MPH1039

Critical appraisal of OH information

Dr M Sim

Six hours per day over five days

Synopsis The aim is to demonstrate epidemiological principles and basic statistics with the purpose of developing competence in the critical appraisal of diagnostic and screening tests and studies of populations that refer to causation and risk of injury and disease, particularly occupational. At the end of this subject students will be more competent and confident in epidemiological principles and basic statistics. This competence will enable participants to critically appraise epidemiological papers in scientific literature. Topics covered include descriptive epidemiology and rates, analytical epidemiology, confounding and bias, descriptive statistics, probability distributions, cross-sectional and cohort studies, case-control studies, t-tests, proportions and chi-square, diagnostic tests, screening, odds ratios and relative risk, p-values and confidence intervals, measures of exposure, outcome measures, critical appraisal, causation, survey design.

Assessment Assignment (2000 words): 50% * Multiple-choice examination: 50%

Prescribed texts

Dawson-Saunders B and Trapp R G Basic and clinical biostatistics Appleton and Lange, 1990
Rose G and Barker D J P Epidemiology for the uninitiated 2nd edn, British Medical Journal, 1986