This course in advanced epidemiology is designed to move beyond the basics of epidemiology, building on the material taught in the introduction to epidemiology course (or similar). The course will cover the major contemporary issues in epidemiology, including counterfactual approaches, directed acyclic graphs and providing a conceptual understanding of the major threats to the validity of epidemiological studies. Students will gain an appreciation of the issues which typically arise when epidemiological papers are criticised in peer review, or in the scientific literature.

Weekly sessions comprised of lectures, seminars, and asynchronous material.

None

None

1.  Presentation [20%; 7 minutes plus Q+A; ILO 1]

2. Written Exercise [80%; 1,000w; ILO 1-5]

This course will introduce students to advanced epidemiological concepts and methods, that are underpinned by counterfactual thinking, which are employed in modern epidemiological research.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Critique epidemiological research drawing on an understanding of counterfactual thinking and causal diagrams.

2. Evaluate important biases and their implications, assess how such biases can be addressed by study design and/or statistical analysis.

3. Demonstrate counterfactual thinking and be able to reflect on the relative strengths and limitations of different methodological approaches.

4. Judge how and when natural experiment studies and administrative data analyses should be used in epidemiology.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.