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Epidemiology
Epidemiology is classically described as the study of the distribution and causes of disease in populations. For short-hand we sometimes call it causology. A more proper academic description would recognize three inter-related areas; surveillance (description of disease patterns), a search of causal relationships in observational data (like risk factor epidemiology), and randomized trials (human-controlled experiments). Biostatistics provides the logic and scientific tools.
Our epidemiologic research focuses broadly on human pathobiology, using tools ranging from clinical examinations to molecular biology. Most of the activity within the epidemiology group involves the study of the syndromic conditions which cause the great majority of adult illness, namely, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, arteriosclerosis, and cancer. We have a special interest in racial and ethnic diversity in health, and a major thrust of our research pertains to the study of health in the African Diaspora. Research sites in West Africa (Nigeria, Cameroon), the Caribbean (Jamaica), and the US (Chicago) allow us to contrast the prevalence and causal mechanisms of chronic disease among populations of African origin in widely varying social environments.We have developed a Center for Genetic Epidemiology to help us take full advantage of the developments in molecular technology. (See Departmental Research for a list of projects.) Most recently, we have developed a new Online Master's in Public Health.
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