The MSc-GH program requires that students complete a minimum of 34 credits of coursework, and a minimum of 4 credits of ungraded research for thesis preparation, for a total of 38 credits. The eleven courses required by the program comprise six core and five elective courses. Students are encouraged to take more than five electives at no additional cost.
GLHLTH 700K Global Health Field Research: Planning and Skill Development
The goal of this course is to prepare students to successfully engage in field-based research in global health. Over the course of the semester we will meet weekly or biweekly to develop critical skills and reflective insights that can help students to manage the multiple aspects of fieldwork. In addition, monthly seminars will be held in the fall semester preceding the Spring semester on selected topics that will be too late to wait until the Spring.
This course introduces major global health problems and social, behavioral, economic, biomedical and environmental determinants of health in resource limited settings. Topics include communicable diseases i.e. HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and common childhood diseases; chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health; and determinants of health associated with these diseases, such as poverty, gender imbalance, culture, poor environmental sanitation, malnutrition, tobacco use, and climate change. Other topics may include health promotion, reproductive health, maternal and child health, and disaster preparedness.
This course provides a foundation in study design, research question development, field implementation, measurement, validity and reliability. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches are examined. Students build critical skills in reading, interpreting and synthesizing scientific literature. The selection of appropriate measurements and survey development is emphasized and issues in field implementation explored.
This course introduces principles of epidemiology, including disease frequency measures; measures of association; observational, experimental, and quasi-experimental study designs; validity—confounding, selection bias, measurement error; reliability. The course also will interweave introductory biostatistics for continuous and categorical variables. Lab section in which students walk through guided data analysis on provided data set using STATA.
This course provides global perspectives on maternal and child health research, practice, and policy. Utilizes case analysis to examine health challenges facing women, children, health providers, and policymakers in some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities. Addresses maternal health, infant health, and early childhood development. Special focus on low- and middle-income countries. Discussion includes: data and measurement, health system challenges, public health interventions and programs, policy and advocacy. Topics include: reproductive health, delivery and postnatal care, nutrition, immunization. Designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students.
This course builds academic writing skills through a field-specific examination of the literacy practices that are common to DKU graduate school programs and offers writing practice in genres in or closely related to those fields. Students learn useful organizational structures and functions and improve their ability to write clear and concise texts. They build vocabulary and learn to use high frequency academic collocations. Individualized instruction enables students to identify their strengths and limitations and make improvements in their writing.
GLHLTH 700K Global Health Field Research: Planning and Skill Development
The goal of this course is to prepare students to successfully engage in field-based research in global health. Over the course of the semester we will meet weekly or biweekly to develop critical skills and reflective insights that can help students to manage the multiple aspects of fieldwork. In addition, monthly seminars will be held in the fall semester preceding the Spring semester on selected topics that will be too late to wait until the Spring.
This course expands directly on Quantitative Research Methods I to present intermediate topics in biostatistics and epidemiology. Topics will include a review of study designs including meta-analysis; intensive study of bias, including confounding, selection bias, and misclassification; missing data; sensitivity analysis; topics in regression analysis; and an introduction to the analysis of time to event data, including lifetable methods, survival curves, and Cox proportional hazards models. We will incorporate discussions of causal inference into the semester’s content as well as discussions of how to read, review, and write scientific literature. In addition to the lecture component, the course includes data analysis workshop section in which the students will develop programming and statistical analysis skills as they perform a guided data analysis.
Global health ethical issues may be encountered when implementing applied anthropology, public and global health, and health related programs. Ethical issues are often caused by lack of knowledge or negligence in observing the established rules and regulations. Most ethical regulations emerged following serious unethical events that ignored the fundamental human rights of individuals and communities while participating voluntarily or not in medical or public health research. There is a need to observe ethical practices to fulfill the respect for human rights in target populations and thus work to eliminate health disparities. This two-credit student-led seminar will allow students to actively participate in leading and engaging in discussions surrounding current and past public health ethical issues.
This seminar allows students to review scientific articles on global health ethics and develop a case study proposal for their summer field work. Articles will be selected from Global Health topics in public health, medical anthropology, sociology, and health related journals and books. The purpose of this course is to develop critical thinking, writing, and advocacy skills to address unethical practices while working in global health settings. This seminar also will prepare students to address health disparities at a global level by pointing out ethical issues that affect the most disadvantaged populations worldwide.
The course will discuss main problems and challenges in the development and strengthening of different health systems in developing countries. It will introduce the frameworks and approaches developed by WHO, World Bank, and leading academics to analyze issues and problems arisen over the past decades. It will also provide opportunities to discuss and analyze challenges and opportunities for improving the performance of health systems for better health in various health system contexts. The course will be conducted in an interactive format with a combination of lectures, case study analysis, and group exercises/discussions. Active participation of all enrolled students is anticipated.
This course provides global overview of recent (mid-20th century to present) trends in non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemiology and strategies for prevention and control of these diseases, with particular emphasis on China and comparisons between China and other countries. Focuses on four major NCD categories as separate modules: cardiovascular, diabetic, oncologic, and pulmonary diseases. Uses case studies to highlight selected geographic differences. Provides firm understanding of shifting disease burden, stakeholders, and interventions to address NCDs in low- and middle-income countries. Designed for graduate-level students, open to advanced undergraduates.
This course will introduce the application of qualitative methods in health research, with particular emphasis on their application in implementation research in relation to policy or program design and evaluation issues. The course will begin with an overview of the theoretical basis and ethics of qualitative research. It will focus on choosing the qualitative field methods, skills of data collection, approaches of data analysis, and reporting the qualitative research results. For example, students will develop research questions and identify appropriate qualitative field methods. They will conduct an individual interview and a focus group discussion to develop moderator skills. Students will also go through the steps of data analysis using a framework approach. The use of Nvivo, a qualitative data analysis software program, will be introduced.
This course builds academic writing skills through a field-specific examination of the literacy practices that are common to DKU graduate school programs and offers writing practice in genres in or closely related to those fields. Students learn useful organizational structures and functions and improve their ability to write clear and concise texts. They build vocabulary and learn to use high frequency academic collocations. Individualized instruction enables students to identify their strengths and limitations and make improvements in their writing.
