Credits : 15 Year : 2011

Mode : Internal Semester : One

Location : Palmerston North Online component : None

Coordinator : Dr Jackie Benschop

History and scope of epidemiology; definitions of health and disease; causation; concepts of measurement of disease in populations; interpretation of diagnostic tests; observational studies and randomised clinical trials; epidemiology and public health; food-borne disease and zoonoses; epidemiology and health care planning.

Lecture notes, resources, details of assignments and examinations are all now available in Stream.
Log in to the 202.251 page using your Massey user name and password.

The 2011 study guide of this paper may be downloaded from here.

Dates, times and venues for 2011 are as follows:

Date	Time	Location	Instructor	Format	Details
Mon 28 Feb	1300-1400	WB1	JB	Lecture	Course introduction
Wed 02 Mar	0800-0900	WB1	JB	Lecture	Principles of epidemiology 1
Wed 02 Mar					Assignment 1 out
Fri 04 Mar	0900-1000	AH4	JB	Lecture	Principles of epidemiology 2
Fri 04 Mar	1000-1100	AH4	JB	Tutorial	Case definition
Mon 07 Mar	1300-1400	WB1	JB	Lecture	Measurement in epidemiology 1
Wed 09 Mar	0800-0900	WB1	JB	Lecture	Measurement in epidemiology 2
Fri 11 Mar	0900-1000	AH4	JB	Lecture	Measurement in epidemiology 3
Fri 11 Mar	1000-1100	AH4	JB	Tutorial	Measures of disease frequency
Mon 14 Mar	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Association/comparison of disease risk 1
Wed 16 Mar	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Association/comparison of disease risk 2
Fri 18 Mar	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Measures of association
Fri 18 Mar	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Measures of association
Mon 21 Mar	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Study design 1
Wed 23 Mar	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Study design 2
Wed 23 Mar					Assignment 1 due
Fri 25 Mar	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Study design 3
Fri 25 Mar	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Study design tutorial
Mon 28 Mar	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Study design 4
Wed 30 Mar	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Error in epi research
Fri 1 Apr	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Survey questionnaires
Fri 1 Apr	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Survey questionnaires
Mon 4 Apr	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Bias and confounding 1
Wed 6 Apr	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Bias and confounding 2
Wed 6 Apr					Assignment 2 out
Fri 08 Apr	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Bias and confounding 3
Fri 08 Apr	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Bias and confounding
Mon 11 April	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Guest lecture
Wed 13 Apr	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Review of study design & error & Ass 1
Fri 15 Apr	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Case study: reviewing study design and bias
Fri 15 Apr	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Case study: reviewing study design and bias
Mon 18 - Fri 29 Apr					MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Mon 02 May	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Mid-semester test
Wed 04 May	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Interpretation of diagnostic tests 1
Fri 06 May	0900-1100	AH4		Lecture	Interpretation of diagnostic tests 2
Fri 06 May	1300-1400	AH4		Tutorial	Interpretation of diagnostic tests
Mon 09 May	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Diagnostic screening
Wed 11 May	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Basics of statistical inference1
Wed 11 May					Assignment 2 due
Fri 13 May	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Basics of statistical inference2
Fri 13 May	1000-1100	AH4		Lecture	P values and CI tutorial
Mon 16 May	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Causation 1
Wed 18 May	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Causation 2
Fri 20 May	0900-1000	AH4		Tutorial	Causation 3
Fri 20 May	1000-1100	AH4			Causation tutorial
Mon 23May	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Sampling 1
Wed 25 May	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Sampling 2 + review mid-semester test
Fri 27 May	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Outbreak investigation
Fri 27 May	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Outbreak investigation
Mon 30 May	1300-1400	WB1		Lecture	Critical appraisal of the literature 1
Wed 1 Jun	0800-0900	WB1		Lecture	Critical appraisal of the literature 2
Fri 3 Jun	0900-1000	AH4		Lecture	Surveillance and review assignment 2
Fri 3 Jun	1000-1100	AH4		Tutorial	Course review

Sat 18 June	Morning	TBC		Exam	Good luck

Suggested reading

Measures of association

Simon S (2001) Understanding the odds ratio and relative risk. Journal of Andrology 22, 533-536.

Bland J, Altman D (2000) Statistics notes: The odds ratio. British Medical Journal 320, 1468.

Study design

Grimes D, Schulz K (2002a) Descriptive studies: what they can and cannot do. The Lancet 359, 145-149.

Grimes D, Schulz K (2002b) Cohort studies: marching towards outcomes. The Lancet 359, 341-345.

Schulz K, Grimes D (2002) Case-control studies: research in reverse. The Lancet 359, 431-434.

New York Times Link: Problems with observational studies

Error in epidemiological research

Grimes D, Schulz K (2002c) Bias and causal associations in observational research. The Lancet 359, 248-252.

Critical appraisal

Boccia S, La Torre G, Persiani R, D'Ugo D, van Duijn C, Ricciardi G (2007) A critical appraisal of epidemiological studies comes from basic knowledge: a reader's guide to assess potential for biases. World Journal of Emergency Surgery 20.

Miscellaneous

Recent outbreak Legionnaire's Disease in Scotland

Climate change and human health 1

Climate change and human health 2

Here is the full paper on swine workers and neurological disease from Naomi's tutorial:

Neurological Disease in workers

Here are cancer 2004 figures from the New Zealand health information service:

Cancer: New registrations and deaths 2004

Cervical screening in New Zealand: a review of the first decade

Here are the 2007 and 2008 annual reports of notifiable and other diseases in New Zealand from ESR:

2007 report of diseases in New Zealand

2008 report of diseases in New Zealand