Description

This unit introduces a range of statistical concepts in the design and analysis of epidemiological studies. The first part of course presents an insight into the main types of study designs - cross-sectional surveys, case-control studies, cohort studies, and randomised control trials. Attention is given to the role of matching in the design of case-control studies. The second part of the unit introduces the statistical methods and modelling techniques used in analysing data derived using various epidemiological design strategies. These include the Mantel-Haenszel methods, logistic and Poisson regression, and survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method, the Cox proportional hazards model and its extensions. Students will use the statistical package SAS throughout the unit.