MPH Concentrations & Tracks

The goal of the Behavioral Science and Health Communication concentration is to provide students with a solid foundation in the science, theory, and practice of effective health promotion and health communication in a population-based environment. Students in the concentration gain skills to develop, implement, and evaluate effective programs and messages to achieve a broad range of public health goals from information dissemination to behavior change. The program seeks to instill in students a lifelong commitment to the highest ethical standards of public health practice.

Skills & Competencies

• Explain how to use theory in the development of health promotion interventions.
• Describe approaches to community-engaged public health practice.
• Use insights from qualitative and quantitative evidence to develop health messages or interventions.
• Describe how audience segmentation is used in health communication to increase message effectiveness.
• Apply communication theory to the development of persuasive messages.

Courses required in addition to the core

• PH 254 Program Planning for Public Health Interventions
• PH 267 Communication Theory: From Principles to Practice
• PH 268 Social Marketing
• Twelve elective credits

Concentration Leader

Margie Skeer, ScD, MPH, MSW
margie.skeer@tufts.edu

The On-Campus and Online MPH Programs offer the Epidemiology and Biostatistics concentration, which prepares students for public health careers in which the collecting, analyzing, and interpreting of data are critical components. Although emphasis is placed on the application of epidemiologic and biostatistical methodology to public health policy and practice, students develop a solid foundation in the underlying theory.

Skills & Competencies

• Develop a causal framework using epidemiologic tools to conceptualize and describe the occurrence and determinants of a public health problem.
• Demonstrate the reproducibility of work when engaged in any phase of the life cycle of data from conceptualization to dissemination.
• Apply appropriate epidemiologic design and statistical analysis techniques to minimize bias and confounding in public health studies.
• Apply best methodologies in designing instruments and procedures for the collection of public health data.
• Critique and summarize epidemiologic evidence and available data in the context of a public health problem.

Courses required in addition to the core

• PH 206 Intermediate Biostatistics: Regression Methods (or equivalent)
• PH 222 Survey Research Methods (or equivalent)
• PH 251 Intermediate Epidemiology or PH 252 Public Health Practice Epidemiology (or equivalent for either course)
• PH 265 Introduction to SAS
• Ten- and one-half elective credits

Concentration Leader

Alice Tang, PhD
alice.tang@tufts.edu

Associate Concentration Leader

Kenneth Chui, PhD
kenneth.chui@tufts.edu

The Health Services Management and Policy concentration is designed for students with a career interest in health services administration or public health policy work. Students gain exposure to a wealth of knowledge and skills that are vital in a variety of organizational settings. The concentration promotes an understanding of public health as practiced alongside a complex health care system and within a changing policy context.

Skills & Competencies

• Generate recommendations to inform policy change at the organization, local, state, or federal level.
• Employ quantitative and/or qualitative analysis techniques to a health services, management, or policy problem.
• Apply economic theory to health care services and systems.
• Assess the impact of laws, regulations, or cases on public health practice and/or health care delivery and financing.
• Explain the challenges of the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services in the U.S.

Courses required in addition to the core

• PH 255 Public Health Economics
• PH 230 Law and Health Care or PH 232 Public Health and Ethics
• PH 243 The Nuts and Bolts of U.S. Health Care
• PH 249 Policy Analysis
• Twelve elective credits

Concentration Leader

Amy Lischko, DSc, MSPH
amy.lischko@tufts.edu

For more information about faculty involved in the Health Services Management and Policy concentration, check out the Center for Health Systems and Policy at Tufts University School of Medicine.

The Nutrition concentration introduces students to those applied methods used in nutrition program and policy assessment, development, and evaluation, with an emphasis on diverse and/or vulnerable populations and community-based interventions. Students will understand relationships between macronutrients, micronutrients and food intake patterns and health outcomes, and have a foundation in a variety of skills used in the promotion of healthy eating and active living. This concentration is offered in cooperation with the Tufts University Gerald J. and Dorothy J. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

Skills & Competencies

• Identify building blocks of healthy eating that can be used to inform personal, programmatic and/or policy choices that promote health.
• Explain how food access and/or diet act as determinants of individual or population health.
• Evaluate nutrition-related/active living issues, programs or policies.
• Apply discipline-relevant theory, evidence, or quality improvement approaches to nutrition/active living issues, programs, or policies. 
• Describe how systemic racism and/or social inequities can impact food/nutrition or active living issues.

Courses required in addition to the core

• NUTR 202 Principles of Nutrition Science
• NUTR 228 Community and Public Health Nutrition
• NUTR 301 Nutrition in the Lifecycle
• NUTR 312 Nutrition and Chronic Disease
• Twelve elective credits

Concentration leader

Virginia Chomitz, PhD.
virginia.chomitz@tufts.edu

Students with a graduate clinical degree or with substantial professional experience (five or more years), may petition to pursue an individualized area of study in lieu of a concentration. Developing core knowledge in public health is the primary goal and the student must work closely with a faculty adviser to design a curriculum that identifies a minimum of four specific competencies demonstrated through a cohesive set of courses outside of the program competencies.