TM5515:03
Epidemiology for Public Health
| Townsville, External | HECS Band 2 |
June block mode (Townsville campus); Semester 1 (External).
Staff: Dr P Buttner, Assoc. Professor R Müller (Coordinators).
This subject introduces students to the principles of epidemiology. It will discuss history, development and definition of epidemiology and its place in medical research. Identification of disease will be discussed. Measures of disease frequency will be introduced and methods for standardisation of rates will be discussed. The structure of research in the health sciences will be outlined. In this context, quantitative and qualitative epidemiology will be introduced, consistency and conformity and their relationship to epidemiology and biostatistics will be presented. Bias will be introduced as a theoretical concept of epidemiology
Descriptive epidemiology. The critical use of routinely available health data will be discussed and the basic descriptive study types, such as case report, ecological study and cross-sectional study, will be introduced and discussed.
Analytic epidemiology. Experimental and observational designs are introduced and discussed. Measures of association, like relative risk and odds ratio, will be introduced and discussed within the appropriate study designs.
Sources of Bias. The three basic types of bias – selection, information and confounding bias – will be introduced by means of famous examples. A priori and a posteriori control of bias will be discussed.
Sampling and sample size and its relation to the research hypothesis will be clarified. Quantitative techniques of data collection, such as interviews, questionnaires and observation will be discussed. Statistical reasoning in epidemiologic research will be introduced, ie confidence interval and the principles of statistical testing will be discussed. Qualitative epidemiology will be introduced. Special topics in epidemiology include: epidemiology of infectious diseases, nutritional epidemiology and cancer epidemiology. Critical reading of publications. A variety of examples of published, epidemiological studies in scientific literature will be critically discussed during the subject to enhance the understanding of the introduced concepts and techniques.
Learning Objectives:
- to develop a fundamental understanding of the principles of epidemiology;
- to be able to read and understand epidemiological publications critically;
- to have a sound understanding of the pros and cons of the main study designs;
- to be able to competently apply knowledge of study design to a research situation.
It is strongly recommended that students have successfully completed year 12 mathematics to be able to manage this subject. Masters students of public health may profit from enrolling in Biostatistics ( TM5516 ) prior to this course, however Biostatistics is not a prerequisite.
Assessment
External: two assignments (10% and 25%); examination (65%).
Block: assignment (25%); group work (10%); examination (65%).