At the end of Module 7, you will be able to:
In Module 7, we will build upon what we learned in Module 6. This includes learning about causality in terms of the exposure-disease relationship, how sampling works, and the concepts of estimate, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and p-values. We will also learn about different types of epidemiological studies, along with their strengths and weaknesses, and how bias can affect results. We will end the module with a discussion about ways to collect data, and ethics around data collection.
Pre-test (10 minutes)
Part 1: Causality (20 minutes)
Part 2: Judging Strength of Association: Estimates, 95% Confidence Interval (30 minutes)
Part 3: Judging Causality in Epidemiologic Studies: Sampling, Bias, and Confounding (45 minutes)
Part 4: Judging Causality in Epidemiologic Studies: Bias (15 minutes)
Part 5: Judging Causality in Epidemiologic Studies: Confounding (15 minutes)
Part 6: Study Designs (60 minutes)
Part 7: Data Collection in Studies (15 minutes)
Part 8: Ethics in Studies (20 minutes)
In this module, we built upon the basic concepts of applied epidemiology from Module 6, covering determinants of disease, research, and study design.
In Part 1, we explored causality, so that we could learn how to assess the likelihood of a causal exposure-disease relationship. Criteria for causality include:
We then looked at how to assess the strength of an association by learning about estimates and confidence intervals (Part 2). This led into a deeper study of causality in epidemiology, including looking at how sampling, bias, and confounding can affect the results of a study (Parts 3, 4, and 5).
In Part 6, we expanded our knowledge about study design. We had already learned about descriptive vs. analytical studies in Module 6; here we looked at study design in more detail, covering qualitative vs. quantitative, observational vs. experimental, and prospective vs. retrospective studies, and the specific types of investigations that fall under each category.
In Part 7 we learned about different qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
Finally, in Part 8, we explored issues around ethical conduct in studies, in terms of how to best conduct them and protect research participants.
In Module 8, we will learn about Excel, and how to display the results that we get from our studies.
Post-test (10 minutes)
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Exercise adapted from Adapted from: http://www.epidemiolog.net/epid168/labs/ConfoundingExerInstGuid2000.pdf
