UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA GREENSBORO

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION

***************

8/17/2005

*************** HEA 604-01 Public Health Statistics

COURSE SYLLABUS FALL 2003

CLASS MEETINGS: W 6:00—8:50p HHP 340

Instructor: H. William Gruchow, Ph.D.

Office Location: 437 HHP Bldg.

Office Hours: W 1:00 – 5:30p / Other times by appointment

Contact Info: E-mail: gruchow@uncg.edu Phone: 334-4777

REQUIRED TEXT: First Steps in Statistics D.B. Wright, 2002, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

Additional required reading material will be assigned throughout the semester.

COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS: Students are responsible for obtaining a UNCG computer account and knowing the basics of computer usage. Access to a word processing program, MS Excel, and SPSS or other statistical software is also required. These are available on the UNGC net. You will be provided with one or more datasets for assigned analyses in the course.

COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM THE GRADUATE SCHOOL BULLETIN:

Investigation of data sources and methods used to gather, analyze and interpret health data; emphasis on computer applications.

This course is intended for graduate students enrolled in the Master of Public Health Program and other graduate students interested in public health statistics.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES (SLO):

On completion of this course the student will:

1. be able to use basic statistics to help answer public health questions;

2. be able to properly apply graphical and numerical descriptive statistics;

3. be able to identify study designs;

4. be able to compute and interpret confidence intervals;

5. be able to conduct and interpret simple tests of hypotheses;

6. understand the concepts of regression, correlation and analysis of variance;

7. have a basic understanding of how to use statistical software to analyze data;

COURSE STRUCTURE: The course is organized around a series of topics that address the above learning objectives. (See Schedule of Class Meetings starting on page 4 of this syllabus). Course topics will be addressed through lectures, class discussions, small group discussion/activities and student projects. Readings from the text and other materials are keyed to the scheduled topics. The class should be viewed as a learning community, and a strong emphasis will be placed on student participation.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Class Attendance (SLOs 1-7)

Reading Assignments (SLOs 2-6)

Participation in Class Discussions (SLOs 2-5)

Submission of All Class Assignments (SLO 1)

Satisfactory Completion of Examination Requirements (SLOs 2-5)

CLASS ATTENDANCE: Students are expected to attend ALL class meetings. Absence from three or more classes may be cause for being dropped from the course.

READING ASSIGNMENTS: Specific readings are assigned for each class meeting. Students are expected to complete these readings BEFORE the class meeting for which they are assigned.

PARTICIPATION IN CLASS DISCUSSIONS: The participation of everyone is essential to achieve the learning potential of this course. The quality of a student’s participation will be evaluated by the instructor and used as an indicator of his or her understanding of the assigned text readings and lecture content. Although no specific numerical or alphabetical grade will be assigned to class participation, strong and constructive participation will have a positive impact on a student’s final course grade.

DATASET ACTIVITIES: A series of four dataset activities will provide a collective focus for applying the concepts and skills learned in the course. The activities will address a major public health issue in the community, and will include defining the problem, developing a logic matrix for evaluating the issue, and data gathering, analyses and presentation to assess the issue. On the last day of class each student will submit a paper on the issue and a commentary on the results of their activities. Details of the paper requirements will be provided at the appropriate times throughout the course.

EXAMINATIONS: There will be two in-class examinations. The dates of these examinations are given in the Schedule of Class Meetings. These examinations will test student comprehension of assigned readings and lecture content. Students who miss examinations for an acceptable reason will have the responsibility of scheduling an oral make-up examination with the instructor. This make-up examination must be completed within two weeks after the written examination date.

There will be a cumulative final examination which is scheduled for the date and time assigned by the Registrar’s Office.

ACADEMIC HONOR CODE:

Please refer to the 2002-2003 Undergraduate Bulletin, pages 37 and 341, or the web page at

http://saf.dept.uncg.edu/studiscp/Manual.html.

Students must sign the following statement on each assignment:

I have abided by the UNCG Academic Integrity Policy. ________________________

(signature)

Print Name:

CLASSROOM DECORUM: As a student in this course it is expected that you will respect the efforts of your fellow students and the instructor to make this course a profitable experience for everyone. Distracting behavior will not be tolerated. Specifically, food and the eating of food, excessive unnecessary talking between students unrelated to the course topics, and bizarre dress (especially hats/caps) will not be allowed in the classroom. If a complaint is received by the instructor with regard to a perceived violation of this policy, the issue will be decided by a majority vote of students in the class.

COURSE GRADING SCHEME:

Each student’s grade in the course will be based on performance according to the following criteria:

TO EARN A “PASSING” COURSE GRADE (“C” or “D”)

CLASS ATTENDANCE Attend ALL class meetings;

READING ASSIGNMENTS Complete all reading assignments for each class meeting, as they are assigned;

PARTICIPATION IN CLASS DISCUSSIONS Provide occasional quality contributions to class discussions and small group discussions;

CLASS PROJECT PAPERS Achieve a final grade of at least “C” on each.

COURSE EXAMINATIONS Achieve a grade of at least 70 percent on the in-class examination.

Students who achieve the above criteria will receive a grade of “D” or “C”, at the discretion of the instructor, based on quality of work, class participation and perceived effort of student.

TO EARN A COURSE GRADE OF “B”

CLASS ATTENDANCE Attend ALL class meetings;

READING ASSIGNMENTS Complete all reading assignments for each class meeting, as they are assigned;

PARTICIPATION IN CLASS DISCUSSIONS Provide quality contributions on a regular basis to class discussions and small group discussions;

CLASS PROJECT PAPERS Achieve a final grade of at least “B” on each.

COURSE EXAMINATIONS Achieve a grade of at least 80 percent on the in-class examination.

Students who achieve the above criteria will receive a grade of “B”, at the discretion of the instructor, based on quality of work, class participation and perceived effort of student.

TO EARN A COURSE GRADE OF “A”

CLASS ATTENDANCE Attend ALL class meetings;

READING ASSIGNMENTS Complete all reading assignments for each class meeting, as they are assigned;

PARTICIPATION IN CLASS DISCUSSIONS Provide quality contributions on a regular basis to class discussions and small group discussions;

CLASS PROJECT PAPERS Achieve a final grade of “A” on each.

COURSE EXAMINATIONS Achieve a grade of at least 90 percent on the in-class examination.

Students who achieve the above criteria will receive a grade of “A”, at the discretion of the instructor, based on quality of work, class participation and perceived effort of student.

SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS

DATES	TOPICS	ASSIGNMENTS (To be completed before class meeting)
August 17	Introduction of Instructor & Students Overview of Course Course Dataset Preparation Types of data; Measures of Central Tendency Data Displays
August 24	Data Distributions	Text* Chapter 1 Pp.1-28 Exercises 1.1-1.7 Pp. 10-12 Text* Chapter 2 Pp.13-24 Exercises 2.1-2.7 Pp. 24-27
August 31	Sampling	Text* Chapter 3 Pp.29-37 Exercises 3.1-3.7 Pp. 37-39 Course Dataset Activity I
September 7	Inference and Confidence Intervals	Text* Chapter 4 Pp. 40-49 Exercises 4.1-4.7 Pp. 49-50
September 14	Hypothesis Testing I	Text* Chapter 5 Pp. 51-61 Exercises 5.1-5.6 Pp. 61-63
September 21	Hypothesis Testing II	Text* Chapter 6 Pp. 64-73 Exercises 6.1-6.7 Pp. 74-75
September 28	Hypothesis Testing III	Course Dataset Activity II
October 5	EXAM
October 12	ANOVA	Course Dataset Activity III
October 19	Regression & Correlation	Text* Chapter 7 Pp. 77-88 Exercises 7.1-7.7 Pp. 88-91
October 26	Alternative Distribution Tests	Text* Chapter 8 Pp. 92-100 Exercises 8.1-8.6 Pp. 101-104
November 2	Contingency Tables	Text* Chapter 9 Pp. 105-113 Exercises 9.1-9.5 Pp. 113-115
November 9	Odds	Text* Chapter 10 Pp. 117-128 Exercises 10.1-10.7 Pp. 128-129
November 16	EXAM
November 30	Review	Course Dataset Activity IV
December 12 (7-10p)	FINAL EXAM

*Course Text: First Steps in Statistics D.B. Wright, 2002, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA