General description

An introductory course to epidemiology, consisting both of lectures and practical exercises

Learning outcomes

To provide the students with an understanding on epidemiological concepts and abilities to critically interpret reports from epidemiological studies

Contents

• The scope of epidemiology and its basic concepts
• Concepts and measures of disease occurrence
• Measurement of associations between exposures and outcomes
• Defining exposure and outcome, validity of measurements
• Systematic error (bias), random error and confounding
• Essential elements, strengths, and weaknesses of typical epidemiological research designs
o Ecological studies
o Cross-sectional studies
o Case-control studies
o Cohort studies
o Randomised controlled trials and other intervention studies
• Scientific inference: distinction between association, causality, confounding, or inconclusive results

Teaching methods

Teaching method	Contact	Online
Lectures	24 h	0 h
Exercises	16 h	0 h

Recommended literature

Teaching language

English

Evaluation and evaluation criteria

Numeric 1-5.
Practical exercises graded on a scale of pass / fail. Exam is graded on a scale of 1 – 5 or failed.

Recommended year of study

1. year autumn

Study materials

Relevant sections from each optional book Santos Silva, I dos, Cancer Epidemiology: Principles and methods. IARC & WHO 1999; Gordis L, Epidemiology. 3. ed. Elsevier Saunders 2004; Hennekens CH, Buring JE, Epidemiology in Medicine. 1987; Webb P, Bain C, Pirozzo S, Essential Epidemiology: an introduction for students and health professionals. Cambridge University Press 2005.

Belongs to following study modules