Epidemiological methods
Dr Michael Abramson and Mr Andrew Forbes
6 points * One 4-hour session per week * First semester * Alfred Hospital * Prerequisites: basic knowledge of statistics is required (see Dept Social and Preventive Medicine)
Synopsis This subject aims to provide students with basic skills required in public and occupational health. While minimal previous knowledge is assumed, the learning curve is fairly steep. The epidemiology unit covers rates, sources of data, descriptive and analytical epidemiology, epidemiological study designs, critical appraisal of literature, diagnostic tests and screening. The biostatistics unit covers descriptive statistics, probability distributions, estimation and confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance and regression, contingency tables and selection of appropriate statistical tests. Students must have access to a hand calculator equipped with elementary scientific functions (eg Casio FX-100). Access to a personal computer is not required. Students are not permitted to enrol in only one part of this subject (ie as a half-weighted subject).
Assessment Examination * Assignments
Prescribed texts
Dawson-Saunders B and Trapp R Basic and clinical biostatistics Prentice-Hall, 1990
Hennekens C H and Buring J E Epidemiology in medicine Little Brown, 1987
Last J M (ed.) A dictionary of epidemiology 2nd edn, OUP, 1988
Rowntree D Statistics without tears: A primer for non-mathematicians Penguin, 1981