Basic Epidemiology

Tutors: Dr Peter Blair (course organiser), Prof Yoav Ben Shlomo, Prof David Gunnell, Dr Matthew Hickman, Prof Debbie Lawlor, Prof Richard Martin, Dr Chris Metcalfe, Dr Alan Montgomery, Prof Andy Ness, Dr Petros Skapinakis,Dr John Macleod,Dr Stan Zammit,Dr Sara Brookes, Dr Caroline Trotter,Dr Raghu Lingham.

The contributors are epidemiologists and medical statisticians and have wide-ranging interests in clinical epidemiology. They have a breadth of experience in the design, conduct and analysis of epidemiological research.

Download the booking form.

Duration: Five days.

Dates: 18 - 22 January 2010.

Course fee: £900.

Course aims and objectives: The aim of the course is to provide a grounding in epidemiological study designs and measures of disease risk used in aetiological epidemiology and health services research. Participants will gain practical experience in study design and the appraisal of epidemiological literature.  

By the end of this short course, participants should be able to:

• appreciate the importance of epidemiological research methods in aetiological epidemiology and health services research;
• understand relevant summary measures relating exposures to disease risk;
• select appropriate epidemiological study designs to answer particular research questions;
• understand the strengths and weaknesses of different epidemiological study designs;
• be able to assess possible reasons for observed exposure-disease associations;
• assess causality using the Bradford Hill criteria.

Who the course is intended for: This course is intended for clinicians, researchers, public health specialists and other health care professionals who have only a basic understanding of epidemiology. Prior knowledge of basic medical statistics is important. No prior knowledge of Stata is required. Please bring a calculator.

Course outline: Topics to be covered include: exposure measurement and measures of disease occurrence (incidence, prevalence); measures of exposure effect (risk, rate
and odds ratios); study designs (cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, cohort studies, ecological studies and randomised controlled trials); bias and confounding; basic regression, interaction; sample size calculations; causal Inference.

Teaching Time: Teaching will comprise thirty hours of lectures, practical exercises, revision sessions and group discussions.

For further information: please contact short-course@bristol.ac.uk