Fundamentals of Epidemiology II

Course Objectives

• Distinguish the roles and relationships between epidemiology and biostatistics in the prevention of disease and the improvement of health.
• Compute basic descriptive statistics and explore data analytic methods.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of epidemiologic methods and study design.
• Combine appropriate epidemiological concepts and statistical methods.

• Perform exploratory data analysis using descriptive statistics.
• Evaluate morbidity and mortality using ratios, proportions, and rates.
• Perform direct and indirect methods of adjustment of overall rates.
• Construct a clinical life table in epidemiologic studies.
• Recognize the assumptions associated with the construction of a life table.
• Calculate probabilities and conditional probabilities of health-related events.
• Calculate sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values.
• Recognize and describe the elements in the design and conduct of a randomized clinical trial, a cohort study, a case-control study, and a cross-sectional study.
• Calculate measures of association in identifying risk factors of diseases.
• Calculate a chi-square statistic to test the significance of a measure of association and interpret it using probability concepts.
• Identify biases and their consequences in published literature.
• Describe criteria for characterizing the causality of associations.
• Recognize the presence of effect modifiers.
• Explain the use of epidemiology in the genetics application.
• Explain the use of epidemiology in the evaluation of the screening process.
• Describe the impact of epidemiology on national and local policy.
• Describe the influence of epidemiology on ethical and professional issues