SHORT-COURSE TRAINING IN EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS FOR GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE PUBLIC-HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Citation
M. Bayona et al., SHORT-COURSE TRAINING IN EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS FOR GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE PUBLIC-HEALTH PROFESSIONALS, Public health reports, 109(3), 1994, pp. 434-438
Citations number
10
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
Journal title
ISSN journal
00333549
Volume
109
Issue
3
Year of publication
1994
Pages
434 - 438
Database
ISI
SICI code
0033-3549(1994)109:3<434:STIEAB>2.0.ZU;2-B
Abstract
The University of South Florida has developed short courses of 2 to 3 days in epidemiology and biostatistics geared to public health workers . A key focus is providing skills which will assist local and State pu blic health units to assess their status and measure progress with res pect to achieving their explicitly stated health objectives for the ye ar 2000. The courses were developed after the identification of the tr aining needs in health departments and other public health settings. T he training objectives were (a) to enhance the biostatistics skills of professionals involved in the analysis of health data; (b) to reinfor ce basic knowledge of epidemiologic methods and its practical applicat ions in public health settings, including measures of disease frequenc y and association, epidemic outbreak investigations, and the identific ation and use of surveillance data; and (c) to demonstrate the applica tion of the risk factor approach to select the interventions needed to reach health objectives for year 2000 and how to evaluate such interv entions. A total of 43 students have taken this course series. Profess ional staff in health departments cannot always enroll in formal train ing in epidemiology and biostatistics because of time limitations or a lack of a bachelor's degree. However, the need exists. An alternative to such training could be the short course program described in this paper.