HONR238N Public Health and Contemporary Health Issues: “Saving Lives Millions at a Time”
Mondays: 1-3:45pm
Kerry M. Green, Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral and Community Health
Are energy drinks dangerous? Should HIV screening be mandated for college entry? How likely is gun
violence on a university campus? Every day, we are presented with new public health considerations and
study findings. However, it can be challenging to understand the significance of public health findings
presented by the media without a basic understanding of public health methods and its scientific
foundation. Through the in-depth exploration of three health topics, students will gain insight into the
public health approach to better understand its purpose and methodology.
This topically oriented class will introduce students to the basic principles of epidemiology, the science of
public health, to allow them to be better consumers of public health findings presented in the popular
media. We will focus primarily on three health problems to serve as examples of major health problems
confronting the United States. We will study these problems in depth in order to gain an understanding of
disease prevention, identification, and transmission. This semester, we will focus on one infectious
disease (HIV) and two health behaviors (substance use and violence). We will read popular press articles
on these health topics, as well as nonfiction case studies.
Assignments will include: weekly reactions papers, student presentations on health topics in the news, inclass activities, and a final research paper
Readings will include: Excerpts from Saving Lives a Million at a Time; The Hot Zone by Richard Preston;
popular press coverage of major health topics; nonfiction case studies of public health problems; and
government publications on substance use, HIV, and violence.
Course enrichments include guest lectures and field trips, such as a visit to Sexually Transmitted Infection
Community Coalition of Metropolitan Washington, DC (STICC) or Metro Teen AIDs Real Talk Testing
Van, as well as one or more guest lecturers from leading experts and community health workers in
substance use, HIV, and violence prevention.
Overall Course Objectives:
 Engage students in the process of critically examining public health study findings presented in
the media
 Have students gain foundational knowledge of epidemiology to allow them to be better
consumers of public health study findings
 Enhance teamwork, critical thinking, writing, and oral presentation skills
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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE—SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Class 1: An Introduction to the Public Health Perspective
Learning Objectives
 To understand the purpose of the discipline of public health
 To understand how public health got to where we are today
 To gain insight into the rationale of the health problems selected to focus on this semester
[Activity: Team Building Exercise]
SUBSTANCE USE SESSIONS
Class 2: Drinking on College Campuses: What is the Big Deal?
Learning Objectives:
 To identify the factors that lead to the determination of whether something is a public health
problem.
 To develop consensus around what makes a health problem an epidemic
 To increase skills in evaluating public health data
 To gain an understanding of basic public health descriptive statistics, including measures of
morbidity and mortality
 To distinguish between incidence and prevalence
 To evaluate the magnitude of the college drinking problem
 To identify the characteristics of college problem drinkers
[ACTIVITY: Small group problem analysis]
Class 3: The Legalization of Marijuana: What Does the Public Health Evidence Suggests?
Learning Objectives:
 To develop a familiarity of common public health study designs (e.g., cross-sectional surveys,
case studies, ecological studies, case control studies, cohort studies)
 To distinguish between experimental and observational studies
 To assess the value of various study designs
 To distinguish between descriptive and analytic studies
 To evaluate the evidence on the consequences of marijuana use
[ACTIVITY: Debate of the pros and cons of marijuana legalization from a public health perspective]
Class 4: Energy Drinks: A Public Health Danger or a Personal Choice?
Learning Objectives:
 To distinguish between association and causality
 To increase understanding of criteria of causality
 To evaluate evidence of causality
 To weigh the evidence of the risk of energy drinks
[ACTIVITY: Small group development of a ‘white paper’]
Class 5: Substance Use Prevention: ‘Above the Influence?’
Learning Objectives:
 To distinguish between risk and protective factors
 To evaluate current and historic substance use prevention programs
 To translate public health study findings into prevention programs (e.g., alcohol.edu) and policy
(e.g., drinking age laws, legalization of marijuana)
[ACTIVITY: Design of a substance use prevention program/media campaign]
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VIOLENCE SESSIONS
Class 6: Violence in Urban Communities: A Disease in Need of a Cure?
Learning Objectives:
 To assess whether violence is an epidemic in U.S. cities
 To evaluate whether violence should be considered a disease
 To describe the distribution of violence considering person, place, and time variables
 To identify potential determinants of violence
 To assess strategies for decreasing gun violence in urban communities
[ACTIVITY: Discussion of The Interrupters]
Class 7: Gun Violence: More Guns More Problems?
Learning Objectives:
 To evaluate the pros and cons of various study designs in studying gun violence
 To assess the strength of causal conclusions from ecological studies
 To propose case control and cohort studies for analyzing gun violence
[ACTIVITY: Small group development of a study]
Class 8: Adolescent Suicide: Can We Prevent It?
Learning Objectives:
 To reinforce principles of descriptive and analytic epidemiology
 To evaluate evidence of risk factors
 To assess the effectiveness of screening techniques
[ACTIVITY: Small group analysis of case studies/testimonials]
Class 9: Intimate Partner Violence [Guest Speaker]: Breaking the Cycle
Learning Objectives:
 To appreciate the magnitude of intimate partner violence in the United States
 To assess the role of drugs and alcohol in intimate partner violence
 To identify public health strategies for preventing intimate partner violence
[ACTIVITY: Question and Answer Session with an Expert]
HIV SESSIONS
Class 10: Introduction to HIV and Infectious Disease Transmission: Why is DC a ‘Hot Zone?’
Learning Objectives:
 To describe modes of transmission of infectious diseases
 To apply principles of infectious disease epidemiology to an investigation of an infectious
disease, including calculating and evaluating attack rates and relative risks
 To recognize the characteristic features of a common source outbreak
 To critically evaluate the evidence supporting or refuting a particular hypothesis about the cause
of the outbreak,
 To appreciate the role of humans in contributing to environmental health problems
[ACTIVITY: Small group laboratory style analysis of a disease outbreak]
Class 11: Investigation of an Infectious Disease Outbreak: What Have We Learned from Ebola and
Marburg that We Can Apply to HIV?
Learning Objectives:
 To continue to develop an appreciation of the public health workforce’s response to an infectious
disease outbreaks
 To identify the critical components of a historic case study
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 To apply understanding of one infectious disease to another
[ACTIVITY: Book Club Like Discussion]
Class 12: CDC Initial Approach to Investigating the HIV Disease Outbreak: What Went Wrong?
 To identify the barriers to addressing the HIV epidemic during the initial outbreak
 To evaluate CDC’s early strategies to identifying HIV
 To brainstorm strategies for addressing the HIV epidemic
[ACTIVITY: Discussion of The Band Played On]
Class 13: HIV Screening: Should Testing Be Mandatory?
Learning Objectives:
 To assess measures of screening test effective
 To identify barriers to HIV screening
 To apply measures of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value to HIV
 To weigh the pros and cons of universal and selective screening for HIV
[ACTIVITY: Small group evaluation of a screening instrument or field trip to an HIV testing center]
Class 14: HIV Prevention [Guest Speaker]: What Are We Doing and Is It Working?
Learning Objectives:
 To explore how public health research findings are translated in to public health interventions
 To assess the effectiveness of on-going efforts of the University of Maryland School of Public
Health to prevent HIV transmission
 To evaluate the approach of the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center addressing
HIV in the capital beltway area.
[ACTIVITY: Question and Answer Session with an HIV Expert]
Class 15 – Student Presentation on Public Health in the News
Learning Objectives:
 To critically evaluate public health study findings presented in the media
 To synthesize study findings into an effective oral presentation
 To work effectively with group members
 To enhance public speaking skills
 To increase ability to effectively respond to questions
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