MPH1030

Epidemiology and demography

Mr D Jolley

2 hours per week over 13 weeks * First semester

Synopsis This subject aims to provide students with basic quantitative skills required for the practice of general public health and to enable students to critically evaluate the published epidemiological literature. At the completion of this subject, students should be able to explain the purposes of descriptive and analytical epidemiology; explain the strengths and weaknesses of different epidemiological study designs; critically appraise epidemiological papers from the epidemiological literature; solve problems relating to the use of the principal epidemiological concepts, parameters and study designs; and explain the uses of epidemiology in the practice of public health. This subject is an introduction to descriptive and analytical epidemiology, demography, case-control studies, cohort studies, clinical trials, risk and causation, bias, confounding, health program evaluation and measurement theory. Teaching will be a combination of lectures, tutorials, case studies and discussion of published papers.

Assessment Assignment (3000 words)

Prescribed texts

Fletcher R H and others Clinical epidemiology: The essentials 2nd edn, Williams and Wilkins, 1988
Hennekens C H and Buring J E Epidemiology in medicine Little Brown, 1987
Pollard Y Demographic techniques 3rd edn, Pergamon, 1990