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Epidemiology and Statistics

Overview

The Epidemiology and Statistics module will help you become familiar with various study designs that are used in epidemiology. The module will cover the rationale for using each study design as well as the types of results produced.

You will explore key statistical principles and techniques such as hypothesis testing and estimation including how to use these techniques to analyse and interpret epidemiological studies.

Module syllabus

Module content:

The module consists of two complementary parts:

  • Epidemiology
    • Populations and considering illness in populations
    • Use of routinely available data in epidemiology
    • Measures of disease
    • Direct and indirect standardisation, years of life lost, life expectancy and DALYS
    • Absolute and relative measures of risk
    • Causality, bias and confounding
    • Study design including cross-sectional, case control, cohort, clinical trials, ecological studies
  • Statistics
    • The different types of data
    • Measures of central tendency and dispersion
    • Probability theory and statistical distributions
    • Point estimation and confidence intervals
    • Principles of hypothesis testing and sample size calculation
    • Linear models
    • Non-parametric tests
Induction module

Before completing the course, you will undertake our Induction and Professional Development module, introducing you to all the underpinning regulations, guidance and support available to you during your postgraduate study.

Assessment

A two part written essay, describing an epidemiological study design and answering a set of statistical questions.

Study options

Core module on