autumn 2021
HEL-3006 Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics - 10 ECTS
Course content
The course covers the basic principles and methods of epidemiology including measures of disease occurrence and disease risk in populations and various research designs for investigating the etiology of disease. Introduction to critical review of scientific papers is also included. A fundamental part of this course is biostatistics, where the students will be introduced to hypothesis testing and confidence intervals as well as commonly used methods in quantitative data analysis. The statistical software SPSS is also used.Objectives of the course
Objectives of the course
Knowledge The students should be able to define central principles in epidemiology, including important concepts in demography, and be able to explain the benefits and drawbacks of various epidemiological study designs. The students should further be able to explain basic statistical concepts.
Skills and competences The students should be able to:
- apply central concepts in epidemiology and demography
- classify the study design used in scientific medical papers
- explain sources of bias in epidemiological studies
- select the correct type of epidemiological and statistical data analyses for a given data set
- use descriptive measures, one- and two-sample tests (t-tests, chi-square tests and non-parametric tests), correlation and linear regression
- use SPSS for data editing and statistical analyses
- interpret the results from the statistical and epidemiological analyses, showing a basic understanding of relative and absolute risks, p-values and confidence intervals
Information to incoming exchange students
This course is open for inbound exchange student who meets the admission requirements, including prerequisites. Please see the Admission requirements" and the "Prerequisite" sections for more information.
Do you have questions about this course? Please check the following website to contact the course coordinator for exchange students at the faculty: https://en.uit.no/education/art?p_document_id=510412
Assessment
Assignments:
Attendance to lectures and seminars is mandatory.
The students have to pass two written home assignments before they are allowed to take the exam. The assignments are individual exercises, and will be handed out between the 1st and 2nd session, and between the 2nd and 3rd session. The students will have two weeks to complete assignments, which will be graded as approved or not approved. The assignments should be handed in online.
Exam:
The final exam consists of a six hours written university based digital exam. The exam will be held using computers through online exam module (if not otherwise stated). Students must pass the mandatory assignments before being eligible to take the exam. The assignments and the exam can be written in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English. For the exam - Grading scale: A-E equals passed, F equals failed.
If a student fails the course, an examination re-sit will be organised. Students with valid absence from the exam will be offered a re-scheduled examination.
Recommended reading/syllabus
Pensumliste for HEL-3006 Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics- About the course
- Campus: Tromsø |
- ECTS: 10
- Course code: HEL-3006
- Responsible unit
- Institutt for samfunnsmedisin
- Tidligere år og semester for dette emnet