Course Overview

This course focuses on establishing epidemiologic concept and the ability of research design, and performing data analyses for observational studies. This course includes three parts: The first part is study design, which gives an introduction of causal inference and the principle of study design. The second part is analytical method, which gives an introduction on data analyses and the applications of statistical method. The third part is critical appraisal, which establishes students ability in reviewing specified literatures. The content of this course mainly follows the book Rothman KJ. Epidemiology: An Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press (2002) with the addition of chapters from other reference books. The examples from Taiwan unique research topics are given and illustrated in the course. For the latter part of this course, students will receive three papers for critical review and then present the results.



For lab data analysis, some example datasets will be distributed to students. Each week, students perform statistical analyses using these datasets and then send TA homework a week later. TA will demonstrate the SAS code and provide the answers for specific topics.


Students may use SAS, Stata, SPSS, and R programs for preparation the homework and lab data analyses.

Learning Achievement

This course establishes the following competencies via (1) the introduction of epidemiologic concept and research design using Taiwan unique research topics, (2) practice of data analysis, and (3) training on critical review:

1. Correctly use the principle of causal inference on literature reading and doing doctoral research.

2. Understand how random variation and bias affect research findings.

3. Understand the principle of cohort study and case-control study.

4. Learn Taiwan unique research topics.

5. Use statistical program to analyze example data set for observational studies.

Competence

Course prerequisites

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Lin Hsien-Ho

Other information

Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine

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