HEAL 315 - Public Health Research Methods

(3 hours) Prerequisites: HEAL 100 and 209. The research process and application of research findings in the fields of community health and public health promotion will be addressed. Emphasis is on the basic elements of conducting research to address community health issues, including the review and critique of published research with consideration of the application of research findings in health promotion program planning and evaluation as well as disease prevention. Detailed study of research methods will include quantitative and qualitative tools, analyzing the benefits and limitations of different designs. Issues of researcher positionality, notions of objectivism, questions of epistemology, and the trend in the field towards mixed-methods approaches will be discussed and debated.