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)
Coordinator(s)
Dr Monira Hussain
Dr Yuanyuan Wang
Unit guides
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:
- Explain and contextualise the purposes of descriptive and analytical epidemiology
- Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of different epidemiological study designs
- Critically analyse epidemiological papers from the medical research and OHS literature
- Evaluate the adequacy of exposure assessment in epidemiological studies
- Interpret and communicate the results of epidemiological studies
- 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