TM5505:03
Introduction to the Principles of Research for Public Health
Townsville
First or second semester.
Available to Masters Qualifying, Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma students.
The subject will combine basic principles of biostatistics, research design and epidemiology and discuss them in the context of research in public health. Main areas covered include: critical use of routinely available health information (such as causes of death register, census data), measuring the frequency of health problems (contains incidence and prevalence, age-standardisation of rates), measures of risk and study designs, difference between causation and association, introduction to the principles of demography (the demographic transition), the basic principles of screening, introduction to health promotion in public health, health needs assessment and the evaluation of health services, ethical considerations in health research and a basic introduction to the principles of statistical analysis for research in public health.
Learning Objectives:
- encourage students to think through and be critical about key issues to do with measurement and improvement of public health and the role played by organised health care;
- acquire an understanding of the basic vocabulary used in public health and epidemiology;
- be trained to do basic epidemiologic and biostatistics calculations important in public health.
Assessment by examination (50%); assignment (50%).
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