Principles of epidemiology

Code:

MNCSP1101

Acronym:

FUNEPI

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Epidemiology

Instance: 2020/2021 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Course/CS Responsible:	Master in Community Nutrition and Public Health

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MNCSP	19	Official plan	1	-	4	36	108

Teaching language

English

Objectives

Acquisition of knowledge on concepts and methods of epidemiology. Recognition of characteristics, advantages and limitations of the main types of study and aspects related to its planning. Recognize the main types of epidemiological measures. Understand the main types of error in epidemiology.

Learning outcomes and competences

The student will: acquire skills to select the best type of epidemiological study to answer a specific scientific question; Be able to identify some aspects of planning an epidemiological investigation, such as define a scientific question, select participants and to define strategies for collecting data; To accomplish simple epidemiological tasks autonomously, such as data tabulation and calculation of measures of disease frequency and association, and standardize rates; to identify errors and understand its importance in epidemiological studies

Working method

Presencial

Program

Evolution of epidemiological thinking. Descriptive epidemiology: Persons, places and time. Measuring health and disease: Frequency, association and impact measures. Standardization Methods. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies. Observational studies – ecologic, cross-sectional, cohort, case-control. Random and systematic errors. Confounding and interaction. Causal inference. Planning an epidemiological research. 1000 characters

Mandatory literature

Penny Webb, Chris Bain and Andrew Page; Essential Epidemiology, Cambridge University Press, (4th Edition), 2018

Complementary Bibliography

Miquel Porta. ; A Dictionary of Epidemiology , Oxford University Press, 2008
Kenneth Rothman.; Epidemiology: an introduction, New York: Oxford University Press (2nd edition), 2012

Comments from the literature

Scientific papers with relevance for the syllabus will be also included.

Teaching methods and learning activities

The teaching methodologies to be used will have as main purpose to present the theoretical dimension of the main concepts and problems related with epidemiologic methodology. On the other hand the stimulation of group discussions and resolution of practical exercises, are proposed as more effective option to promote student´s problem solving ability and critical thinking. 

A total of 108 hours of student’s work, of which 36 are of contact, distributed as follows is estimated:

Two weekly theoretical session of 60 min (total: 20 sessions – 20h)

A theoretical-practical weekly session of 120 min (total: 8 sessions – 16h)

Learning assessment will be done by final exame, corresponding to 100% of the final classification.

Evaluation Type

Evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Exame	100,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	72,00
Frequência das aulas	36,00
Total:	108,00

Eligibility for exams

To be present in 75% of sessions

Calculation formula of final grade

Learning assessment will be done by final exame, corresponding to 100% of the final classification.