Høst 2025

HEL-3047 Introduction to Research Methods in Public Health - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for samfunnsmedisin

Type of course

The course can be taken as a single course.

Course contents

The course covers fundamental principles of research methods relevant to public health and health research. It includes modules on qualitative methods (2.5 ECTS), epidemiology (2.5 ECTS), biostatistics (2.5 ECTS), and systematic reviews (2.5 ECTS). Students gain the introductory skills in planning, executing and critically assessing research projects that address diverse research questions. The course addresses both general research principles and the specialized knowledge required to apply epidemiological methods in public health research.

Admission requirements

The course can be taken as a singular course by applicants who meet the academic admission criteria for the Master's program in Public Health.

Application code: 9371

Objective of the course

Upon completing the course, students are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

Describe the epistemological foundations of qualitative research and discuss perspectives in qualitative research methods.
Explain key concepts in epidemiology including measures of disease frequency, measures of association, various study designs and bias.
Explain the basic principles of choosing the most appropriate statistical method for descriptive and inferential parametric and non-parametric analysis of univariate and bivariate data.
Define central principles of evidence-based practice (EBP)
Explain important considerations regarding data syntheses, especially meta-analyses
Describe the steps involved in conducting a systematic review
Explain and compare quantitative and qualitative research approaches, including the types of data. methodologies they employ and areas of application.

Skills

Formulate clear research questions for qualitative and quantitative studies in public health and choose appropriate research methods to address them.
Compare and critically appraise different qualitative methods, including their strengths and limitations
Identify and evaluate various study designs used in health research and compute and interpret descriptive and analytical measures in epidemiology.
Use statistical software to perform computations for univariate/bivariate descriptive and inferential statistics.
Critically appraise qualitative and quantitative research (perform risk of bias assessment), using appropriate design-specific check-lists
Apply the principles of systematic literature searching in at least one database, e.g. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Identify and interpret the main results in scientific papers

General competence

Conduct self-assessments to identify areas for personal and professional growth.
Create and deliver presentations that effectively communicate research findings to a variety of audiences.
Critically evaluate scientific work published in journals and reports

Language of instruction

English

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars: physical and online; asynchronous and synchronous
Flipped classroom activities
Team-based learning
Group-work
Presentations