Monash University Handbook 2011 Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Synopsis

Introduction to a variety of health-related data collection sources, calculation of population fertility, mortality & morbidity rates, health service utilisation measures, disease registration & reporting. Use of direct & indirect age standardisation, life expectancy calculations, valid comparisons & health differentials. Development, design & delivery of health questionnaires. Use of focus groups, standard instruments for health surveys, coding, validity, reliability of measures & models of data collection. Efficient sampling strategies, data interpretation & analysis including stratification, clustering & weighting.

Objectives

At the completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. derive and compare population measures of mortality, illness, fertility and survival, using basic demographic tools such as life tables and age standardisation;
2. access the main sources of routinely collected health data and choose the appropriate one, taking into account their advantages and disadvantages;
3. design a valid and reliable health survey to collect primary data, design an efficient sampling strategy to obtain random sample of the target population, and choose the most appropriate mode of delivery;
4. analyse, interpret and present the results of survey data, taking the sampling strategy into account.

Assessment

Written assignments (100%)

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Andrew Forbes

Co-requisites

MPH1040

Prohibitions

This unit is only available to students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma or Masters of Biostatistics.

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.med.monash.edu.au/epidemiology/pgrad