MPH5305 - Epidemiology: Concepts and applications - 2018

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Organisational Unit

Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Flavia Cicuttini

Coordinator(s)

Dr Monira Hussein

Not offered in 2018

Co-requisites

Must be enrolled in course 4528, 4529, M6007 or M6021

Synopsis

This unit will provide students with an introduction to key concepts and applications in epidemiology.

Key concepts of epidemiology will be delivered throughout the unit, including; rates, sources of data, descriptive and analytical epidemiology, epidemiological study designs, critical appraisal of literature, screening, prevention, exposure assessment, outbreak investigation, confounding and bias.

Students are expected to be competent at mathematics to a year 7 level

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. Explain and contextualise the purposes of descriptive and analytical epidemiology
  2. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of different epidemiological study designs
  3. Critically analyse epidemiological papers from the medical research and OHS literature
  4. Evaluate the adequacy of exposure assessment in epidemiological studies
  5. Interpret and communicate the results of epidemiological studies
  6. Solve complex problems relating to the use of epidemiological concepts and study designs.

Assessment

  • Concept and application tasks (4 x weekly activities) (10% each, total 40%) (hurdle)
  • Online quiz (30 minutes) (10%)
  • Critical appraisal (3,000 words) (50%) (hurdle)

Workload requirements

Off-campus: 20 hours per week for 6 weeks.

See also Unit timetable information

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study