Hi everyone, I'm in a conundrum. I'm currently doing a B.A. in psychology and want to pursue an MPH once I graduate. I am currently doing an internship at a public health agency, focused on health education. I'm really enjoying it, but I got turned on to Epi when I read Peter Piot's book and a whole bunch of other books. I'm particularly interested in infectious disease epi, but also social determinants of health, and the more I researched the field the more interesting it seemed. My question is: Is most Epi work in front of a computer, and are most days spent doing statistics? do epidemiologists get to create intervention programs, or is that exclusively reserved for people in the health promotion/behavioral sciences arena. I feel I could fit better in the behavioral/health promotion arena because of my psych background, but Epi seems to be more marketable. Sorry for long post, would really appreciate any input. Thanks!
Behavioral Science/Health education or Epi?
- Thread starter niveK7
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I'm having a similar dilemma.
My concern with behavioral/health promotion is that classes will focus too much on theory and discussion of social issues and not enough on developing our marketable skills. My concern with epidemiology echoes yours-- too much time in front of a computer, too much disengagement with real humans. I am leaning towards doing behavioral/health promotion right now because it aligns more with my background in education, but I'm interested in what others on this forum have to say.
My concern with behavioral/health promotion is that classes will focus too much on theory and discussion of social issues and not enough on developing our marketable skills. My concern with epidemiology echoes yours-- too much time in front of a computer, too much disengagement with real humans. I am leaning towards doing behavioral/health promotion right now because it aligns more with my background in education, but I'm interested in what others on this forum have to say.
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Epi (methods at least) is quite similar everywhere, but make sure to do your research if you go the health behavior route. I'm in the SMS department at Columbia, which is very flexible. It based on a social science approach where you can load up on research methods. For example, I will have three or four epi courses, a regression course, a survey course, CBPR, GIS, SPSS, SAS, program evaluation course and advance quant methods course by the time I'm done here next year. I could have added more method courses if I would have opted for the research methods certificate. So it all depends on the program really.
