GLHLTH Courses (Fall 2009)
The following courses are sponsored by the Duke Global Health Institute.
Each of these courses may be counted toward credit for the Global Health Certificate.
*Note that each course can only count once toward the certificate. For example, GLHLTH 151 can either count for an ethics requirement or for an elective requirement, not both.
GLHLTH 90FCS/ PSY 93FCS
The Social Epidemiology of Obesity
Bennett,Gary
This Focus course is designed to broadly examine the causes and consequences of obesity, both domestically and abroad, using a social epidemiological perspective. Accordingly, heavy emphasis will be placed on understanding the influence of social determinants on obesity, common obesity-related comorbidities, and sociodemographic disparities in obesity. Students will become familiar with common social epidemiologic methods, so that they can interpret and critically analyze findings in the obesity research literature. Special emphasis will be placed on behavioral and policy-oriented obesity intervention solutions, as well as the handling of the obesity epidemic in popular culture.
SOCIOL 99IFCS/ GLHLTH 99IFCS
Gender, Poverty and Health
Blankenship,Kim
Examines interconnections among gender, poverty, and health (considers how race and ethnicity may intersect with these as well). Adopts global perspective with focus on US and the global south (low and middle income countries). Discusses frameworks for understanding health as well as in depth case studies of particular health areas. Major focus on HIV/AIDS, but other health issues addressed include: drug use, violence, work-related health, and reproduction. Addresses the social basis of health science and considers the policy implications of all of these issues.
GLHLTH 150/ PUBPOL 154
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Global Health
Whetten, Kate
Introduction to multidisciplinary theories and techniques for assessing and addressing global, infectious, chronic, and behavioral health problems. Global health issues addressed from perspectives such as: epidemiology, biology, engineering, environment, business, human rights, nursing, psychology, law, public policy, and economics.
GLHLTH 151/ PUBPOL 155
Global Health Ethics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Whetten, Kate
Ethical issues of conducting research on or working with marginalized/stigmatized populations, using theoretical frameworks and case studies. Investigations of ethical choices made by multinational, national and local policymakers, clinicians, and researchers and their impact on individuals, families and communities. Emphasis on working with community partners in developing needs assessment programs. Topics include: differential standards of care; protection of human subjects; access to essential medicines; genetic information and confidentiality; pharmaceutical development; health information technology; placebo controlled trials; best outcomes vs. distributive justice.
GLHLTH 163
Research and Methods in Global Health
Meade ,Christina
Introduction to research methods through examination of a variety of methodological techniques used in the behavioral and social sciences and relevant to multidisciplinary global health research. Students will use a problem-based approach to practice identifying global health questions of interest, ways to operationalize and test them, including strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Focus will be on discussing current global health issues, exploring questions and solutions, reading and evaluating published research and interpreting results. Skills include identification of global health problems, awareness of the contextual, behavioral, and ethical issues involved, conceptualization of research questions, and designing a research study.
GLHLTH 171
Tropical Medicine and Public Health In Costa Rica
Benavides,Jorge
Part of a 15-week semester abroad program in Costa Rica (through OTS). Integrates classroom and field instruction to introduce fundamental principles of tropical medicine and public health including the tropical environment and its related health issues; topics include infectious diseases, epidemiology, virology, zoonosis, sexual health, environmental and global health, traditional and alternative medicine, ethics, and the social and economic determinants that contribute to the expanding impact of infectious diseases.
GLHLTH 172
Research Practicum in Tropical Medicine and Public Health in Costa Rica
Benavides,Jorge
Introduces students to research design, field methods, and basic data analysis in a tropical context. Skills include hypothesis testing and statistical analysis, orientation to basic software packages, write and present scientific papers, and design and conduct epidemiologic research.
GLHLTH 185/ ECON 185/285
Economics of Global Health
Thomas, Duncan
Application of economic methods to examine key emerging issues in global health, with focus on health disparities. Emphasis on using economic models to better understand global health challenges and using econometric methods to empirically test hypotheses that seek to explain global health disparities. Discuss measurement of health and data quality. Explores individual, family and society-level determinants of health; impact of health on economic and social prosperity; demand and supply of health care. Discuss policy implications in each case.
Prerequisites: Economics 105D and 139D; or Public Policy 128D and Statistics 103 or 114; or consent of the instructor.
ENVIRON 238/ GLHLTH 238/ PUBPOL 237
Global Environmental Health: Economics and Policy
Pattanayak, Subhrendu
Social science perspective on global environmental health. Students will learn to identify primary environmental causes of high burden diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections; describe how to measure socio-economic impacts of global environmental health diseases; discuss key policies to control global environmental health problems based on private prevention and therapeutic behaviors; and propose frameworks to empirically monitor and evaluate global environmental health policies. A sub-module will focus on climate change and water-borne diseases.
Prerequisites: Introductory course in statistics.
PUBPOL 264/ GLHLTH 280/ SOCIOL 299.73
Special Topics
Introduction to Population, Health and Policy
Merli,Giovanna
This course covers the substantive findings and policies/policy debates around selected topics in the field of population and health in industrialized and developing societies. Demographic models are used to examine selected topics through framing, defining and evaluating key concepts. The first part of the course provides a treatment of alternative demographic models whereas the second utilizes these models to evaluate the nature of selected current population and health topics: the end of population growth; the relations between population, development and the environment; the health of populations; population aging; potentials for mortality increases; the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the resurgence of infectious diseases. Readings are drawn from the scientific literature and case studies from both developing and industrialized countries and span the disciplines of demography, sociology and public health.
GLHLTH 280S.01/ ETHICS 279S.01
Special Topics
Refugees: Global Health and Ethics
Terry, Fiona
This seminar examines the ethical and global health challenges posed by refugees and internally displaced persons in the contemporary era.
The following courses are open only to students pursuing the Master of Science in Global Health degree:
GLHLTH 310
Global Health Challenges (3 credits)
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.
GLHLTH 320
Research Methods in Global Health Science I (4 credits)
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. Course interweaves introductory biostatistics for continuous and categorical variables. Course has a data analysis lab section in which students walk through a guided data analysis on a provided data set, such as Demographic and Health Surveys.
GLHLTH 321
Research Methods in Global Health Science II (3 credits)
Course introduces range of methods appropriate for GH research and covers advantages/disadvantages of each. Refine skills in study design & regression analysis. Gain understanding of qualitative research methods. Skills include ability to review & understand procedures for validating linear/logistic regression models & survival models. Modules include review of statistics for psychosocial research incl. structural models, outcomes & cost effectiveness, econometric methods & concepts, and demography (incl. intro to GIS). Presents qualitative survey design, semi-structured interviews, ethnography & role of culture in conducting GH research, incl. concepts of disease, health, wellness & illness.