, and write a policy memo. MC725 is the first required course in the MCH sequence. -
SPH MC 759: Perinatal Epidemiology
Issues related to the perinatal period from the framework of epidemiologic methods will be examined in this course through critical review of epidemiologic studies and exploration of measurement, design and data issues for this population. The course will examine the effect of social conditions, perinatal exposures and programmatic strategies for maternal and infant health. Participants will review various sources of perinatal epidemiologic data, and will address classification issues and challenges in assessing pregnancy exposures and outcomes related to these data sources. The final course project will require a formal, written literature review as well as an NIH-style study proposal on a perinatal issue. -
SPH MC 763: Maternal and Child Health Policymaking
This course explores the process by which U.S. national and state policymakers allocate resources to mothers and children. Beginning with an analysis of the evolution of U.S. maternal and child health (MCH) policy, it utilizes general policy models and case studies to examine the special features of legislative, executive, administrative, and judicial policymaking in MCH. The course examines how policymaking in MCH has traditionally been characterized by a greater reliance on regulatory and judicial bodies, as well as the frequent use of mothers and children as political symbols. This course is taught in seminar format with weekly readings and student-led discussion. -
SPH MC 770: Children with Special Health Care Needs
The course presents an overview of issues related to the design and delivery of services for children with special health care needs and their families in the United States. It addresses the nature and extent of chronic illness and disability among children, the demographics of childhood disability, the legislative framework for health and social services for this population, and the organization and implementation of services at local, state and federal levels. Throughout the course, the central role of family in the child's life and the importance of family-centered service systems are emphasized. The challenge of balancing complex care needs with needs related to childhood social and cognitive development is highlighted. Students are given opportunities to enhance skills in the areas of needs assessment, program and policy development, and evaluation through class discussion, readings, and assignments. -
SPH MC 771: Topics in MCH
This course addresses new and emerging issues in the field of maternal and child health at an intermediate level. It is accessible to students of all concentrations and backgrounds. Topics vary each semester; for information regarding the current offerings, please refer to the print or web-based School of Public Health schedule. -
SPH MC 775: Health Disparities And Vulnerable Populations
This course is focused on strengthening public health students? knowledge, skills and ability to construct a critical appraisal of the determinants, distribution, causes, mechanisms, systems and consequences of health disparities. The course requirements, including the class presentations, help students in acquiring intermediate skills in design of public health interventions targeted toward understanding, reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities among and across MCH populations. Students will gain program evaluation skills through evaluation of allocation of resources and provision of health services in a specific community-based program. The course is designed to help students translate current knowledge and research into specific public health strategies. This class also carries concentration credit for the Social & Behavioral Sciences concentration. -
SPH MC 782: Women and Substance Use
This course offers a window on the experiential context in which women -- including adolescent girls --develop substance abuse problems, and the health and social consequences for them and for their families. We will examine the complex, dynamic interaction of risk and resilience as it affects individuals, families, and communities, and learn about the interplay between substance abuse and co-existing mental health problems. The course will cover effective practices for screening and clinical assessment, gender-specific and family-centered treatment, prevention of relapse, and the importance of addressing co-morbidities as part of public health strategies. Throughout the course, we will consider special MCH populations, such as pregnant women. By the end of the course, students will demonstrate a deeper understanding of the complexity and inter-relatedness of personal and social environments in which substance abuse and mental health issues occur within families and strategies and policies for prevention, detection, and treatment. A research paper will be required. -
SPH MC 785: Reproductive Health Advocacy
This course prepares students to design, lead, or collaborate in advocacy efforts around reproductive health policy in the United States. It allows students to focus on an array of issues related to women?s fertility and its regulation and to use multiple frameworks--public health science, law, social history, religion and politics--to frame and argue their positions for purposes of advocacy. The course begins with an overview of the social and political history of fertility control and current reproductive health services and policies. We then examine debates at the state and national levels in preparation for advocacy skill-building and practice, including a visit to the State House, interaction with a panel of advocacy organizations, participation in mock legislative hearings, and the writing of an ?op ed? article for a local or national newspaper. By the end of the course students demonstrate enhanced competence in critical analysis, argument, writing and presentation to audiences that range from public officials to the readers of popular press. Interested students may append the course with directed study or practicum with Prof. McCloskey to complete a project at a reproductive health advocacy organization. -
SPH MC 786: Immigrant Family Health: Public Health Across Borders
This course focuses on low-income immigrants in the U.S. and applies a family and community health perspective to the study of their health and well-being. It begins with an overview of how political, economic, cultural factors at the global and local levels shape the migration patters and health of immigrants and refugees. We then examine specific immigrant groups and health issues, with attention to interventions that engage community members in taking action. Students will gain critical skills in contextual analysis, community based participatory research, and project design. -
SPH MC 795: Adolescent Health: Understanding Public Health Risk and Opportunity
This course equips advanced undergraduates and Master's students from all departments and disciplines to examine the public health challenges presented by adolescents. The course begins with an introduction to adolescent development (i.e., in terms of biology, behavior, social roles, and psychology), and also reviews basic themes of public health (i.e., a public health approach, the social ecological framework). The course continues with in-depth review of the prevalence and causes of several key risk behaviors and health problems among adolescents, including: unintentional injury, sexual risk behaviors, suicide and mental health, obesity, multiple types of violence, and substance use. The course also reviews: health policy, school health, the role of the media on adolescent health, and issues in adolescent health research. Class sessions involve a variety of formats including small group work, lecture and discussion, activities, and debates. -
SPH MC 800: Preventing Mental Health Disorders Among Women, Children, and Adolescents: A Life Course Perspective
The course will use a prevention framework to examine mental health interventions targeted to women, children, and youth. We will explore how events that occur during critical developmental periods -- early childhood, adolescence, and pregnancy - can alter the life course of the individual and the family. Readings will focus on preventive interventions that target specific disorders, as well as those focused on addressing risk and protective factors common to many mental health problems. We will pay particular attention to how preventive interventions can be implemented and disseminated at a community level and integrated into primary care health care settings and major public health programs. The course will involve substantial group work; it is approved for MCH and SB concentration credit. -
SPH MC 802: Leading Community Health Initiatives: Medicine and Public Health as Partners
This course is designed for medical and public health students who seek the leadership skills needed to develop and implement community health initiatives. Students will work in theory and practice to address the question, How can we as young physicians and public health professionals work with community partners to lead change for better health? By the end of the course students will be able to work in teams to apply the Challenge Model to develop and implement a community-based health initiative in the context of and in partnership with a community health center or organization. -
SPH MC 815: Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocacy: Culture, Science, and Politics
This course prepares students to design, lead, or collaborate in advocacy efforts around sexual and reproductive health policy in the United States, with attention to the global context in which the policies are developed and have their impact. Students focus on an array of issues related to sexual health and the regulation of women?s fertility, and use multiple frameworks--public health science, law, social history, religion and politics--to frame and argue their positions for purposes of advocacy. Students develop skills in critical analysis, argument, writing and presentation to audiences that range from public officials to the readers of popular press. -
SPH MC 840: Women and Health Policy: Gender, Evidence, and Politics
This course provides an opportunity to link theory, experience, and policy-making in the field of women?s health. Topics explored during the first half of the course include: what women in the U.S. need, want and receive with respect to health care services and preventive education; the role of women as health activists, consumers and providers; the meaning of gender, race, class, and culture in the provider-patient relationship; the assumptions and agendas that have shaped the field of women?s health; and the implications of that history for policy-making today. During the second half of the course, case studies are used to consider whether or not the questions currently being asked in women?s health are the right questions and whether or not resources are being directed appropriately. Topics examined in depth include mammography, lesbian health, hormone replacement therapy, physical disability, depression and aging. Students complete the course with sharpened skills for making arguments and promoting their ideas orally and in writing to audiences as diverse as legislators, the media, private foundations, public health policy-makers, and the general public. this class carries SB concentration credit. -
SPH MC 845: Perinatal Health Services
This seminar will focus on the contribution of perinatal health services and policies to improving birth outcomes and maternal well-being and reducing racial/ethnic disparities. This seminar will not address the identification of underlying causes or risks for poor birth outcomes, but rather the amelioration of known risks through organized public health programs and policies. A wide range of current prenatal health initiatives will be examined, including the CDC?s preconception and health care initiatives; comprehensive prenatal care (including home visiting) and centering pregnancy initiatives; community-based Healthy Start initiatives; the March of Dimes? prematurity prevention campaign; interconception and internatal care interventions; women?s health and MCH life-course initiatives, child and family allowances, and European reproductive health practices and policies. The special emphasis of this course will be on the practical implementation and delivery efficacious perinatal health services. -
SPH MC 850: Seminar in MCH Programs & Policies
This seminar examines the history of state, federal and international MCH programs and policies, their underlying ethical and policy assumptions, and conflicting population perspectives with a cross-cutting focus on MCH racial/ethnic health disparities reduction. The course will assist students to better articulate their own views about these perplexing MCH dilemmas and improve their skills in writing MCH policy memos and journal articles. Required for MCH-based DrPH students; other interested students admitted by permission of Instructor. -
SPH MC 871: Advanced Topics in MCH
This course addresses timely topics in maternal and child health at an advanced level. It allows students to build on their prior coursework and/or experience and knowledge of the field, focusing on a particular topic in more depth than is available in introductory courses. Topics vary each semester; for information regarding the current offerings, please refer to the print or web-based School of Public Health schedule. -
SPH PH 709: The Biology of Public Health
This course, designed for students who have little or no background in the biological sciences, provides a foundation in the biological mechanisms and principles underlying major public health problems. Selected public health problems are explored from a biological perspective in order to provide fundamental information about infectious and non-infectious agents of disease, disease transmission, biological defense mechanisms, co-evolution of man and microbes, the effects of nutritional deficiency and excess, effects of respiratory exposures, the biology of cancer, aging, and other topics. Each student completing this course should be able to knowledgeably participate in a discussion of public health problems with a basic understanding of the terminology, the underlying biological mechanisms of major public health problems, the biological impact of disease, and the major biological issues that influence the success of interventions. This course, or its equivalent, or SPH EH710, Physiology, are required pre-requisites for SPH EH768, Introduction to Toxicology. -
SPH PH 825: The Role of Human and Environmental Factors in Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases
The goal of this course is to give students a basic understanding of the human and environmental factors involved in the natural history of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Specific infectious diseases, including avian influenza, SARS, dengue, chikungunya, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli, will be employed as models to illustrate the involvement of these factors. Major emphasis will be placed on understanding the pathogenesis of the specific infectious diseases under discussion, as such an understanding is essential for appreciating how any disease emerges or re-emerges. At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to apply the principles they have learned to analyze and determine the factors involved in the new emergence or re-emergence of an infectious disease; knowledge which is ultimately essential for determining appropriate disease control and prevention strategies.
