Innovative epidemiology instruction for promoting population health thinking in occupational therapy doctoral students

Purpose

Recent shifts toward population-based health care and research in health science training programs are vital to reducing health disparities, although students need stronger education in this area. This study aimed to determine if innovative epidemiology research instruction is associated with improved science literacy skills, a core objective of population health curricula, for occupational therapy doctoral students.

Methods

We used the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) to determine change in student science literacy skills based on change in performance from baseline. Multilevel repeated measures models were run clustering by student and cohort, adjusted for demographics and prior research courses.

Results

The sample included 166 students (91 % female, 57 % Non-Hispanic White, 14 % Hispanic, 19 % Non-Hispanic Black, 10 % Asian; 83 % ≤25 years old). Model estimates showed improvements in science literacy skills (β=0.39 [95 %CI:0.10, 0.67]) relative to baseline. Interaction models showed greater improvements from baseline for students who identified as Hispanic (β=0.82 [95 %CI:0.10, 1.63]) and Non-Hispanic White (β=0.55 [95 %CI:0.16, 0.94]). Additional interaction models did not show differences in the time-TOSLS association by student characteristics.

Conclusions

Innovative epidemiology instruction may be an appropriate method for supporting health sciences student development of science literacy skills to foster population health thinking, research, and practice.