Epidemiology & Analytic Methods 1

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject provides an introduction to epidemiological and biostatistical concepts and methods, and their application in the assessment and management of health issues in a range of clinical and population-based settings. Methods are taught in an applied context to enhance core skills and develop an awareness of current issues in epidemiological research and practice. Subject content includes an introduction to disease causation and measures of population health, including disease burden and the distribution of disease determinants. This subject also introduces basic demography, including population structure and sampling methods, and introduces students to epidemiological research study designs. Key skills covered include how to set up datasets, tabulate, graph and explore health data and carry out basic descriptive analyses using the Stata statistical software package.

Subject Objectives: On completion of this subject, students are expected to:
• Understand the principles of epidemiology
• Be familiar with the major study designs used in Epidemiology
• Understand the measures of frequency and association used in epidemiology
• Critically appraise measures of exposure and disease occurrence
• Be familiar with the concepts of bias and confounding
• Apply descriptive statistical methods
• Understand the concept of sampling variability and how it underpins statistical inference in the form of estimation (using confidence intervals)
• Competently interpret and report measures of disease distribution
• Be familiar with spreadsheets and basic methods for statistical summary and description of epidemiological data computed by hand and using Stata
• Summarise and interpret measures of disease distribution, effect and association
• Compute and interpret confidence intervals for means and proportions

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

This subject, taken in conjunction with 505-970 Epidemiology and Analytic Methods II, replaces 505-101 and 505-102 as a core subject for the MPH Epidemiology and Biostatistics stream.