Physical activity epidemiology deals with the frequency and patterns of physical activity in the population and the relationship between physical activity and health and disease. The named option in Physical Activity Epidemiology provides students with advanced study in physical activity measurement issues, study design, relationships of physical activity with specific health and disease states, and approaches to physical activity promotion. Graduate study in this area covers epidemiologic and statistical courses that provide background in population-level study design and analysis as well as electives related to physical activity and public health. The PhD degree is designed to prepare students for scholarly research and teaching in this area. Students obtaining a PhD will be expected to go on for post-doctoral work prior to establishing independent research programs. The flexible curriculum in this program area will be tailored to individual students, with courses selected from exercise psychology, biostatistics, epidemiology and population health, exercise physiology, biochemistry, nutrition, or other areas deemed to provide a solid grounding sufficient to understand and conduct research in this area.