Epidemiology

Program Description: 

The M.Sc. in epidemiology is a branch of basic medical sciences and health that evaluates the individuals and public health by collecting data and its analysis. It identifies their distribution in the society, factors affecting them, and then proposes solutions and evaluates the services provided by the health centers in different levels.

The recent century has witnessed a major change in the health patterns of the society. The changes in the birth and death patterns, age pyramid, life expectancy and patterns of the prevalent diseases in the society are evident. Changes in the prevalent diseases from  infectious  diseases  such  as  Tuberculosis  and  cholera to cardiovascular diseases,  cancers  and  metabolic  disorders  and  causal  models  of  new  diseases  in addition  to  the  serious  attention  given  to  evaluation  of  environmental  factors,  work factors  and  psychological  factors have  led  to  development  of  new  interests  in  this field  and  provided  new  grounds  for  doing  research  on  public  health  and  factors affecting it. New aspects in molecular biology and genetics are the result of the raised interest in researches on the causes of the diseases and factors affecting them. 

The most important role of an epidemiologist is the analysis of health statistics, monitoring and evaluating the health programs and determining the cost-effectiveness of health plans.  An epidemiologist plays an important role in health system by optimizing the costs in different health programs and levels, and also contributing to selection of the best ways in raising the public health, all of which leading to the economic and social development of the society.

Objectives:

The main objective of the program is training human sources in the graduate level in order to provide the related health services in the following fields: 

• Teaching and empowerment in identification of the health issues of the society  
• Teaching and empowerment in identification of the behavioral patterns and the 
• society’s characteristics in various aspects 
• Teaching and empowerment in scientific ways of collecting data  
• Teaching and empowerment in monitoring and evaluating of programs and analysis of costeffectiveness 
• Teaching and empowerment in ways of using the statistical methods and computers in data analysis 
• Teaching and empowerment in identification of the danger sources and ways of controlling them in different levels of the research