Research

The Department of Epidemiology is loosely divided into seven primary research program areas:  cancer, cardiovascular diseases, environmental/occupational exposures, health care epidemiology, infectious diseases, injury, and reproductive epidemiology.  Within these areas there is, of course, a good deal of overlap. Cancer Research Evaluation of gene-environment interaction, using molecular biology techniques Investigate disparities in cancer incidence and mortality among minority groups Development of epidemiologic, statistical, and laboratory methods in cancer research Carolina Breast Cancer Study North Carolina Colon Cancer Study North Carolina Head and Neck Cancer Study Long Island Breast Cancer Study Genetic Epidemiology of Melanoma Study North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project Women’s Health Initiative Learn more about Cancer Research in Epidemiology Cardiovascular Research Air pollution / environmental factors and CVD Application of GIS to studies of CVD CHD, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease surveillance Etiology / control of CVD and kidney disease in diverse groups Genetic causes of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension Life course socioeconomic and racial disparities in CVD Neighborhood influences on physical activity and CVD Physical activity in adolescents and postpartum women Improving access to and quality of acute stroke care Learn more about Cardiovascular Research in Epidemiology Environment/Occupational Research Cancer risks from occupational and environmental agents Perinatal and pediatric effects of environmental exposures Health effects of air and water pollutants Health effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation Environmental justice Occupational injuries Methodological Research Learn more about Environmental/Occupational Research in Epidemiology Health Care and Pharmacoepidemiology Prevalence of disease studies     Studies of medication use and disease outcomes using large databases and electronic medical records Medical record abstraction studies Multiple disease areas: diabetes, depression, women’s health, HIV Evidence-based medicine including systematic reviews Methodological research related to confounder adjustment including propensity scores and doubly robust modeling Includes funding from the UNC-GlaxoSmithKline Center of Excellence in Pharmacoepidemiology and Public Health Pre-doctoral funding from several pharmaceutical companies Learn more about Health Care and Pharmacoepidemiology Research in Epidemiology Infectious Disease Research HIV (especialy acute HIV infections) Nosocomial infections Parasitic diseases (malaria, trypanosomiasis) Sexually Transmitted Diseases (syphilis, gonorhea, chlamydia) Tuberculosis Viral pathogens (noroviruses, calciviruses, HSV, HPV) Learn more about Infectious Disease Research in Epidemiology  Injury Research Design and conduct of epidemiologic research directed at the prevention of injuries Risk Factor Studies Intervention Studies Occupational Injury Sports and Recreational Injury Transport-Related Injury Violence Focues on the application of advanced methods to the study of injury Learn more about Injury Research in Epidemiology Reproductive Research  Infertility  Miscarriage  Pregnancy complications  Birthweight  Preterm delivery  Birth defects  Childhood cancer  Child growth and  development  Learn more about Reproductive Research in Epidemiology For more details about the role of research or specific research projects at either the Department of Epidemiology or at the School of Public Health, vist: Faculty Research Interests A Sampling of Current Research Projects A Sampling of Recent Dissertation Titles Office of Research

Last updated December 12, 2007