Course Description
Focuses on the practice of research with an emphasis on topics relevant in the field of health policy. Topics include a review of empirical techniques, the tools for understanding and critically assessing the literature, and the tools for conducting original research.
Athena Title
Research Methods Health Policy
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in HPAM 8300E
Prerequisite
HPAM 7010 or HPAM 7010E
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to identify some of the major empirical challenges in investigating any given research question, to suggest a few appropriate empirical techniques for dealing with a given challenge, and to synthesize and critically assess the research literature on a given health policy topic. In addition, students will be able to prepare data to address a research question, to conduct some analyses using data, and to write up a research analysis.
Topical Outline
I. Causal Inference and Some Empirical Strategies a. Challenges (selectivity, confounding, measurement error, etc.) b. Some strategies to know about data collection (e.g., randomized experiments, sampling, surveys) and analysis (e.g., regression techniques) II. Understanding Research a. Data sources b. Literature reviews c. How to read a research paper d. The review process e. Disciplinary approaches to research i. Epidemiology ii. Sociology/Demography iii. Biostatistics iv. Program Evaluation/Health Promotion and Behavior III. Conducting Research a. Research question and hypothesis b. Data choice and cleaning c. Identifying an empirical strategy d. Analysis e. Write-up
Syllabus
Public CV