Epidemiology, Health Literacy, and Health Education

Epidemiology, the study of the distribution and the determinants of disease, traditionally is taught in graduate school. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently advocated the integration of epidemiology teaching in grades K-12. The science of epidemiology offers students a rich arena to practice, experience, and learn the knowledge and skills that constitute health literacy and thus provides a foundation for evidence-based decision making. “Detectives in the Classroom,” a curriculum for teaching epidemiology to middle school students, is based on five essential questions, questions that epidemiologists attempt to answer as they do their work, and their enduring understandings.