Course overview
On completion of this course students should be familiar with the major concepts and tools of epidemiology, the study of health in populations, and should be able to judge the quality of evidence in health-related research literature. Topics include: historical developments in epidemiology; sources of data on mortality and morbidity; disease rates and standardisation; prevalence and incidence; life expectancy; linking exposure and disease (eg relative risk, attributable risk); main types of study design - case series, ecological studies, cross-sectional surveys, case-control studies, cohort or follow-up studies, randomised controlled trials; sources of error (chance, bias, confounding); association and causality; evaluating published papers; epidemics and epidemic investigation; surveillance; prevention; screening.
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate an understanding of routine sources of data used in descriptive epidemiology, and appreciate their strengths and limitations accordingly
- Outline epidemiological measures of disease occurrence, calculate basic measures and describe patterns of disease occurrence
- Correctly calculate and apply absolute and relative measures of risk
- Differentiate epidemiological study designs, recognise the most appropriate circumstances in which to use each design, and describe the measures of disease occurrence that can be generated using each design
- Recognise potential threats to correctly interpreting results from epidemiological studies, and identify those most relevant to each study design
- Distinguish the difference between association and causation, and appreciate relevant issues in inferring causation from observational designs
- Summarise the principles of screening and the conditions under which a screening program would be most appropriate and cost-effective.