Epidemiology

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e-mail: ppgepi@ufpel.edu.br
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Presentation

UFPel’s Graduate Program in Epidemiology (PPGE for its spelling in Portuguese) was created in 1991 as an initiative of a group of professors from the university who had been working with epidemiological research for ten years. This group created the Center for Epidemiologic Research (CPE) and was responsible for one of the largest longitudinal epidemiological studies in the world: the Pelotas Birth Cohort. The first study performed was the 1982 cohort, which is based on the identification and monitoring of all births that took place in the city of Pelotas that year. The study included 5,914 newborns and was so well conducted that in the year following its inception it won funding from the World Health Organization (WHO). Many researchers joined this study and dozens of scientific articles were published in leading national and international journals.

This type of investigation was unprecedented in the country for it was very complex and involved many people in fieldwork, which made the costs of its implementation very high. However, the cohort’s successful outcomes attracted many researchers from the health field, creating the need for qualification. As a result, UFPel professors working in the CPE developed a graduate program built upon their main area of expertise: Epidemiology.

In 1991, the Master’s Degree in Epidemiology was created in association with the university’s Department of Social Medicine. In its first review by CAPES (Brazilian Ministry of Education’s official evaluation system) in 1995, the course received an A grade and was authorized to start its doctorate-level activities in 1998.

In 2003, after CAPES evaluation was redesigned, graduate programs started to receive grades from 1 to 7. UFPel’s Graduate Program in Epidemiology initially received a grade of 6 only to earn the highest score (a grade of 7) in the review of 2007, which has been kept ever since. Currently, the Program is comprised of academic Master's and Doctorate degrees as well as a professional degree.

The Center for Epidemiologic Research (CPE) is recognized for its position as a World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center for Maternal and Child Nutrition; a Ministry of Health’s National Reference Center for Food and Nutrition; and a Welcome Trust Latin American Center of Excellence.

Area of Concentration

Life course epidemiology

Healthcare epidemiology

Child and adolescent health and nutrition

Adult health and nutrition

Occupational and environmental health

Lines of Research

Life course epidemiology
Early determinants of health and nutrition in adolescents and adults

Healthcare epidemiology
Evaluation of healthcare services
Evaluation of healthcare programs

Child and adolescent health and nutrition
Breastfeeding
Anthropometric studies
Childhood morbidity and mortality
Adolescent sexuality

Adult health and nutrition
Adult nutrition
Health inequalities
Cancer and chronic diseases
Pharmacoepidemiology
Mental health
Reproductive health

Occupational and environmental health
Workers Health
Child Labor
Violence (external causes)
 

Study Plan

Mandatory Courses – 1st year

Epidemiology I

Research Seminar I

Research Practice I

Statistics I

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance I

Introduction to Stata

Doctoral Seminar I

Research Seminar II

Research Practice II

Statistics II

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance II

Social Sciences

Doctoral Seminar II

Epidemiology III

Research Seminar III

Statistics III

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance III

Doctoral Seminar III

Research Seminar IV

Fieldwork Training

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance IV

Epidemiology IV

Public Health

Doctoral Seminar IV

Mandatory Courses – 2nd year

Doctoral Seminar V

Doctoral Seminar VI

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance V

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance VI

Statistics IV

Writing Workshop

Bioethics

Demography

Doctoral Seminar VII

Doctoral Seminar VIII

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance VII

Dissertation and Thesis Guidance VIII

Elective Courses

Life course studies (I-VIII)

Advanced Research Methods in Physical Activity

Clinical Epidemiology

Evaluation of Healthcare Services

Health Policy and Planning

Occupational Epidemiology

Nutritional Assessment

Qualitative Methods in Health

Oral Health Epidemiology

Faculty

Permanent Faculty

Aluísio Jardim Dornellas de Barros
Ana Maria Baptista Menezes
Andréa Homsi Dâmaso
Bernardo Lessa Horta
Cesar Gomes Victora
Denise Petrucci Gigante
Elaine Tomasi
Fernando César Wehrmeister
Flávio Fernando Demarco
Luciana Tovo Rodrigues
Luiz Augusto Facchini
Maria Cecília Formoso Assunção
Mariângela Freitas Assunção
Pedro Rodrigues Curi Hallal
Helen Denise Gonçalves da Silva
Iná da Silva dos Santos
 

Research Associate

Alicia Matijasevich Manitto
Ana Claudia Gastal Fassa
Fernando Celso Lopes Fernandes de Barros
Juvenal Soares Dias da Costa
Juraci Almeida Cesar
Marcos Britto Correa

 

Number of credits required

Successful completion of the Program requires students to earn a minimum of 58 credits towards the Doctorate Degree

Sala dos Conselhos Superiores da UFPEL · Antigo Lyceu Riograndense / Escola de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel – Praça Sete de Julho, 180 · Patrimônio Cultural da Universidade