The course aims to provide the student with the tools necessary to: - know and understand the causal relationship between exposure and outcome - identify the study design useful to answer questions in the field of Prevention and apply it - calculate, understand and interpret the most important epidemiological measures of disease and association between exposure and disease. At the end of the course the student will be able to autonomously carry out the planning of basic epidemiological research and communicate in a pertinent way as well as emerged, as well as understand the published evidence and be able to critically evaluate what exists in relation to their work context.
Course Prerequisites
No particular prerequisites are needed to follow the course.
Teaching Methods
The course is organized in lectures and additional practical activities. Interactive presentation platforms (e.g. Wooclap) will be used. Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology seminars can also be proposed to complete the lectures.
Assessment Methods
The examination will be oral. The student will have to demonstrate to have acquired both the ability to manage the study design, to apply the epidemiological measures necessary to produce estimates of illness and epidemiological association (knowledge and skills) and to interpret the results obtained (competence).
Texts
Suggested book: Elementi di metodologia epidemiologica. Signorelli C, Odone A. Editore SEU 2023. A short presentation of academicals lectures will be on Kiro platform.
Contents
- Introduction to epidemiology: definition of epidemiology, historical outline. - The causation in epidemiology. - Types of studies: observational and experimental studies. - The main experimental studies design: randomized control trials, fields trials, community trials. - Observational studies: descriptive studies, Ecological studies, cross-sectional studies, , case-control studies, cohort studies: characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. - Confounding and effect modifier. - Main epidemiological measures of disease frequency: prevalence, cumulative risk or incidence, incidence rate, crude and standardized mortality rate, lethality rate. Odds of exposure and disease. - Association measures: absolute and relative measures. Absolute measures: Absolute risk, Risk attributable to exposure and Risk attributable to the population. Relative Measures: Prevalence Ratio, Relative Risk or Risk Ratio, Incidence Ratio Rates, Odds Ratio. Standardized Mortality Ratio or SMR. - Outlines on available information (health flows: death and birth records, notification of infectious diseases, hospital sources, pathology registries) as sources of data for epidemiological studies.
Course Language
Italian
More information
The teacher receives students by appointment, via e-mail: paola.bertuccio@unipv.it
