Medical statistics

Section 1 introduces cohort studies in which individuals are classified according to their exposure and followed forward in time to evaluate disease outcomes. Section 2 looks at models for cohort studies. Section 3 introduces case-control studies in which individuals are selected according to their disease status and past exposures are then ascertained. Section 4 covers testing for no association in cohort studies and case-control studies.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• estimate relative risks and odds ratios using data from a cohort study
• estimate odds ratios using data from a case-control study
• calculate and interpret confidence intervals for the relative risk and odds ratio
• test for no association using the chi-squared test
• interpret the results of a chi-squared test for no association and Fisher's exact test.