Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113576

Karen Kaba, Doctor of Public Health Program, Boston University School of Public Health, Program Manager, 715 Albany St., Boston, MA 02118-2526 and Eugene Declercq, MBA, PhD, School of Public Health, Maternal Child Health, Boston University, 715 Albany Street #T5W, Boston, MA 02118, 617 638-7795, dclercq@bu.edu.

Objective: Describe the trends in doctoral education in Public Health over the past decade, with a special emphasis on the DrPH. Process: Data from the ASPH Annual Reports were examined. The number of DrPH Students has remained fairly steady over the past decade. However, the percent of DrPH students has fallen from 30.4% of all doctoral students in 1985 to 13.9% of all doctoral students in 2003. This is in part due to a steady increase in PhD students. Graduates of DrPH programs have followed a similar trend making up 26.4% of all Doctoral program graduates in 1985 down to 12.1% of all Doctoral program graduates in 2003. In 1995 the top three program areas for DrPH students were Health Services Administration (30% of all DrPH students), Health Education / Behavioral Sciences (18%) and Epidemiology (13%). In 2003 the top 3 program areas have shifted to Health Education / Behavioral sciences (30.7% of all DrPH students), Health Services Administration (16%) and Public Health Practice and Program Management (12%). In 1995, 75% of students reporting race/ethnicity were White while 10% were Black, 7% were Hispanic and 7% were Asian. In 2003 whites represented 57% of all students reporting race/ethnicity while 20% were Black, 12% were Hispanic and 10% were Asian. 18 ASPH accredited schools of public health had DrPH students in 1996, compared to 19 in 2003, while the number of DrPH programs graduating 10 or more candidates per year has decreased from 5 programs in 1994-1995 to 3 in 2002-2003.

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