Spatial and Contextual Epidemiology (EPID 684)
Course Goals
In this course, we will take an exploratory and collaborative approach to defining and understanding the key problems and approaches to spatial problems in epidemiology and public health. Through reading historical and contemporary examples of spatial analysis in public health, completing hands-on labs that give a sense of how key mechanisms and methods work, and pursuing an independent research project, you be able to identify the most important biological, social and environmental mechanisms that drive spatial patterns of risk.
You will be able to answer key questions about the relevant spatial scale of analysis for a given problem (e.g. neighborhoods vs. cities) and identify key spatial statistics for characterizing spatial clustering relevant to your public health topics of interest. At the end of this term, you will have a strong foundation for pursuing additional study of specific topics in spatial epidemiology, advanced statistical methods relevant to spatial analysis, and the creation of maps and other data visualizations that effectively convey these ideas.
Class Meetings
We will have 28 total class meetings, which we will use for a mix of discussion, hands-on activities and project work. The topics we focus on in our in-class sessions are selected to support your own work on the semester-long Roadmap Project
This semester, we will meet in SPH I 2695 from 1:30-2:50pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning 1/5. If you are unable to attend class in-person, please use this zoom link to participate remotely.
Please review the course policies for information about attendance, grading and other issues.
Laying the Foundations: What is spatial epidemiology?
In this first module, we will start to get our heads around what we actually mean when we talk about spatial epidemiology. First and foremost, we’ll ask the question of why space matters in public health, when it does and does not, and what tools are available to us to diagnose and address spatial problems where they exist.
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 01/05 (Thu) | Where are we going? |
| 01/10 (Tue) | Maps and More |
| 01/12 (Thu) | Spatial epidemiology is all about relationships |
| 01/17 (Tue) | What tools can we use to understand spatial variation and clustering? |
Spatial analysis and the foundations of modern epidemiology
In this module, we will use an important but often-mischaracterized historical example - the 1854 Broad Street Cholera outbreak and John Snow’s historic analysis and intervention in it - to explore what it is that makes a public health problem a spatial one. Specifically, we will look at how this particular outbreak was shaped by the confluence of biological, social, and environmental mechanisms.
Another important component of this story is one of problem definition: Is the problem transmission of an infectious pathogen, or the spatial aggregation of foul-smelling, disease-causing air?
During this module, we will use Snow’s challenges in convincing a skeptical public and medical establishment of the infectious etiology of Cholera as a springboard for the type of problem definition that is the focus of the Postcards from the Road assignment. This will culminate in presentations at the end of this module, and we will use some of the class time prior to these presentations to make progress on this project.
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 01/19 (Thu) | Walking into a Cholera epidemic |
| 01/24 (Tue) | Class cancelled |
| 01/26 (Thu) | Miasma vs. Germ Theory |
| What is the origin? assignment due | |
| 01/31 (Tue) | Using maps to make the case |
| 02/02 (Thu) | From the pump handle to the present |
Introducing the multi-level approach to spatial variation
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 02/07 (Tue) | Distinguishing between individual and place effects |
| 02/09 (Thu) | Introduction to hierarchical models of spatial variation |
Destination Project Progress
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 02/14 (Tue) | Destination presentations |
| 02/16 (Thu) | In-class project workshop |
Clustering!
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 02/21 (Tue) | A step-by-step work-through of the radon example |
| 02/23 (Thu) | Cancelled due to 🥶 Ice Storm 🥶 |
Spring break - no class! 02/28 (Tue) & 03/02 (Thu)
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 03/07 (Tue) | Making sense of clustered environmental exposures |
| 03/09 (Thu) | Clustered environmental exposures cont’d |
Postcards from the Road
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 03/14 (Tue) | Postcards from the Road I |
| 03/16 (Thu) | Postcards from the Road II |
| 03/21 (Tue) | Postcards from the Road III |
| 03/23 (Thu) | Postcards from the Road IV |
Connecting measures of risk clustering to spatial variation in health outcomes
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 03/28 (Tue) | Connecting residential segregation to inequitable disease outcomes |
| 03/30 (Thu) | Project Workshop |
| 04/04 (Tue) | Local variation in segregation exposure and its impact on individual health outcomes |
| 04/06 (Thu) | Segregation, structural racism, and infection |
Coming around the bend: The present and future of spatial epidemiology
| Date | Topic |
|---|---|
| 04/11 (Tue) | Final Product Workshop |
| 04/13 (Thu) | What is the social vulnerability index? |
| 04/18 (Tue) | Last Day! Wrap-Up |
| 04/26 (Wed) | Final Product Submission |