Topics to be covered in the course include:
- Causality and associations
- Measures of disease occurrence
- Study design and analysis
- Populations
- Sampling
- Validity and reliability
- Sensitivity and specificity
- Screening
- Outbreak and cluster investigation
- Bias and confounding
- Critical appraisal.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:
- Identify, define and contextualise basic epidemiological terminology
- Describe a health problem in terms of magnitude, persons, time and place
- Calculate and interpret basic epidemiological measures (e.g., incidence/prevalence) and measures of association (e.g., odds ratio, risk ratio)
- Identify and select appropriate sources of data to address epidemiological questions
- Distinguish between observational study designs and communicate the appropriate circumstances in which to use each design
- Recognise the potential threats to correctly interpreting results and identify those most relevant to each observational study design
- Critically appraise observational studies in terms of context, study design, methods, analysis and conclusions
The course is designed to facilitate an applied understanding of the epidemiological concepts and subject areas that are introduced in lecture, readings, assignments and class discussion. Students are encouraged to read widely from the recommended textbooks, or from other epidemiology literature / papers. Students are also expected to practise the application of epidemiological theory and principles by engaging in regular pre-work and homework assignments and group-study is promoted in this course.
Teaching and learning for this course will involve a combination of pre-work, lectures, in-class workshops, homework, revision, a group assignment and tutorials (self-directed). You will receive approximately 20 hours of pre-work activities and 20 hours of face-to-face classes which will provide you with a theoretical background for each topic and opportunity to engage with Epidemiological concepts. You are expected to spend a further 60 time in private study and 50 hours preparing for assessments.
