Epidemiology: Population Dynamics (Ph.D.)
Offered by: Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences)
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Program Description
The Ph.D. in Epidemiology; Population Dynamics program focuses on training in demographic methods (including life table analyese) and critical population dynamic issues such as population health, migration, aging, family dynamics, and labour markets.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Thesis
A thesis for the doctoral degree must constitute original scholarship and must be a distinct contribution to knowledge. It must show familiarity with previous work in the field and must demonstrate ability to plan and carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusions in a scholarly manner. The research presented must meet current standards of the discipline; as well, the thesis must clearly demonstrate how the research advances knowledge in the field. Finally, the thesis must be written in compliance with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication in the public domain.
Required Courses (22 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EPIB 701 | Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination. | 0 |
Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The comprehensive examination is a written examination. The objective is to assess the degree to which students have been able to assimilate and apply the principles of epidemiologic research. Examinations held twice yearly. | ||
| EPIB 702 | Ph.D. Proposal. | 0 |
Ph.D. Proposal. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Essential skills for thesis writing and defence, including essential elements of research protocols, formulation of research objectives, the design, and strategies. | ||
| EPIB 703 | Principles of Study Design. | 2 |
Principles of Study Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will provide an overview of the concepts and principles underlying epidemiologic study design. Focus will be on the importance of appropriately formulating the research question, identifying the target population, defining the relevant entities, and on how these factors affect the validity of study findings. Examples from the published literature will be extensively used to illustrate the crucial points and will be discussed in class. | ||
| EPIB 704 | Doctoral Level Epidemiologic Methods 1. | 4 |
Doctoral Level Epidemiologic Methods 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Estimation of epidemiologic effect measures and their confidence intervals in a variety of different study designs. Emphasis on analysis of sample data sets using regression models, graphical and tabular presentation of results, causal interpretation of effect estimates, writing reports for scientific publications, and sensitivity analyses for violated assumptions. | ||
| EPIB 705 | Doctoral Level Epidemiologic Methods 2. | 4 |
Doctoral Level Epidemiologic Methods 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course has a conceptual and analytical causal inference perspective. The nature of specific study biases resulting in non-causal components in the observed association between exposure and outcome are discussed, including endogenous selection bias, measured and unmeasured confounding, and measurement error. Methods to recover the causal effect with such biases are presented. Causal mediation analysis is discussed. Models for survival analysis are discussed as well as the problem of- and some solutions to missing data. A brief overview of genetic epidemiology principles is covered. | ||
| EPIB 706 | Doctoral Seminar in Epidemiology. | 3 |
Doctoral Seminar in Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course aims to provide an opportunity to students who have completed the Epidemiology course series in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, to optimize their training in ways that will be helpful to their thesis research and to the development of their career as epidemiologists. The content of this interactive course and the delivery of the material is primarily determined by students based on the knowledge gaps that they identify. The course will allow students to expand their methodological tool box, explore controversies in epidemiology, and gain experience synthesizing and communicating complex concepts to an informed audience. | ||
| EPIB 707 | Research Design in Health Sciences. | 3 |
Research Design in Health Sciences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Lectures and discussions and student oral and written presentations with the aim of providing guidance and experience in the development of objectives, background and methods for both the formulation of, and the constructive peer criticism of, research protocols in the health sciences. | ||
| SOCI 545 | Sociology of Population. | 3 |
Sociology of Population. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The classic literature of sociology of population. Drawing reciprocal linkages between social and population processes: Historical, family and labour force demography, demographic and fertility transitions, mortality, ethnic and race relations, gender, macro-structural interaction theory, and the relation of population and the environment. | ||
| SOCI 626 | Demographic Methods. | 3 |
Demographic Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to demographic measurement and modeling. Course covers direct and indirect estimation, standardization, life table construction, and population projections. | ||
Complementary Courses (9 credits)
9 credits of coursework, at the 500 level or higher, with a minimum of 3 credits in biostatistics, 3 credits in epidemiology, and 3 credits from courses approved for the Population Dynamics Option from the list below:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ECON 634 | Economic Development 3. | 3 |
Economic Development 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systematic treatment of the characteristics and problems of economic development in underdeveloped countries. | ||
| ECON 641 | Labour Economics. | 3 |
Labour Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A synthesis of theoretical developments in the area of labour economics with stress upon problems of empirical testing. | ||
| ECON 734 | Economic Development 4. | 3 |
Economic Development 4. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Problems of economic growth and planning in selected underdeveloped countries. Topics covered vary from year to year in response to student interests; growth, poverty and income distribution, LDC labour markets and institutions, trade and development, international debt problems, issues in trade policy. | ||
| ECON 741 | Advanced Labour Economics. | 3 |
Advanced Labour Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected theoretical and policy issues in labour economics. | ||
| ECON 742 | Empirical Microeconomics. | 3 |
Empirical Microeconomics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Surveys the empirical techniques used in applied microeconomic fields, particularly development and labour economics. Focus is on the formulation of empirical models derived from economic theory, and on various estimation methodologies, including panel data econometrics, limited dependent variable models, and duration analysis. A "hands on" approach is emphasized. | ||
| ECON 744 | Health Economics. | 3 |
Health Economics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The emphasis will be on describing and analyzing the structure and performance of the Canadian health system, though some attention will be given to recent attempts by the federal and provincial governments to deal with current problems in this field. Readings will be selected from the economics and health literature. | ||
| EPIB 648 | Methods in Social Epidemiology. | 3 |
Methods in Social Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Methods for conducting studies in social epidemiology and population health will be covered. Topics will include causal inference; measurement and concepts of social exposures; methods for study design and analysis. Techniques for descriptive and etiologic investigations of socioeconomic position, gender, race and ethnicity, geography, and social policies will be discussed. | ||
| EPIB 681 | Global Health: Epidemiological Research. | 3 |
Global Health: Epidemiological Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A review of selected epidemiological research focussing on global health and disease topics. Research will be mostly from developing countries and research methods will be highlighted. Case studies will be used to illustrate specific applications and challenges. | ||
| PPHS 525 | Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. | 3 |
Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative perspective to illustrate processes involved in the development and evolution of health care systems around the world. Countries examined will represent different welfare state regimes, health care system typologies, levels of development and wealth. | ||
| PPHS 528 | Economic Evaluation of Health Programs. | 3 |
Economic Evaluation of Health Programs. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Concepts and methods used to carry out economic evaluations of health programs and interventions, including public health interventions, pharmaceuticals, and other health care interventions. Includes topics such as calculation of unit costs, measurement of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and assessment of uncertainty in cost-effectiveness analysis. | ||
| PPHS 529 | Global Environmental Health and Burden of Disease. | 3 |
Global Environmental Health and Burden of Disease. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course presents the grand challenges in global health from environmental and occupational risks along with the multi-disciplinary methods used to identify, control, and prevent them. It will introduce students to knowledge and skills in core disciplines of environmental health and approaches to environmental risk recognition, control and prevention in a global context. | ||
| PPHS 615 | Introduction to Infectious Disease Epidemiology. | 3 |
Introduction to Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the field of infectious disease epidemiology taught from a public health perspective. Topics include analytic methods, study design, outbreak investigations, surveillance, vaccine development and evaluations, screening, modelling, and infectious causes of cancer or chronic diseases. | ||
| SOCI 502 | Sociology of Fertility. | 3 |
Sociology of Fertility. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An upper-level course that will cover the major theories and findings from the social scientific study of fertility behavior. Readings and discussion will focus on the causal linkages between social change and transitions in fertility behavior. We will examine contemporary and historical fertility behavior and transitions across the globe. | ||
| SOCI 512 | Ethnicity and Public Policy. | 3 |
Ethnicity and Public Policy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Major themes in the theoretical literature on ethnicity. Public policies with direct and indirect implications for inter-ethnic relations will be studied. Policies affecting areas such as language, education, immigration, employment and promotion, multiculturalism and welfare. Examples drawn from several multi-ethnic societies. Political, constitutional, and economic problems associated with these policy initiatives. | ||
| SOCI 513 | Social Aspects HIV/AIDS in Africa. | 3 |
Social Aspects HIV/AIDS in Africa. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of the social causes and consequences of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Gender inequality, sexual behaviours, marriage systems, migration, and poverty are shaping the pandemic as well as how the pandemic is altering social, demographic and economic conditions across Africa. | ||
| SOCI 520 | Migration and Immigrant Groups. | 3 |
Migration and Immigrant Groups. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of the major demographic, economic and sociological theories of internal and international migration. The main emphasis will be on empirical research on migration and immigrant groups. | ||
| SOCI 525 | Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. | 3 |
Health Care Systems in Comparative Perspective. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative perspective to illustrate processes involved in the development and evolution of health care systems around the world. Countries examined will represent different welfare state regimes, health care system typologies, levels of development and wealth. | ||
| SOCI 535 | Sociology of the Family. | 3 |
Sociology of the Family. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar reviews literature on major research areas in family. The course examines families in the past, the study of family using a life course approach, and considers selective areas which may have had significant influences on contemporary family such as work and family, family violence, and cultural variation in families. | ||
| SOCI 588 | Biosociology/Biodemography. | 3 |
Biosociology/Biodemography. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will explore linkages between social and biological systems, their influence on health and well-being over the life course, and on health disparities. Topics include classical sociological approaches to biosocial processes, sociobiology (reductionist, but population-based), and newer demographic studies on gen-environment, epigenetic, and stress-metabolic/allostatic processes. | ||
Courses must be chosen in consultation with the student's supervisor and/or the degree program's director or adviser.