Master of Public Health (MPH)

Community & Behavioral Health Track

Students within the Penn State College of Medicine MPH Community & Behavioral Health Track will build skills necessary to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate public health interventions.

This concentration provides advanced instruction in health promotion and disease prevention, with a focus on the impact of behavior on health in rural to mid-size communities. This concentration builds skills necessary to conduct a needs assessment, identify strategies for addressing unmet needs, design interventions for the community, and effectively communicate health information in a way that is meaningful to different target audiences.

Students who select the Community & Behavioral Health Track must take the following courses:

• PHS 505: Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation (3 credits)
• PHS 506: Behavioral Health Intervention Strategies II (3 credits)
• PHS 807: Public Health Education Methods (3 credits)
• Electives (9 credits)

See the Penn State Graduate Bulletin for course descriptions on all Public Health Sciences courses.

Track Competencies

Courses within the Community & Behavioral Health Track support MPH student attainment of the following competencies:

• Prepare evidence-based public health interventions to influence health outcomes.
• Demonstrate ability to conduct process, impact, and outcome evaluations of public health programs, policies, and interventions.
• Critically review and modify health behavior change programs and policies.
• Identify factors that influence the sustainability of public health programs, policies, and interventions.
• Apply ethical principles to public health program planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Epidemiology & Biostatistics Track

Students within the Penn State College of Medicine MPH Epidemiology and Biostatistics Track will build analytical and statistical skills necessary to conduct epidemiological studies and test hypotheses regarding the association or causality of risk factors and health outcomes in populations.

This concentration provides advanced instruction in the quantitative sciences, with a focus on applied epidemiological methods and practice. The Epidemiology & Biostatistics concentration builds analytical and statistical skills necessary to conduct epidemiological studies and to test hypotheses regarding the association or causality of risk factors and health outcomes in populations.

The track is designed for both early- and mid-career health professionals. This concentration is best suited for students who wish to conduct population-based health research in government, health care institutions, academic medicine and private industry.

Students who select the Epidemiology & Biostatistics Track must take the following courses:

• PHS 521: Applied Biostatistics (3 credits)
• PHS 522: Multivariate Biostatistics (3 credits)
• PHS 551: Advanced Epidemiological Methods (3 credits)
• PHS 580: Clinical Trials: Design and Analysis (3 credits)
• PHS 801: Data Management (1 credit)
• Electives (5 credits)

See the Penn State Graduate Bulletin for course descriptions on all Public Health Sciences courses.

Track Competencies

Courses within the Epidemiology & Biostatistics Track support MPH student attainment of the following competencies:

• Identify and apply appropriate descriptive and inferential methodologies to the type of study design for answering a particular research question.
• Apply appropriate modeling and statistical software program for advanced statistical analysis and interpretation of public health datasets
• Apply multivariate analytic methods, including longitudinal analysis, for estimation, hypothesis testing, and exploratory data analysis
• Describe the concepts of biases, confounding, and effect modification in epidemiological studies and be able to apply these concepts in the conduct and interpretation of epidemiological studies
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of epidemiological studies including concepts of biases, confounding, and effect modification and propose alternative designs, data sources, and analytical methods
• Develop a data management plan for the collection, processing, maintenance, and archiving of public health data and utilize best practices in data error detection, quality control, and quality assurance

Global Health Track

This track is offered exclusively online through Penn State World Campus.

Students within the MPH Global Health Track will build skills necessary to identify, interpret and understand global health concepts, as well as apply these skills on both the international and local stage.

This concentration provides advanced instruction in systems thinking, global health promotion, global disease and prevention, and the major contemporary global health issues and initiatives. The global health concentration focuses on the political, social, economic, cultural and environmental determinants of health, as well as the role of global health players and how they interact with health systems to improve health.

The track is designed for students interested in global health challenges and initiatives as they apply both globally and locally.

Students who select the Global Health Track must take the following courses:

• PHS 803: Principles of Global Health (3 credits)
• Six credits from any of the following:
  • PHS 557: Global Impact of Infectious Diseases (3 credits)
  • PHS 804: Integrating Systems Thinking in Global Health (3 credits)
  • PHS 890: Global Health Exchange Program: International Perspectives of Health Care Systems (3 credits)

All Global Health Track students will take nine additional elective credits.

See the Penn State University Graduate Bulletin for course descriptions on all Public Health Sciences courses.

Track Competencies

Courses within the Global Health Track support student attainment of the following competencies:

• Propose evidence based solutions to global health problems.
• Employ critical thinking and appraisal of the literature to explain the global influences on determinants of health.
• Apply social justice and human rights principles in public health policies and programs.
• Describe the roles and relationships of the entities influencing global health.
• Identify the relationships among patterns of morbidity, mortality, and disability with demographic and other factors in shaping the circumstances of the population of a specified community, country, or region.