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INFORMATION FOR

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Doctor of Philosophy

The primary mission of the PhD program is to provide scholars with the disciplinary background and skills required to contribute to the development of our understanding of better ways of measuring, maintaining, and improving the public’s health. Examples of research conducted by PhD students includes but is not limited to: cancer epidemiology, clinical trials, cardiovascular disease, molecular epidemiology, vector-borne diseases, parasitology, mental health epidemiology and HIV/AIDS. Students are encouraged to work with faculty throughout the university since much of the work done in EPH is interdisciplinary.

How to Apply

Applications are submitted through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .

Select program: "Public Health" and your Concentration: Biostatistics (PhD or MS), Chronic Disease Epidemiology (PhD or MS), Environmental Health Sciences (PhD), Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases (PhD) or Epidemiology Infectious Disease (MS), Health Informatics (MS) Health Policy and Management (PhD) or Social and Behavioral Sciences (PhD).

The GRE and TOEFL code for Yale GSAS is: 3987. A writing sample is not required.

The deadline is December 15th.

PhD Program

All PhD students are guaranteed five years of 12-month stipend and tuition support in the form of YSPH fellowships, teaching fellowships, traineeships and research assistantships. In addition to support for tuition and living costs, students receive a health award to covers the full cost of single-student Yale Health Plan Hospitalization/Specialty Coverage.

Faculty Advisors

PhD applicants are not required to secure a faculty mentor prior to applying to the program.

We expect applicants to provide information in their personal statement about the research they hope to conduct if admitted and to state the faculty in our department whose research aligns with their interests.

Diversity Research Awards

The PhD program in Public Health enhances commitment its PhD students who identify as underrepresented minority students, first-generation college graduates and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds by offering research awards to the top candidates admitted to the program. Each year a minimum of two PhD admitted students will be offered $2,000 each for research funds in addition to their financial aid package. Recipients have up to 2 years to spend these funds, which can be used for books, computers, software, conference travel, research travel or research supplies.

This funding is offered upon acceptance into the program. The criteria for the award is:

• Previous involvement in diversity-related initiatives in their community and/or volunteer activities helping underserved populations.
• Research interest in serving an underserved population

External Fellowships

Doctor of philosophy (phd) overview.

Why the DrPH Program? Prospective Student Information

The Doctor of Public Health degree is for individuals with proven potential who want to accelerate their careers, learn high-level analytical techniques alongside their talented peers, and have a single goal: to lead organizations that will help people live longer, healthier lives. 

Join Harvard’s global network of dedicated experts working to devise and implement strategies that improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

We have broken this page into several sections to help you through the admissions process: Who Should Apply , Eligibility Requirements , Financial Aid , Career Outcomes , FAQ’s .and contact info for the Office of Admissions.

Who Should Apply

The Harvard Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) should prepare you for high-level leadership to make a difference in public health and health care. This interdisciplinary degree provides advanced education in public health along with mastery of skills in leadership, management, communications, and innovation. This is accomplished within a highly collaborative, cohort-based learning program. In just three years (with an option to extend to a fourth year), you should learn how to address complex public health policy problems and use advanced analytical and managerial tools to lead organizational and societal change. Students learn the scholarship of translation, assembling scientific evidence, and using it to achieve real results in the field. Also, students gain hands-on experience working to achieve a specific public health objective under the guidance of Harvard’s world-renowned faculty.

If you are:

• Seeking knowledge and skills to drive change and make a difference on the front lines of health anywhere in the world.
• Ready for new challenges and new leadership responsibilities as a public health professional
• Looking to be part of a global network of extraordinary people who will significantly impact the world and your career.

We are seeking a special mix of ambitious candidates with a broad range of accomplishments across the fields of public health and healthcare and are now looking to take the next step in their careers. This innovative, transformative educational experience has been designed so that no prior public health degree is required. Applications for the next cohort that starts in July 2024 are due by December 1, 2023 (application available in August 2023).

Eligibility Requirements

Admission to the Harvard DrPH Program is highly competitive; all applicants should have, at a minimum:

• A master’s OR doctoral degree in the health sciences or in another related field or non-US equivalent.
• At least six years of full-time public health and/or public service experience in a relevant discipline . Advanced degrees will not be considered in lieu of work experience as coursework will build directly on professional skills and experiences. If the work experience was used as a degree requirement, the work experience is not eligible. Volunteer, internship and part-time employment does not satisfy the full-time work experience requirement.
• Prior coursework in public health-related methods and in specific technical areas of public health is also beneficial.

Beyond the formal qualifications, we seek top applicants who demonstrate an appetite and vision to effect change, displaying the energy and creativity to have already moved along that path early in their careers. We also explicitly seek to admit students with interest and experience across a broad cross-section of public and private areas of public health and healthcare locally, nationally, and internationally.

Financial Aid

Financial aid is determined on a case-by-case basis by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Office of Financial Aid.  However, it should be noted that the Harvard DrPH Program can be costly and financial aid is not unlimited; students will be expected to consider an overall financing strategy, including the costs for independent Field Immersion and the third year Doctoral Project.  The Office of Financial Aid website has a fund finder for scholarship/grant information. You will find an assortment of opportunities; please look through those and their criteria to ensure you qualify for a particular funding opportunity. The DrPH Program is able to reduce the tuition for our students by 50% for the first and second year of enrollment based on need . This is a DrPH Scholarship offered to DrPH students. You will also find the  tuition and fees  listed on the OFA website and a  Cost of Degree  tool that gives you information on the degree’s total cost and attendance cost.  

The Admissions Office also lists Harvard Chan Grant/Scholarships on their website  here  with instructions on how to apply. There is also a Harvard-wide scholarship list on that link that requires separate applications and deadlines, so please review it thoroughly. Finally, there are external scholarship resources listed  here .

Career Outcomes

As a Harvard DrPH graduate, you should be ready to lead. You should be equipped with experience gained through real-world fieldwork conducted at a variety of organizations. You should have the skills to start new organizations or work from within to change existing ones, know how to translate public health research into effective policies, programs, and initiatives that dramatically improve individual and population health. You should be comfortable in a leadership role and confident in your public health expertise. And whether you choose to pursue a career in a non-governmental organization, health ministry, government agency, health care provider, start-up, or more established private sector business, you should be prepared to make a difference.

For more information on careers and resources available to students, visit the Harvard T.H. Chan School Office of Career Advancement  and Office of Alumni Affairs . For more information on DrPH students’ experiential education, including summer field immersion, doctoral project, and post-graduate employment, please click here . For information on all graduate employment throughout the School of Public Health, please visit the  Graduate Outcomes on the Office of Career Advancement site.

The key thing to keep in mind about the DrPH is that we are not primarily training students to become professional researchers or academics. Our focus incorporates attention to public health leadership for individuals who are seeking a more activist role in their careers. There is not a firm line between these things, but the emphasis in the DrPH is different from that of a PhD.

All applicants to the DrPH Program have the option to submit official test scores. For information on the test scores we accept and the percentile most successful candidates should have, please visit the Test Scores page on the Admissions website.

We regret that due to the level of interest in this program we are not able to allow prospective students to sit-in on a current course as it can be disruptive to the courses. However, the Admissions Office has a virtual tour of Harvard Chan School’s campus and learning about life as a residential student.

No. The Harvard DrPH degree is an interdisciplinary program. Students in the Program receive an advanced education in the scholarship of knowledge translation, the development of a broad understanding of all aspects of public health through integration of multiple disciplines, and the ability to rigorously apply scientific findings to address complex problems of public health policy and practice. The curriculum is designed to provide mastery of high-level competencies in leadership, management, innovation, and communications.  

The Harvard DrPH degree is designed for three to no more than four years based on the students admitted, the approach to mastery of the competencies, and the supportive learning environment to be completed in. This includes 24 months of coursework and integrated field experiences, and the DrPH Doctoral Project, an extended (8-10 month) field experience, thesis and Oral Final Examination.

The DrPH degree is an intensive and immersive educational experience that takes place over three years: 24 months in residence at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Longwood area of Boston and 8-10 months on-site at a host organization during the third year. An essential aspect of the DrPH Program and Doctoral Project is the interaction with faculty and the cohort dynamic of students; therefore, full-time enrollment is expected during the first 24 months of the program followed by a serious commitment of time for a rigorous, extended field experience and the Doctoral Project during the third year. There is no part-time option for the Harvard DrPH degree. The flexibility in the program exists in terms of location during field experiences. It is the expectation that the degree is completed in no more than four years.

Future cohorts are anticipated to be approximately 10  students. The students benefit from the camaraderie, trust, and support of a shared learning environment as well as the diverse experiences and expertise of their fellow students in the program and the entire Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health community.

Yes. One of the strengths of the Harvard DrPH is that it leverages the wealth of expertise and experiences of the entire Harvard community both for required classes, electives, and other educational experiences (subject to availability and Harvard Chan School cross-registration policies).

No. The curriculum and overall educational experience are carefully designed to promote mastery of a specific set of knowledge and skills. To assure that this takes place we do not accept transfer credits.

If your aspirations and qualifications match the description of the Harvard DrPH, we strongly encourage you to apply. We have designed a unique program and in turn seek talent and potential for leadership that comes in many different forms. Please allow us the opportunity to assess your application and if we see a better fit with another degree program at our School, your application may be passed on to the review committee for that particular degree program for review.

To keep up-to-date on information concerning the DrPH Program, please subscribe to our DrPH Digest Newsletter.

If you have admissions related questions , please contact the Admissions Office at [email protected] or 617-432-1031. Please see the Apply section of their website for more information and details on the application timeline, requirements and process.

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What Can You Do With A Public Health Degree? 15 Jobs To Consider

Updated: Jul 6, 2023, 3:18pm

If you wonder how the environment impacts health and wellness, or how you can help communities better care for their health, you might consider a career in public health. This field suits people who are curious about ways to significantly impact people’s well-being in community, environmental and policy-oriented spaces.

You can start your career by earning an in-person or online public health degree . But after that, what can you do with a public health degree ? Below, explore a list of popular public health roles to help determine a career path that fits your interests, skills and goals.

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What Is Public Health?

Public health is a field that promotes community well-being. Where many medical fields focus on the individual, public health takes a higher-level approach to healthcare. Preventative programs, disease tracking and research, and healthy lifestyle promotions form the foundation of many public health initiatives.

Public health programs often sit within branches of federal, state and local governments and nonprofit organizations. Popular roles in public health include first responders, nutritionists, health educators and policymakers.

What Jobs Can You Get With a Public Health Degree?

Health administrators, policy writers and patient advocates play crucial roles in public health spaces, as do clinical and community-centric roles. The below salary data was sourced from Payscale and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics .

Biostatistician

Median Annual Salary: $74,240 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Biostatistics helps bridge the gap between vast health data and actionable solutions. A biostatistician examines public health and biological data, using statistical analysis tools to observe and track health trends. A biostatistician may help analyze data from a clinical trial or evaluate the efficacy of new medications.

Community Health Worker

Median Annual Salary: $46,190 Minimum Required Education: High school diploma Job Overview: Community health workers advocate for fellow community members’ health. They may provide translation services at medical appointments, inform policy development and educate underserved populations about vital health information.

Community Outreach Coordinator

Average Annual Salary: Around $46,100 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Community outreach coordinators can work for government offices, nonprofits or healthcare organizations. A community outreach coordinator may host events on timely health issues or partner with schools and businesses to direct community members toward necessary resources. This relational role requires strong communication skills to connect people who need care with practical solutions.

Environmental Health Scientist

Median Annual Salary: $76,480 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Who decides how to sanitize food for public consumption or responds in the event of an oil spill? An environmental health specialist helps identify potential threats to public health, ensures corporations follow environmental regulations, and monitors waste and sewage disposal. Environmental health specialists may also form community connections to help improve water quality and advocate for better waste treatment facilities.

Epidemiologist

Median Annual Salary: $78,520 Minimum Required Education: Master’s degree Job Overview: What is an epidemiologist ? People may assume these professionals only study highly infectious, transferable diseases, but this position can cover various chronic conditions, illnesses and injuries. An epidemiologist may translate research studies to help inform public health policymakers, observe how certain diseases affect different populations and use data analysis to predict the spread of an emerging disease.

Health Coach

Average Annual Salary: Around $52,900 Minimum Required Education: Associate degree Job Overview: A health coach can work with individuals or groups to help improve physical health. Most health coaches earn additional certifications and must become adept at applying behavior change models according to each client’s health goals and ability level. Health coaches can work in community centers, private practices or healthcare settings like hospitals and clinics.

Health Education Specialist

Median Annual Salary: $59,990 Minimum Required Education: High school diploma Job Overview: Health education specialists inform communities about ways to better care for their health and avoid injury. Like community health workers, health education specialists must form close ties with communities to spread vital health safety information. They may also offer workshops and programs, connecting people to health resources such as insurance.

Health Services Manager

Median Annual Salary: $104,830 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Health services managers wear many hats to ensure all department members and processes run smoothly. Daily responsibilities of a health services manager often include hiring new staff members, creating and managing department budgets, and strategizing improvements to patient care. These professionals may work in hospitals, private clinics or similar healthcare settings.

Medical Office Coordinator

Median Annual Salary: $38,500 Minimum Required Education: Associate degree Job Overview: A medical office coordinator maintains a functioning healthcare office and serves as a point of contact for patients when they arrive for appointments. Everyday responsibilities of a medical office coordinator include patient intake, maintaining provider’s schedules, and coordinating with outside services such as insurance companies, labs and pharmaceutical representatives.

Medical Transcriptionist

Median Annual Salary: $34,730 Minimum Required Education: Postsecondary nondegree award Job Overview: Healthcare professionals use medical transcriptionists to write or type a dictated patient care plan, medical background or diagnosis. Medical transcriptionists must be familiar with standard health-related and anatomical terms and able to ask and answer questions related to the transcribed content.

Patient Services Coordinator

Average Annual Salary: Around $42,000 Minimum Required Education: Commonly associate degree, but varies by employer Job Overview: Patient services coordinators liaise between healthcare workers and patients in hospitals and clinics. They help maintain appointment calendars and scheduling, perform patient intakes, organize medical records and quickly respond to patient requests. Customer service, technology and communication skills are essential to this role.

Policy Analyst

Median Annual Salary: $128,020 Minimum Required Education: Master’s degree Job Overview: Most policy analysts work within government organizations or nonprofits to help shape and determine public health priorities and outcomes. Health policy analysts might evaluate a current policy and note areas for improvement, draft new policies or listen to community members’ health needs to inform the direction of future policies.

Public Health Professor

Median Annual Salary: $100,300 Minimum Required Education: Doctoral degree Job Overview: After earning a doctorate in public health, some stay in academia and become professors. Public health professors may teach more general courses or specialize in a particular subject, such as environmental health or epidemiology. Typical duties of a professor include presenting lectures, creating lesson plans and performing original research.

Public Health Specialist

Average Annual Salary: Around $58,500 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Public health specialists focus on strategies for designing and implementing public health policies and programs versus direct community involvement. Some public health specialists focus on more narrow interventions, like reducing healthcare inequalities in specific marginalized populations. Others tackle broader public health and safety programs, such as reducing heart disease and smoking.

Social or Community Service Manager

Average Annual Salary: $74,240 Minimum Required Education: Bachelor’s degree Job Overview: Community service managers design and implement public health programs and connect people to health resources. It’s common for a community service manager to identify the most pressing community health needs, advocate for better health policies, and manage staff and office budgets. You can find community service managers working in residential care facilities, religious organizations and local government, among other environments.

Types of Public Health Degrees

Most public health careers require a higher education degree, though the exact degree type can vary by role. Below we explore some common public health degrees.

Associate Degree in Public Health

An associate degree in public health often serves as a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree. Associate degrees last about two years and are less costly than four-year programs. Some associate degree programs offer hands-on internship and fieldwork opportunities.

Some students pursue careers with only associate degrees, often working as health education specialists or medical transcriptionists.

Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health

Students who earn a bachelor’s degree in public health may need to choose between a bachelor of science and a bachelor of arts . With a BS, your courses may focus more on biology, chemistry and other science-based courses. A BA prioritizes social science courses like community advocacy and health policy. Undergraduate degrees often require about 120 credits, and the public health portion comprises about 60.

Master of Public Health

Many students who want to work in public health earn master’s degrees so they can specialize in a specific subject, pursue research and improve their earning potential. Courses in a public health master’s program encompass data and policy analysis, managing studies, and the intersections of biological, cultural and environmental health factors.

Master’s in public health programs can take as little as 16 months or as long as three or four years to complete, depending on delivery format and whether a student enrolls part or full time.

Doctorate in Public Health

People pursuing public health doctorates often become professors or step into leadership roles. In most cases, you must earn a master’s degree in a related field before applying to a doctorate in a public health program. Some programs even ask for proof that you’ve spent the last few years working in public health.

Most doctoral programs last about three to four years. The first half of the program features leadership, management and advocacy courses. The latter half focuses on your dissertation and further research or participation in a public health residency.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About What You Can Do With a Public Health Degree

Is public health a good career.

Many would say yes since you can build a fulfilling and potentially lucrative career in the public health sector. Many people who work in public health enjoy advocating for underserved communities and protecting the public against illnesses and diseases.

What can I do with a public health degree?

Public health offers diverse career options, such as biostatistics, environmental health and epidemiology. You can choose between more clinical-oriented roles or those grounded in policy, advocacy and community-centric work.

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Where epidemiology and entomology meet. Research assistant professor specializes in protecting human health from vector-borne diseases

August 19, 2024  | Erin Bluvas,  [email protected]

The Arnold School has been home to Kyndall Dye-Braumuller for the past five years, and she’s agreed to extend her stay. The Ph.D. in Epidemiology graduate (’22) and postdoctoral fellow recently accepted a research assistant professor position with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics .

“Over the past few years as a doctoral student and postdoctoral fellow here, I have been a part of some really wonderful projects where we have filled in gaps in our understanding of infectious disease risk for residents of South Carolina and abroad,” Dye-Braumuller says. “The Arnold School has always been supportive and inclusive when new ideas are brought into the fray, and I have grown to love this community.”

Over the past few years as a doctoral student and postdoctoral fellow here, I have been a part of some really wonderful projects where we have filled in gaps in our understanding of infectious disease risk for residents of South Carolina and abroad.

Dye-Braumuller’s research combines two different, yet applied, disciplines: epidemiology and entomology. She discovered the first when she was in middle school and watched the 1995 film, Outbreak. That’s when she knew that she wanted to become an infectious disease epidemiologist.

Then, during her undergraduate program studying environmental health science at the University of Georgia, she took an entomology course. Dye-Braumuller fell in love with the study of insects, but her passion for epidemiology remained strong as well.

“At an impasse for what I wanted to do with my life, I thought I created a 'new' career by combining entomology and epidemiology,” she says. “As it turns out, there is an entire field called medical entomology or public health entomology, which is the study of arthropod vectors and their impact on human health.”

Dye-Braumuller knew she had found her vocation – studying vectors (i.e., insects and ticks that can transmit diseases between animals and humans) and their health impacts. She added entomology to her studies and contributed to zoonotic diseases research while earning two bachelor’s degrees.

After completing a master’s in entomology at the University of Kentucky, Dye-Braumuller moved to Houston, Texas to gain experience as the vector surveillance manager for the local public health department. She crossed paths with a postdoctoral fellow at Texas Children’s Hospital, Melissa Nolan , and they connected over their shared interest in tick- and kissing bug-borne diseases. When Nolan took a position at the Arnold School, Dye-Braumuller enrolled in the Ph.D. program so they could collaborate.

Over the course of her doctoral studies (during which she received the school’s Doctoral Achievement Award ) and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship, Dye-Braumuller has become an integral part of the Arnold School’s growing expertise in the field of zoonotic diseases, particularly vector-borne illnesses. Working with the South Carolina Department of Public Health (formerly DHEC), the team has expanded tick surveillance in the state – launching its first formal surveillance program, which Dye-Braumuller led as its inaugural coordinator. They’ve also collaborated extensively with the University of El Salvador and the country’s Ministry of Health.

Today, Dye-Braumuller’s research focuses on understanding various aspects of vector-borne disease transmission dynamics. She is particularly interested in vector-pathogen interactions, vector and pathogen genome change over time, human behavior and changes to vector-borne disease risk, and novel vector control strategies.

Dye-Braumuller is excited to be a part of the Institute for Infectious Disease Translational Research , which USC launched last year. She is also looking forward to continuing to work with students – both in the classroom and the lab. 

“I thoroughly enjoy bringing in a somewhat new discipline to public health in the classroom, particularly entomology,” Dye-Braumuler says. “Infectious disease epidemiology will always be one of my favorite courses to teach, and I love to include as many references and hands-on activities to introduce students to medical/public health entomology as well.”

“We are so excited to have Dr. Dye-Braumuller join the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics,” says chair Anthony Alberg . “Dr. Dye-Braumuller has proven herself to be an exceptional researcher whose cross-disciplinary training adds a critical dimension to the study of vector-borne diseases, an issue of increasing public health importance.”

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Study Master of Public Health (MPH) at Azusa Pacific University

You’ll graduate ready to plan prevention and wellness programs, analyze health policies, and make a difference for Christ. You’ll gain real-world experience in the program’s field practicum component and set yourself apart in future career and academic pursuits with a capstone project. We make it easy to customize the program to your unique career goals with specialized elective groups, such as Disaster Health and Emergency Preparedness and International Health.

See Admission Requirements

Program at a Glance

The nationally ranked School of Nursing prepares nurses to lead the way in healthcare by providing a deeper level of compassionate care in clinics, hospitals, schools, and beyond.

Upcoming Events

Application deadline.

• Fall: August 1
• Spring: November 1

Program Information

• Program Units: 43-50
• Cost per Unit: $690
• Base Cost: $29,670-$34,500*
• Azusa (Main Campus), Monrovia, Online, Orange County

Yellow Ribbon and Military Friendly School

Gain Hands-on Experience

• Analyze public health strategies used to promote health equity.
• Participate in a field practicum under the guidance of a mentor. 
• Hone your problem-solving skills to make decisions about healthcare solutions.
• Apply principles of equity and social justice in a Christ-centered program.
• Study alongside faculty-members experienced in public health.

By the Numbers

Get started, program details.

Make a difference and help people better their lives with an MPH degree, which will prepare you to plan prevention and other wellness programs, as well as analyze and develop health policy. Customize the program to your career goals by selecting electives from these suggested elective groups.

Browse the tabs below—if you have questions, visit the  Student Services Center  page, and we’ll make sure you get the info you need.

Admission Requirements

The  university graduate  and program admission requirements below must be met before an application is considered complete.

Please note: International students on an F-1 or J-1 visa will be eligible to apply for this program in 2019.

• Graduate application for admission
• $45 nonrefundable application fee
• Official transcripts from all institutions leading to and awarding the applicant’s bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution and all postbaccalaureate study An official transcript is one that Azusa Pacific University receives unopened in an envelope sealed by the former institution and that bears the official seal of the college or university. A cumulative minimum 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) grade-point average on the posted degree is required for regular admission status. Provisional admittance may be granted to individuals with a lower GPA if competency can be shown through multiple measures.
• Written statement of educational and professional goals, also known as the letter to the dean (two pages in length)
• Current résumé, including the following:
• Employment and educational experience
• Professional or academic honors
• Volunteer activities
• Two recommendations from professional references who have the ability to evaluate your performance (e.g., managers, supervisors, and academic faculty; not coworkers)

Send official transcripts to:

Delivering high-quality graduate programs takes a comprehensive support system. Your investment in an advanced degree includes those services and personnel that partner with you in pursuit of higher education. Below is a detailed breakdown of the fees associated with the benefits and services included in your degree program.

School of Nursing Fees

Nursing courses may require additional fees. View a complete list of   university fees .

All stated financial information is subject to change. Contact the   Student Services Center at (626) 815-2020 for more information.

Several types of   financial aid   are available to graduate students. The resources range from federal loans and state grants to, for some graduate programs, fellowships and scholarships. For details about financial aid available for your program, please contact the   Student Services Center   at   (626) 815-2020 .

Military Benefits

Military members—and in some cases their spouses and dependents—qualify for   financial assistance   covering tuition, housing, and books. Azusa Pacific is a Yellow Ribbon University and Military Friendly School, so you can be confident that you’ll receive the benefits and flexibility you need to complete your education.

Program-Specific Aid

For more details on these scholarships and funding opportunities, as well as other possible resources, contact the   School of Nursing   at   (626) 815-5386 .

HRSA Public Health Scholarship Program

What is the hrsa public health scholarship program (phsp).

• Goal:   To increase capacity in public health systems in order to meet core public health functions (the Ten Essential Public Health Services) and decrease public health inequities and health disparities.
• Purpose:   To strengthen the public health workforce by providing support to organizations to develop scholarship programs that incentivize training and careers in public health.

Who is eligible?

All current MPH applicants are all eligible to apply. Returning MPH students are also eligible to apply, though preference will be given to students starting the MPH program, as the scholarship program has several outcomes needing multiple semesters to complete. Time to graduation will be taken into account when the scholarship committee meets to review applications.

How much is the scholarship for?

Scholarship amount will range from $10,500 to $21,000 depending on when a student begins the MPH program and/or whether they are part time or full time.

If awarded, what is expected of the student?

Students will be expected to attend a mandatory orientation and a postexit interview and survey; meet with their respective HRSA scholarship contacts and mentor; participate in required workshops, trainings, and interprofessional experiences; and work toward securing and completing the required 135-hour internship. They will also participate in career counseling and mentorship programming provided through this HRSA Public Health Scholarship Program. Students will be required to submit a research project and will have the opportunity to participate in APU’s Nursing Research Symposium if their research poster or presentation is selected, as this is often associated with the timing of one’s capstone course.

• Spring 2023: December 30, 2022
• Summer 2023: April 30, 2023
• Fall 2023: August 15, 2023

Questions? Contact Marissa Brash, DrPH, EdD, MPH, CPH, at (626) 815-6000, Ext. 6179, or   [email protected] .

Application Process

• Go to the   HRSA Public Health Scholarship Program Application
• Gather the following:
• Transcripts. For new applicants (prospective MPH students), official transcripts are required. New applicants who submit the MPH admissions application with the HRSA PHSP application at the same time can use the same official transcript submitted with their admissions application. For returning MPH students, the student’s APU graduate transcript record will be reviewed and unofficial transcripts can be submitted.
• Essay/personal goal(s) statement (250-500 words) addressed to the PHSP committee.
• Letter(s) of recommendation (one letter is required, but multiple letters are allowed)
• Email   [email protected]   with the unofficial transcript (if a returning student), essay, and letter(s) of recommendation to complete your application, which will then be reviewed.

To view specific requirements and coursework information, visit the current academic catalog:

Program Requirements

As part of the Master of Public Health program, choose a 9-unit elective group to focus your studies around your career goals and interests. You may view elective group coursework in the university catalog by selecting the Program Requirements button below.

The APU MPH program is applying for the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation as an MPH program with a Health Equity concentration. Students will select an elective group of their choice. The elective groups will allow students to group 3 electives of their choice to fit their public health interests and/or career goals. All elective groups will have a Health Equity focus.

Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Develop the skills to work in private, pharmaceutical companies or with government agencies or academic institutions in areas such as: evaluating new medical therapies, epidemiological study of disease, environmental monitoring, and more. Learn to design research studies and gather, process, and analyze data to drive change.

Career opportunities include: biostatistician, data analyst, research scientist, environmental researcher, pharmaceutical researcher, public health coordinator, academic researcher

Disaster Health and Emergency Preparedness

Build the capacity to prevent and detect threats associated with natural disasters, focusing on preparation, response, and recovery. Deepen your knowledge of the implications of disaster response, learning to evaluate systems and understand the structure and models unique to different situations.

Career opportunities include: FEMA emergency management director, emergency preparedness manager, environmental protection specialist, logistics management specialist, recovery audit coordinator, disaster relief specialist, emergency response team member

Environmental Health

Gain a deeper understanding of the connection between the environment and human health, from gathering field data and monitoring environmental conditions, to advising policymakers and working with industries to reduce waste.

Career opportunities include: built environment specialist, environmental health advocate, environmental health practitioner, food safety specialist, occupational health and safety expert, air pollution analyst

Public Health Policy

Use health policy to prevent disease and improve health. Public health policy focuses on keeping people safe and healthy through laws and policies at the local, state, territorial, and federal level. Evidence-based health policies can help prevent disease and promote health. Establishing informed policies is key to improving health nationwide.

Careers include Health Policy Analyst, Health Policy Manager, Advocacy Director, Health Insurance Specialist, Health Legislative Aide, Political Coordinator

Healthcare Administration

Prepare to lead improvements in the delivery of healthcare systems and services in public and private sectors, including roles in population health management and hospital administration. This elective group is designed for individuals looking to advance their roles in healthcare administration or management.

Career opportunities include: healthcare administrator, health services manager, public health researcher.

Health Promotion and Education

For people interested in influencing change through education, this elective group allows you to focus on improving community health outcomes by developing and implementing public health programs. Discover how to gather and analyze data to shape and adapt programs for diverse populations.

Career opportunities include: outreach specialist, program manager, director of family health services, academic policy advisor, health educator, program analyst

International Health

Gain a strong health science foundation as you learn to recognize, analyze, and solve global health issues. Concentrate on developing an understanding of methods used in addressing global diseases and finding innovative solutions to prevent international health crises.

Career opportunities include: community health worker, international aid specialist, researcher, project manager, development officer, epidemiologist, global health educator, communication specialist

Social and Behavioral Science

Understand the connection between psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural factors in addressing health problems and eliminating health disparities and inequalities. Gain skills to help provide creative solutions through community assessment, program development and evaluation, and research.

Career opportunities include: research roles at NIH and the CDC, program director with the County Health Department or Public Health coalition, interventions researcher, addiction treatment program developer.

If you have questions, we’re here to help! Connect with a representative who can walk you through the program details and application process.

Contact Your Admissions Representative

Additional Program Contacts

• Marissa Eggleston, DrPH, Department Chair,   [email protected] , (626) 815-6186
• Belen McDaniel, Program Manager, [email protected] , (626) 815-6179
• APU Department of Public Health,   [email protected]

School of Nursing

(626) 815-5386

Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (voicemail messages left will be addressed on the next business day)

Student Services Center

Contact (626) 812-3016  or [email protected] , and visit  apu.edu/ssc  for details on the admissions process, financial aid, and class registration.

International Services

International students should contact +1-626-812-3055 or  [email protected] , and visit  apu.edu/international/ .

Azusa Pacific University is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC).

The MPH program is in its final stage of Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) accreditation . Currently, CEPH third-party comments are being accepted and will be accepted until 30 days before the on-site CEPH visit on October 17-18, 2024. CEPH Comments can be emailed to [email protected] . 

Featured Faculty

Marissa Brash

Department Chair, Master of Public Health and Associate Professor

Assistant Professor and Coordinator, International and Urban/Rural Health Nursing

Sanggon Nam

Associate Professor, School of Nursing

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Career Outlooks and Outcomes

How an APU Graduate’s Public Health Degree Prepared Her for the Pandemic

APU graduate Talene Zadekian, MPH ’20, used her public health degree to help communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Free OPD Today Outside Health Ministry By Delhi Doctors On Strike: 10 Points

The resident doctors of the aiims delhi have been on an indefinite strike since august 12 to protest the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the rg kar medical college and hospital in kolkata..

The protesting doctors have been demanding justice for the Kolkata rape and murder victim

Here Are Top Points On Doctors' Strike:

The resident doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi said that their strike would continue. The AIIMS RDA also said it will provide free elective OPD services of around 36 specialties to patients outside Nirman Bhawan from 11 am.

They have been on an indefinite strike since August 12, suspending all elective and non-essential services including OPDs and wards to protest the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. 

The protesting doctors have been demanding justice for the victim and a security act for medical personnel.

The AIIMS RDA also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention for the enactment of a central law via an ordinance to protect healthcare workers and institutions across the nation.

They also drew PM Modi's attention to the subsequent vandalism at the state-run Kolkata hospital and the "worrying rise in violence against doctors, healthcare workers, and medical institutions" across the country. The Faculty Association of AIIMS has requested people to wear black rakhis  on Raksha Bandhan  as a symbol of solidarity with healthcare professionals.

A group of Padma Awardee doctors has urgently appealed to President Droupaid Murmu for immediate intervention following the Kolkata incident. The doctors highlighted the rise in violence against healthcare professionals, particularly against women.

The Union health ministry had last week assured the protesting doctors of all possible efforts to ensure their safety. The Ministry on August 17 said it will form a committee to suggest measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals.

The Supreme Court has taken up the rape-murder case and a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will hear the matter on Tuesday.

The case is already being heard by the Calcutta High Court, which has ordered that the probe be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI, overriding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee 's August 18 ultimatum to the state police.

The body of the postgraduate trainee doctor was found in the seminar hall of the state-run hospital in Kolkata on August 9, triggering nationwide protests. A civic volunteer has been arrested in connection with the crime the next day.

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Tracking Health Related Discussions on Reddit for Public Health Applications

Albert park.

1 Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

Mike Conway

We use Reddit to demonstrate social media’s potential for public health applications. First, we employ a lexicon-based approach to track the prevalence of keywords indicating public interest in Ebola, electronic cigarette, influenza, and marijuana. Second, to better understand the public reactions, we use the Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm, to identify either the general themes or motivations for extreme changes in the volume of discussion over time. We observe that discussions related to Ebola and influenza, infectious diseases of public health interests, surged when the first case of Ebola was diagnosed and a new strain of H1N1 influenza virus was confirmed in the United States. We also observed that discussions of a controversial health topic like marijuana increased with the announcement of a major change in United States federal policy. Discussions of electronic cigarette highlighted opportunities for better health education. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our findings for utilizing Reddit data for public health applications.

Introduction

Nearly two-thirds of American adults (65%) use social media: a nearly a tenfold increase in the past 10 years 1 . Social media provides a platform for users to freely express their thoughts and provides an opportunity to interact with geographically dispersed likeminded individuals. These social media users discuss a wide variety of topics ranging from ordinary details of their daily life to information about infectious diseases of public health interest like Ebola 2 . Due to the popularity and ubiquitous nature of social media, researchers advocate for utilizing social media for public health applications 3 – 5 . Public health agencies are in an early adoption stage of using social media for information distribution 6 . In addition to the substantial potential for using social media as a disease surveillance tool 3 – 5 and means of information distribution 6 , social media also has the potential to provide other opportunities to improve public-health practice.

Studying the reactions or opinions of a population has traditionally involved nationally distributed data collection, such as surveys from government agencies. However, these methods are expensive, and perhaps more importantly, time consuming. Some researchers suggest that mining social media data can provide opportunities to reduce time and expense when understanding the reactions or opinions of a population on health issues 7 – 10 . For example, social media allows for accessing first person accounts of experiences 7 , 8 , public sentiments 9 , public knowledge 10 , and public attitudes 10 that may help public health agencies and researchers to develop policies that improve public health outcomes. Moreover, social media can provide the contextual information and prevalence of public interests more efficiently than traditional public health methods. Tracking the prevalence of public interests and understanding the general public reactions and opinions on various health issues have the potential to expand the scope of public-health practice.

In this paper, we report on findings derived from social media data gathered from Reddit for the purpose of tracking the prevalence of public interests and understanding public reactions towards infectious diseases of public health interests like Ebola and influenza as well as controversial health issues, such as electronic cigarettes and marijuana. In fact, although Reddit is one of the most popular public social media platforms, it has been underutilized for public health applications. Reddit’s size and range of topics make it difficult to make use of the data without any knowledge of how the platform is used in practice. Thus, we aim to fill this gap in the literature with the current study and answer the following two research questions (RQ):

• (RQ1) Is Reddit an effective source for tracking the prevalence of public interests on infectious diseases (i.e., Ebola and influenza) and controversial health related issues (i.e., electronic cigarette and marijuana) over time?
• (RQ2) What do Reddit members discuss regarding these health issues (a) in times of elevated discussion volume or (b) in general, if the issues have a steady level of discussions?

The work described in this paper was exempted from review by the University of Utah’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) [ethics committee] (IRB 00076188).

A growing body of research has demonstrated the successful use of social media for public health applications 11 – 13 . Often referred to as digital disease detection 3 , Infoveillance 4 , and digital epidemiology 5 , many studies have used Twitter data for applications in public health, primarily due to the real-time nature of the data. For example, Twitter data have been used to monitor or estimate influenza 12 , 14 , seasonal allergies 12 , alcohol sales and consumption 15 , cholera outbreaks 16 , earthquake 17 , and smoking behavior 18 , as well as to examine sentiment towards marijuana use 19 . Although Twitter is highly popular and tweet analysis has performed well with the aforementioned topics, tweets provides relatively limited context due to a length limitation of 140 characters.

Other social media data, such as Facebook and online health community data, have also been mined to, for example, characterize and predict postpartum depression 20 , classify opioid addiction phrases 21 and predict adverse drug reactions 22 . Google search queries allowed researchers to provide timely estimation of influenza rates 23 . However, a previous study suggested that Facebook users are reluctant to discuss certain negative topics on Facebook, due to users’ desire to convey positive images of themselves 24 . Online health communities can provide rich details of first person accounts of experiences 25 , however, online health communities typically are single topic focused groups, often with a small number of members and attracting a substantial number of “lurkers” 26 (i.e., individuals who participate without posting) and dropouts 27 . Google search queries can be useful and timely, however, search queries are relatively limited in providing context and have been shown to overestimate disease rates, due (in part) to heightened media coverage 28 .

Recently, Reddit, due to the availability of a public Application Programming Interface (API) 29 , the capability of providing contextual information, and the support for throwaway accounts, has become a widely studied social media platform for controversial discussions. For example, using Reddit data, researchers have found empirical evidence that Reddit members openly discuss and exchange information support for potentially stigmatized issues like mental health illnesses 30 , detected increases in suicidal content following reports of several celebrity suicides 31 , identified distinct markers of shifts to suicidal ideation from mental illnesses 32 , explored the relationship between social feedback and community participation 33 , identified distinctive linguistic characteristics that are associated with mental illnesses 34 , characterized smoking and drinking problems 35 , and examined user experiences with different tobacco products 36 . Thus, in this study, we explore Reddit’s utility as a data source for public health applications for tracking and understanding public opinions and reactions to health issues.

Data: Social Media Site

The data for this study is hosted in the popular social media platform, Reddit ( http://www.reddit.com ). We use Reddit to track and understand discussions of Ebola, influenza, electronic cigarettes, and marijuana for the following three reasons. First, Reddit is a highly active social media platform that had 83 billion page views from over 88,000 active sub-communities (subreddits) in 2015. Members of Reddit made over 73 million individual posts with over 725 million associated comments in the same year 37 . Second, Reddit allows for throwaway and unidentifiable accounts that are suitable for controversial discussions, such as thoughts and feelings on electronic cigarette and marijuana as well as epidemic concerns like Ebola and influenza that may be inappropriate or sensitive for identifiable accounts. Third, Reddit content is publicly available, in contrast to other health focused social media platforms like Facebook Groups or specifically health-focused online communities like PatientsLikeMe, where the content is typically not available on the open web.

Reddit members converse via a forum like platform. Reddit discussion consists of posts (i.e., a submission that starts a conversation) and associated comments (i.e., a submission that replies to posts or other comments) in various topically focused subreddits. Members who have achieved a certain status within the community are able to create new subreddits. For this study, we used a dataset 38 released by a Reddit member. The dataset has been used in previous studies 34 , 39 , 40 . The dataset for the current study is comprised of 239,772 (including both active and inactive) subreddits, 13,213,173 unique member IDs, 114,320,798 posts, and 1,659,361,605 associated comments that were made from October 2007 to May 2015.

RQ1. Is Reddit an effective source for tracking the prevalence of public interests on infectious diseases and controversial health related issues over time?

We used a lexicon-based approach to track discussions on Ebola, electronic cigarettes, influenza, and marijuana from all subreddits available in Reddit. First, we identified key terms associated with the topics of our interests. A summary of key terms for each issue is shown in Table 1 . Second, we preprocessed the entire dataset, which included converting text to lower case and removing punctuation. Third, to extract submissions (i.e., posts and comments) containing key terms from all available 239,772 subreddits, we employed a lexicon-based approach and extracted timestamps, comment or post IDs, member IDs, and subreddit IDs of the submissions. We extracted and included any partial matches in this process to cover a wide variation of terms. For example, a partial match of ‘cig’ can cover a variation of ‘cig’, ‘cigs’, ‘cigarette’, and ‘cigarettes’ for electronic cigarette. Fourth, we counted unique member IDs, subreddits, posts, and comments containing key terms. Fifth, we normalized the frequencies over time by dividing the frequency counts by the total number of the respective variables from all available subreddits for that period. Since the total number of submissions in Reddit generally increases over time, we report normalized frequencies over time counts.

Table 1.

Key terms used in the lexicon-based approach

RQ 2. What do Reddit members discuss on these health issues (a) in times of elevated activities or (b) in general, if the issues have a steady level of discussions?

Based on results of RQ 1, we created two scenarios deciding which time periods to further investigate for understanding the discussions on Ebola, electronic cigarette, influenza, and marijuana. (a) If the issue has a sudden elevated level of discussion, we investigated the time period in which the elevation occurs along with prior discussions of the same temporal length to understand the underlying causes for these sudden changes in public interest. Similar methods that contrast to prior time periods have been used to detect emerging topics 41 , 42 . (b) If the issue has a steady level of discussions, we investigated the entire discussions on the issue to understand the main themes.

We used natural language processing (NLP) and language modeling for this research question. Due to the size of the dataset and range of topics discussed on Reddit, we used automated methods. Similar automated methods have been used in the health care domain to extract information and analyze data, and to enhance the personal health care experiences 43 – 45 . First, we preprocessed the entire dataset as we did in RQ1. Second, to improve the language modeling results, we removed the URLs and comments and posts with less than 5 words, and then extracted nouns using Python Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) package 46 . The extracted nouns were used to create language models—a set of topics generated from document-level word co-occurrences for a given set of documents—using Latent Dirichlet Allocation 47 (LDA) for the time period of our interests. We elected to use LDA, an unsupervised algorithm, due to the lack of a ground truth dataset. We considered each post and its associated comments as a single document.

One advantage of using LDA as opposed to other unsupervised clustering techniques is that the algorithm considers each document with multiple topics. A previous study of online health discussions suggested that discussions could have multiple topics due to topic drift 48 . Thus, we employed LDA for this study. One disadvantage of using LDA is, however, it requires a pre-determined number of topics. After experimenting with varying numbers of topics, we generated 50 topics to understand Ebola, electronic cigarette, influenza, and marijuana related issues. We used the Python package genism 49 to conduct LDA analysis. We then present the main topics and their top 50 associated words as the word cloud overview using the Python package wordcloud 50 . Despite its simplicity, word cloud overview remains one of the more preferred and user-friendly visualizations that can also scale to different data sizes 51 . We then manually investigated the identified topics and their associated words to thoroughly examine the LDA results.

Lastly, we performed two types of validity checks. First, for health issues with a sudden elevated level of discussion, we verified the LDA results via a systematic analysis of news at the time of the change. LDA results reflect motivations for the extreme changes, thus news can be an effective source for a validity check. Second, we extracted URLs using regular expressions and categorized the results. A previous study concerning electronic cigarettes—a product with few marketing restrictions in the US until recently—suggested that up to 90 percent of social media (in this case, Twitter) content could be related to product marketing 52 . Thus, because marketing content can skew our result, we used URLs as a proxy to marketing content and reported the percentage of posts with URLs. We also manually examined several extracted URLs to ensure the quality of the validation process.

The lexicon-based approach identified Reddit posts, comments, and members discussing Ebola, electronic cigarette, influenza, and marijuana from October 2007 to May 2015 ( Table 2 ). The most discussed matter was influenza, followed by marijuana, electronic cigarettes, and then Ebola. The raw counts of discussions and members who mentioned each topic generally increased with time.

Table 2.

The total number and average normalized count of posts, comments, members, and subreddits identified using the lexicon-based approach

We identified one notable increase in discussion each for Ebloa, influenza, and marijuana using the normalized frequencies over time ( Figure 1 ). First, the normalized count on marijuana almost doubled from the previous month in February 2009. The heightened level of discussions continued for two months then slowly dropped back to the previous level. Second, in April of 2009, the normalized count on influenza almost doubled from the previous month. Third, October 2014 accounts for the Ebola discussions. The discussions on Ebola showed the most increase, jumping more than five times from the previous month. The number of members discussing each issue increased in a similar manner ( Figure 1 ). The Discussions on electronic cigarette was relatively steady from October 2007 to May 2015.

The Line Graphs of normalized frequencies over time for posts and comments with key terms and members who used the key terms

Discussions on Ebola, electronic cigarettes, influenza, and marijuana, however, only accumulated to a fraction of the overall discussions on Reddit ( Table 2 ). Although the community as a whole did not frequently talk about these health-related issues, this still amounted to more than 3,000 members for Ebloa, the least discussed issue, and more than 137,000 members for influenza, the most discussed issue in a month with a normal level of discussion, May 2015.

New subreddits to discuss Ebloa, Electronic Cigarette, Influenza, and Marijuana

Members of Reddit created a number of subreddits specifically focusing on Ebola, electronic cigarettes, influenza, and marijuana, although they also discussed the issues in many different subreddits ( Table 3 ). Using the key terms ( Table 1 ), we detected a total of 450 topically dedicated subreddits that were created between October 2007 and May 2015. For example, marijuana was casually discussed in 18,236 subreddits (i.e., subreddits with key terms in posts or comments), while members created at least 244 subreddits (i.e., key terms in names of subreddits) to talk about marijuana.

Table 3.

Newly created communities dedicated to focus on Ebola, Electronic Cigarette, influenza, and Marijuana

From RQ1, we learned that discussions focusing concerning Ebola, influenza, and marijuana, each had one sudden increase of activities. Thus, we created word cloud overviews of emerging topics for Ebola, influenza, and marijuana, while creating a general word cloud overviews for electronic cigarette ( Figure 2 ).

According to the word cloud overview generated by the LDA topic modeling algorithm, we can infer that Reddit members are most concerned about ‘risk’ and ‘symptoms’ regarding Ebola. For influenza, members used terms like ‘Mexico’, ‘Obama’, ‘CDC’, and ‘conspiracy’, along with H1N1 influenza related terms (e.g., ‘H1N1’, ‘Swine’) as well as H5N1 related terms like ‘Egypt’ and ‘pig’. Topics regarding ‘legalization’, ‘prohibition’, ‘economy’, and ‘state’ appeared in discussions regarding marijuana. The general word cloud overview for electronic cigarettes has more commercially related terms such as ‘quality’, ‘prices’, ‘shop’, and ‘store’ than the other three discussions, however substantially more terms related to tobacco (e.g., ‘tobacco’, ‘cigarette’, ‘cigar’) are shown in Figure 2 . Other notable topics for electronic cigarette that were identified via the LDA were ‘quitting smoking’, ‘fun experience’, and ‘health information’.

The LDA algorithm identified ‘quit’, ‘addiction’, ‘habit’, ‘cravings’, ‘gum’ and ‘turkey’ for ‘quitting smoking’, associated ‘fun’, ‘experience’, ‘safe’, and ‘pleasure’ with ‘fun experience’, and linked ‘cancer’, ‘risk’, ‘study’, ‘evidence’, ‘research’, ‘article’, ‘data’, and ‘science’ with ‘health information’. These topics highlighted a great opportunity for better health education (See Discussion).

To check the validity of the results, we extracted and investigated the URLs to ensure that frequencies are not inflated by marketing content. The types of URLs shared by members were similar in nature for all four issues. Members shared websites that are concerning information (e.g., Wikipedia, CDC), news (e.g., NY Times), personal stories (e.g., blogs), other social media platforms, (e.g., Youtube), different Reddit posts, and commercial resources (e.g., amazon). Although the proportion of each type of URLs is different, members shared a relatively small number of posts and comments with URLs compared to the overall posts and comments focusing on all four issues.

Principal Findings

We examined four different infectious disease related or potentially stigmatized health related issues discussed on Reddit. We discovered three periods with higher levels of activities on Reddit. We observed that there were almost twice as many marijuana related discussions in February 2009 compared to the previous month, due – we suspect – to the announcement of a major shift in federal policy. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that Drug Enforcement Administration would halt medical marijuana raids and give states the power to regulate medical marijuana usage for pain control in February of 2009 53 . In April of 2009, discussions about influenza almost doubled from the previous month. This is likely due to the fact that a novel strain of H1N1 influenza virus was discovered in North America in the spring of 2009 54 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirming the first two cases of human infection with H1N1 influenza virus in the United States in April of 2009 55 . On September 30, 2014, the United States had its first diagnosed case of Ebola in Texas, and the first Ebola related death on October 8, 2014 56 . We observed that discussions on Ebola, a potentially fatal infectious disease, surged more than five times from the previous month in October of 2014. The news related to Ebola, influenza, and Marijuana align well with the results from topic model analyses (RQ2). On the basis of these changes of activities, Reddit may be a valuable source of data for tracking the prevalence of public interests on infectious diseases (i.e., Ebola and influenza) and controversial health related issues (i.e., electronic cigarette and marijuana) over time (RQ1).

The result of our analysis on electronic cigarette discussions suggests that Reddit contains more than just commercial content despite the fact there are at least three subreddits focusing on classified content ( Table 4 ). For instance, a subreddit called ‘Ecigclassifieds’ consists mainly of commercial content, thus the content of these subreddits deserves further investigation to better utilize the data. From electronic cigarette discussion, we identified three topics, ‘quitting smoking’, ‘fun experience’, and ‘health information’ that highlighted opportunities for better health education. From their associated terms (see Results), we can infer that Reddit members are seeking information on these three topics. Information seeking behavior on Reddit suggests Reddit’s utility as another social media platform for information distribution and as a data source for understanding user groups (e.g., electronic cigarette smokers) and identifying better health education. Why members are seeking health information on Reddit is an unanswered research question, although a recent study suggests that electronic cigarette related health information from public health agencies may be too difficult for the general public to comprehend 57 .

Table 4.

Posts and comments containing URL s

Reddit members also created at least 450 relevant new subreddits specifically focusing on these four issues. How the content from these subreddits contrast with the content from multiple subreddits on the same issue is an unanswered question. Previous studies 30 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 39 analyzed content from a handful of especially dedicated subreddits for their studies. However, our finding suggests that at least for discussions of Ebola, influenza, electronic cigarettes, and marijuana, members mentioned these issues on thousands of subreddits ( Table 3 ). For instance, a common issue like influenza was discussed in over 30,000 subreddits, and even a focused topic like Ebloa were discussed in over 4,400 subreddits. Thus, we believe analyzing a wider number of subreddits can improve recall of the relevant content.

Limitation, Future Directions, and User Privacy

Reddit offers substantial potential for understanding the public reactions to health-related topics, however, not without a number of limitations. Although Reddit is a widely-used platform, it is more frequently used by young males 58 , 59 and may be subjective to self-selection bias. Reddit members are not necessarily representative of the general public, however, the levels of activity on Reddit aligned with the United States news and deserve a further investigation, especially with respect to location of postings and the overall reactions in Reddit. To better understand the reaction of the general public, studying different platforms and avenues, Facebook and Twitter for example, is warranted. Our analysis suggests that given the increasing popularity and use of Reddit, as well as the increasing frequency of discussions concerning our topic of interests, Reddit provides a productive starting point for investigating infectious disease related or controversial health issues.

Another limitation lies in the methodology. In RQ1, we used a relatively rudimentary lexicon-based approach to extract posts and comments explicit mentioning variations of pre-specified key terms. One major shortcoming of such approach is the selection of key terms. For example, utilizing a large set of key terms will undoubtedly create more false-positives, whereas too limited a set of key terms will surely result in more false-negatives. Moreover, partial matches can produce false-positive matches. We believe the figures for influenza were inflated because ‘flu’ can be a part of a longer word such as ‘fluorine’ or ‘flute’. In future studies, we suggest that precision rather than recall should be emphasized in order to eliminate irrelevant discussions. Other difficulties in mining social media data include the fact that social media text is frequently characterized by extensive of acronyms, abbreviations, and slang terms 60 . Although we included the most frequently found abbreviations and slang terms, lexicon-based approaches are to omit unknown forms of abbreviations and slang. More sophisticated methods utilizing knowledge- based 61 or corpus-based 62 approaches could produce different results. Furthermore, a smaller timeframe can better measure the timeliness of the observed reactions as oppose to the one month timeframe used in RQ1. In RQ2, we relied on a systematic analysis of the news to verify the result of our investigation. However, data driven qualitative analysis 63 can further bolster our findings and provide the contextual information on the discussions of our interests. Sentiment analysis on the extracted discussion can also provide further clues about general public reactions on various health related topics 9 .

Research and applications using social media data should be highly sensitive to user privacy, especially for potentially stigmatized topics. Although at least some social media data are publicly available, researchers should consider ethical implications when processing data even for population-level social media research using public data 64 – 66 . For this reason, we have refrained from using direct quotations from Reddit users in this paper.

As evident by the frequencies over time of discussions, inflated discussions after major news, as well as newly created subreddits specifically focusing on these health-related issues, Reddit could be a useful platform for understanding the concerns and opinions of the general public, especially for issues focusing on controversial topics, such as abuse and addiction as well as infectious diseases of public health interest. By utilizing the content, we also identified opportunities for better health education that could improve public health outcomes. We created topic models using LDA and generated topically associated words and created word cloud visualizations to show (1) emerging topics by contrasting to the prior topic models or (2) main themes of the discussions. We believe our insights and analyses can be generalized to other similar health related issues in the Reddit platform. Understanding public reactions to these issues has the potential to expand the scope of public-health practice.

Word cloud overviews of emerging topics for Ebola (top left), influenza (top right), and marijuana (bottom left) as well as general word cloud overviews for electronic cigarette (bottom right)

Acknowledgments

We restricted our analysis to publicly available discussion content. The study was exempted from review by the University of Utah’s Institutional Review Board (Ethics Committee) [IRB 00076188].

Author AP was funded by National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under award number T15 LM007124. Author MC’s contribution to this research was supported by National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers R00LM011393 & K99LM011393.

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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About the Master of Public Health Program

The Master of Public Health is a Schoolwide degree program. The rigorous curriculum prepares students to become leading public health professionals capable of addressing current global health problems with multidisciplinary, evidence-based approaches.

During the program, students interact with public health faculty members renowned for teaching, practice and ongoing research around the world. In this diverse and collaborative learning environment, students learn as much from each other as they do from their coursework.

MPH students benefit from a flexible curriculum, online and onsite options, hundreds of courses taught by 1,500+ faculty and RA opportunities with projects in 67 countries.

The program culminates in a capstone project that applies competencies and skills acquired through the program to a public health problem relevant to a student’s professional goals and interests.

Graduates become part of the largest MPH alumni network across the globe.

Dual Degree and Full-Time Options           Online / Part-Time Format

Master of Public Health Program Highlights

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Our MPH program and MPH/MBA dual degree program are now STEM-designated

The STEM designation applies to students graduating in May 2023 and after . Students who have an F-1 visa and are employed after graduation, may be eligible for up to t wo additional years of Optional Practical Training (OPT) beyond the one year offered to graduates of non-STEM programs.

What Can You Do With an MPH?

MPH graduates work at a vast array of organizations including health care, consulting firms, the federal government, colleges and universities, local and state health departments, hospitals, NGOs, and many, many more. Visit the Graduate Employment Outcomes Dashboard to learn about Bloomberg School graduates' employment status, sector, and salaries.

Sample Job Titles

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Curriculum for the Master of Public Health

Browse an overview of the requirements for this master's program in the JHU  Academic Catalogue  and explore all course offerings in the Bloomberg School  Course Directory .

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Admissions Requirements

For the general admissions requirements see our How to Apply page. This specific program also requires:

Prior Work Experience

2 years of full-time, post-baccalaureate, health-related work experience or a doctoral degree in a field underlying public health

This requirement is waived for medical students who have completed two years of U.S. medical school curriculum, those who have finished medical school outside of the U.S., and all applicants to the dual-degree programs. Exception: MPH/MBA candidates must have the two-year work experience.

Prior Coursework

By the time a student matriculates into the program (as opposed to apply for), they must have satisfactorily completed the following courses for academic credit and letter grade at an accredited institution:

• One math course (e.g., Calculus, Algebra or Statistics)
• One introductory general biology course
• One health-related science (e.g., Microbiology, Nutrition, or Anatomy and Physiology) OR a second biology course

Standardized Test Scores

Standardized test scores (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, or MCAT) are  optional* for this program. The admissions committee will make no assumptions if a standardized test score is omitted from an application, but will require evidence of quantitative/analytical ability through other application components such as academic transcripts and/or supplemental questions.  Applications will be reviewed holistically based on all application components.

*The MPH/MBA with the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School require either GRE or GMAT scores. However, there are GMAT/GRE Waivers for select, qualified candidates (3 or more years of full-time post-graduate work experience at the time of the program start in July AND a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 in undergraduate coursework or an advanced degree or professional degree (i.e., earned master's or doctorate). Meeting minimum eligibility does not guarantee a waiver and receiving a waiver does not guarantee admission.

Marie Diener-West, PhD '84,

Chair of MPH Program and Professor of Biostatistics, teaches and collaborates in the design, conduct, and analysis of multicenter clinical trials.

Information regarding the cost of tuition and fees can be found on the Bloomberg School's Tuition and Fees page.

All new online/part-time MPH students will be awarded the Welch Scholarship.

The Bloomberg Fellows and Sommer Scholars are two full-tuition scholarship opportunities.

Questions about the program? We're happy to help.

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MPH Office 410-955-1291 [email protected]

Compare Programs

Check out similar programs at the Bloomberg School to find the best fit.

• Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Offered by Health Policy and Management
• Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Offered by Epidemiology
• Master of Applied Science in Population Health Management  

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Moscow during worldcup - advice

Hi, I'm visiting Moscow with a friend to see the world cup and the city for 4 days. Any advice for cheap accomodations, areas to stay/avoid, things to see and eat. Also, do people understand English.

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