Social Epidemiology Initiative and Social Epidemiology Working Group History
How it started
The Social Epidemiology Initiative is the result of the efforts of University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine(SPHCM) graduate students to increase capacity for research and training on investigating the social determinants of health. The Initiative received funding from SPHCM Dean’s office to create the Social Epidemiology Working Group to continue developing SPHCM’s resources for investigating the social determinants of health. The Working Group developed two graduate courses in investigating the social determinants of health, held two symposia on health disparities and the social determinants of health and started a social determinants of health dataset directory.
Social Determinants of Health Dataset Directory
The Working Group surveyed the SPHCM faculty about existing datasets that contain variables related to the social determinants of health. The idea is to create a compendium of available datasets that students and faculty could look to for thesis and collaboration ideas. To view the Social Determinants of Health Dataset Directory click here
2003 Winter Quarter Social Determinants of Health Journal Club
The 2003 Social Determinants of Health Journal Club was designed “to explore methodologies that support research into the social determinants of health by reviewing publications in epidemiology, health services, and social sciences”. The journal club was a 1-credit winter quarter course taught by Diane Martin, PhD from Health Services and Nick Smith, PhD from Epidemiology. At each session, a group of students led the discussion of 1-2 recent journal articles on a social determinants of health topic. Topics included conceptual frameworks, causality, measuring social determinants, ecologic study designs and multilevel modeling. You can view the reading list .
2003 Health Disparities Symposium: Social Determinants of Health: Methods and Practice
The 2003 Health Disparities Symposium: Social Determinants of Health: Methods and Practice took place May 6-8th, 2003 at the UW Health Sciences Building. The event was sponsored by the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine and the Social Epidemiology Working Group. John Lynch, PhD, MPH, MEd from the University of Michigan gave the Keynote address to kick off the symposium. Other sessions included Epidemiology and Statistics workshops, a UW faculty panel and practice sessions by Public Health – Seattle/King County. For more information, please visit the 2003 Health Disparities Symposium website
2004 Winter Quarter Social Determinants of Health Research Methods Course
Social Determinants of Health Research Methods was a 3-credit graduate level course designed to explore study-design, measurement, and analytic issues applicable to research into the social determinants of health. The course was taught by Nick Smith, PhD and Shirley Beresford, PhD from the Department of Epidemiology and included many guest lectures by faculty from the Departments of Epidemiology, Health Services and Biostatistics and the School of Nursing. Lectures covered topics such as conceptual frameworks, causality, data sources, measurement issues, study design, ecologic studies, multilevel confounding, structural equation modeling and analysis of complex survey, multilevel and longitudinal data.

In addition to lectures, five journal club sessions were held. Groups of students took turns leading the class discussion of two or three current articles on the social determinants of health. The major assignment for the course was to develop a short research proposal addressing the social determinants of an important public health problem. Feedback on the course was positive and the instructor’s hope to be able to offer it again soon. The course syllabus is available.

2004 Health Disparities Symposium: Social Determinants of Health: Neighborhood and Place
The 2004 Health Disparities Symposium: Social Determinants: Neighborhood and Place was sponsored by the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Social Epidemiology Working Group, UW-SPHCM Social and Behavioral Sciences Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Social and Behavioral Sciences Affinity Group, University of Washington Office for Research and the School of Social Work Prevention Research Training Progam. The 2004 symposium focused in on neighborhood and place and examined more closely broader themes brought to light by the 2003 Health Disparities Symposium: Social Determinants: Methods and Practice.

For the 2004 event, two renowned epidemiologists – George Kaplan, PhD and Ana Diez-Roux, MD, MPH, PhD both from the University of Michigan gave plenary lectures. Dr. Kaplan, President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan spoke about the “Upstream and Downstream Approaches to Health Inequalities: Challenges and Opportunities” and Dr. Diez-Roux an expert on neighborhood research methods discussed “Examining the Puzzle: Methodologic Considerations for Integrating Neighborhood, Place and Person”.

In addition to the two plenary lectures, there were three seminars exploring different facets of research on neighborhood and place and a scientific poster session exhibiting some of the local work in this area. The three seminars investigated themes of Identifying a Community, Defining Groups and Corresponding Analytic Approaches, and Geographic Definition of Place and the Built Environment. The poster session featured eleven posters and allowed local researchers to present their work and take advantage of the diverse range of expertise of the symposium speakers and attendees.

For more information, please visit the 2004 Health Disparities Symposium website