340.680.41
Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology

Location
Internet
Term
4th Term
Department
Epidemiology
Credit(s)
4
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
In-person
Class Time(s)
M, W, 1:30 - 3:20pm
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
Yes
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Christopher Heaney
Aisha Dickerson
Contact Name
Aisha Dickerson
Contact Email
adicke10@jhu.edu
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Prerequisite

340.601 Principles of Epidemiology, OR 340.721 Epidemiologic Inference I, OR 340.751 Epidemiologic Methods 1 or equivalent

Description
Introduces the key health effects of environmental and occupational exposures and the epidemiologic methods used to identify and estimate those effects. Emphasizes the interplay of methodological issues, including the assessment of environmental exposures and the understanding of specific disease processes in identifying the health impact of environmental exposures in the population. Learns about environmental and occupational exposures (including water and air pollution, food contamination, ionizing radiation, persistent environmental pollutants and emergent environmental exposures) and key methodological issues relevant for these exposures in population studies (including study design, exposure assessment and biomonitoring, disease clusters, dose-response relationships, susceptibility, geographic analysis, and evidence synthesis).
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Identify the major environmental and occupational risk factors for health-related outcomes in human populations
  2. Explain the key methodological issues relevant to the identification and estimation of the burden of disease caused by environmental factors
  3. Describe the pattern of burden of disease in a country using standard fertility and mortality indicators, estimates of disease burden measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), data on disease incidence, prevalence, risk factors and geographic diistribution and the concept of epidemiologic transition
  4. Describe and analyze environmental and occupational health problems, and discuss exposure-disease relationships in human populations
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
  • 30% Midterm Paper
  • 60% Final Exam
  • 10% Participation
Instructor Consent
No consent required
Consent Contact
adicke10@jhu.edu
Jointly Offered With
Environmental Health and Engineering