Epidemiology-Research Methodology I
Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of the course the post-graduate students are expected to be able to:
- estimate the morbidity/mortality/case fatality of various diseases and monitor their temporal trends
- distinguish the basic types of epidemiologic studies, descriptive, observational, and interventional/experimental, and describe their main characteristics
- estimate the relative risk of the association between exposures and outcomes
- choose the appropriate study design based on the research hypothesis, ethical issues and available data sources
- identify potential confounding factors and their role
- interpret the findings of an epidemiologic study
- conduct reviews of the existing literature making use of the relevant databases
Course content
The course introduces students to the general concept, principles, and applications of epidemiological research studies. The following topics are covered:
- Sources of data
- Electronic database search (practical training)
- Measures of disease frequency – Methods of standardization
- Estimation and standardization of indicators of disease frequency (practical training)
- The principle of causality in Epidemiology and Clinical Medicine
- Descriptive Epidemiology
- Critical appraisal of a published descriptive epidemiology study (practical training)
- Prospective studies (cohort studies)
- Critical appraisal of a published prospective study (practical training)
- Case-control studies
- Critical appraisal of a published case-control study (practical training)
- Introduction to systematic errors and confounding
- Systematic errors and confounding (practical training)
- Issues of non-interventional epidemiological studies (practical training)
- Introduction to interventional epidemiological studies -clinical trials
- Principles of systematic literature review and meta-analysis
- Systematic literature review (practical training)
- Basic principles of infectious disease epidemiology
- Epidemiologic surveillance
- Epidemiologic surveillance (practical training)
- Epidemiology in Screening
- Screening (practical training)
The teaching methods include lectures and practical exercises.
Category: 1st semester