PH 792E Current issues and Topics in Public Health

Diabetes and Obesity Epidemiology

Spring 2007

Instructor: Andrew Grandinetti, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
956-7495 (office)
956-5818 (fax)
e-mail: or

Days and Time:Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:45 am

# of Students:15 students

Restriction:Public Health Major

Text:This course will use an online textbook available at no cost from the National Diabetes Data Group at NIH. Supplemental journal articles will be distributed at least one week prior to the relevant seminar session. The articles will be distributed by e-mail in PDF format whenever possible.

Course Description: Describes the epidemiology and prevention of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and associated complications. Discusses methodological issues associated with evaluating these in epidemiologic studies. The course is designed to cover the global, national, and local epidemics of diabetes, and its environmental and genetic risk factors, as well as interventions to prevent diabetes and improve diabetes outcomes.

Objectives: On completion of this course, the student will:

1. understand the classification and screening methods for diabetes mellitus

2. understand the basic pathophysiology of glucose tolerance and metabolic syndrome

3. become familiar with the epidemiology of diabetes and its complications

4. become familiar with the current status of interventions to prevent diabetes and/or its complications.

Course Policies:

  • Class papers/projects must be received when due to receive full credit.
  • Students must attend class. Participation in class discussions is encouraged and may be considered for bonus points in borderline cases.
  • Plagiarism will result in a failing (“F”) grade for the assignment. Students should familiarize themselves with the university of Hawai‘i Student Conduct Code.
  • No extra credit assignments given, however bonus point questions may be included in quizzes.
  • Final grades are based on completed assignments, class attendance, and participation. All assignments must be completed for a passing grade.
  • Appropriate citations and references are expected in the written critique.

Description of Course Assignments:

Seventy-five percent of the grade will be from attendance and performance on quizzes and the final examination. Depending on class size, each student will also be required to complete a written critique (3-5 pages) of at least one assigned journal publication. The student will also be required to present the paper and lead a discussion in class. The critique must address study design, identification of biases and confounding factors, appropriateness of the statistical techniques, validity of the conclusions, and the scientific and public health importance of the findings. The student should include citations to any referenced sources in the critique.

Class requirements / Points
Class attendance and participation / 25
Quizzes (5 quizzes each worth 5% of final grade) / 25
Written critique of Journal publication / 15
Oral presentation of critique and discussion / 10
Final Examination / 25
Total possible points / 100

Grading Scale: This class will NOT be using the “plus/minus” grading system. The grading scheme is as follows:

A – 90 points or greater

B – 80-89 points

C – 70-79 points

D – 65-69 points

F – < 65 points

Specialization Competencies Addressed

  • Identify the epidemiological dimensions of the major causes of morbidity and mortality regionally, nationally and internationally with particular emphasis on chronic and infectious diseases.
  • Apply appropriate statistical tests for parametric and non-parametric settings and identify advanced statistical methods for analyzing both nominal and continuous data, for both univariate and multivariate applications.
  • Demonstrate skills in the conduct of epidemiologic research:
  • Critically assess epidemiologic data and literature.
  • Write an epidemiologic research proposal.
  • Evaluate, interpret and discuss research results in the format required for an epidemiologic research report.

MPH Competencies Addressed

Analytic Skills

  • Define a public health problem.
  • Determine appropriate use of data and statistical methods.
  • Collect and summarize data relevant to an issue.
  • Evaluate the quality and comparability of data and identify gaps in data sources.
  • Describe how the data illuminate ethical, political, scientific, economic, and overall public health issues.
  • Identify research designs used in public health, including advantages and flaws of specific designs, and determine designs appropriate to specific needs.

Cultural Skills

  • Identify the role of culture, social, behavioral factors in determining disease, disease prevention, health promoting behavior, and medical service organization and delivery.

Communication Skills

Communicate effectively to professional and lay audiences both in writing and orally (unless a disability precludes oral communication).
Topics:

Screening and Classification of Diabetes

Epidemiology of Type 1 diabetes

Pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes

Global epidemiology of Type 2 Diabetes

Thrifty Genotype or Thrifty Phenotype

The life course approach to Diabetes epidemiology

US ethnic disparities in Type 2 Diabetes

Risk factors

  1. Diet and Exercise
  2. Genetic factors for diabetes
  3. Genetic factors for obesity

Metabolic syndrome and “Diabesity”

Ethnic disparities in Hawaii

Gestational Diabetes

Epidemiology and prevention of diabetes complications (microvascular, macrovascular, cognitive and mood)

Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes