Population Health

POPH 001 | Spring 2026 | College of Health, LEHIGH | Eric Delmelle

Meeting Format: In Person | Online | Offline

LECTURES

January 21 Introduction to Population Health

  • Foundations of population health
    • What is it?
    • How it’s measured, and
    • What drives it.
  • Through case studies and group work, you explore determinants, disparities, and interventions from policy to individual care.
  • GITHUB Link

January 26 Structural Foundations of Health

  • Why do some populations experience better health than others?
    • social gradient
    • structural inequities
    • social context
    • economic context
    • environmental context
    • housing
  • GITHUB Link

January 28 Structural Foundations of Health (part 2)

  • Why do some populations experience better health than others?
    • Policy & health
    • Labor conditions
  • Community vs. population assessments
  • Group exercise
  • GITHUB Link

February 2 Population Health Theories and Frameworks

  • Socio-ecological model
  • Life course perspective
  • Biopsychosocial model
  • GITHUB Link

February 4 Population Health Theories and Frameworks (con’t)

  • Pathways from determinants to health outcomes
  • How do various determinants interact?
  • In-class exercise: identifying moderators and mediators on a causal pathway
  • GITHUB Link

February 9 Measuring Health and Disease in Populations

  • Rates, ratios, proportions
  • Incidence and prevalence
    • Population structure (age pyramids)
    • Demographic changes: fertility, mortality, migration
    • Preston curve: GDP vs. life expectancy
  • In-class exercise: age pyramids
  • GITHUB Link

February 11 Measuring Health and Disease in Populations (con’t)

  • Demographic and health transition
  • Standardization in epidemiological research
  • Crude death rate
  • Standardized mortality rates
  • GITHUB Link

February 16 Research Skills Workshop

  • How to access health data
  • Explore datasets (CDC, WHO, County Health Rankings)
  • GITHUB LINK
  • APA citation and writing format
  • Bibliography tools
  • GITHUB LINK

February 18 Group work

  • Meet in groups in person or online
  • Decide on a topic worthy of investigation
  • Assign responsibilities of each group member
  • Identify sources of prevalence (e.g. by county, state)
  • Identify potential determinants

February 23 Measuring Health and Disease in Populations (con’t)

  • Constructing life tables and deriving life expectancy
  • Potential years of life lost
  • Combining mortality and morbidity into DALYs
  • GITHUB Link

February 25 Health indicators

  • Disease classification
  • Death certificates, health surveys, hospital records, disease registries
  • Reliability and validity of different data sources
  • Health indicators and indices
  • GITHUB Link

March 16, 18 Epidemiological measures

  • Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of diagnostic tests
  • GITHUB Link

March 30 Health Risk Assessment and Causation

  • Causation
  • Risk Assessment and Bradford Hill
  • GITHUB Link

| last updated March 30 2026 | delmelle@gmail.com