This course on racism and health disparities is designed to support graduate studies in the social sciences, allied health, and medical disciplines.

This course will examine the research on intimate partner violence, mental health, and substance abuse among women. Clinical and legal interventions will also be discussed. Although knowledge of at least basic statistics would be helpful, it is not required for this class.

This course is designed to critically examine undeniable inequities in the distribution of morbidity and mortality. Students explore linkages between disease burdens and the social economic, and cultural contexts of our rapidly changing world by integrating local, national and international perspectives from social and biomedical sciences.

A review of sociological concepts and methods which have been applied to the study of health and medicine; the contributions of medical sociology to general sociological theory and to concepts and research on health-related problems of society.

Human Response to Stress provides an overview of current models and theories of stress, a review of multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of stress in applied settings, and a reading knowledge of selected research findings in the field of stress.

The focus of the course will be models of health- related behavior, including the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory, and Stages of Change Theory, discussing development of the models, similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions for future model development. We will also look at the extent to which the models explain behavior and behavior change empirically, and how useful they may be (or not be) in the development of primary and secondary prevention interventions.

This class explores the issues related to health and well-being among older women. Using a multidisciplinary approach that blends humanities, social and medical science and public policy, the course examines social, economic and cultural contexts of chronic physical and mental health.

This seminar course is designed to survey major tops, concepts and issues pertinent to the field of drug and alcohol abuse and dependence. The course will consist of 14 weekly presentations by instructors followed by open discussion of the presentation and assigned readings by class members. Active participation by all members is expected. Each weekly presentation is designed to provide a general overview of the current state of knowledge (e.g., theory, methods, ethics, and review of classic and/or exemplary studies) in a given area of drug and alcohol abuse and dependence research.

With the advice and approval of his or her faculty adviser, the first- year student may choose approved electives offered by the Department of Behavioral Science. The intent is to provide the student an opportunity for exploration and study in an area which supplements and/or complements required course work in the first-year curriculum. Pass-fail only.

BST 676 covers the theoretical underpinnings of probability and inference as it relates to methodology in public health. Topics include, but are not limited to, random variables, independence, discrete and continuous distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and efficient estimators.