Principles of epidemiology
Keywords |
Classification |
Keyword |
OFICIAL |
Epidemiology |
Instance: 2023/2024 - 1S
Cycles of Study/Courses
Acronym |
No. of Students |
Study Plan |
Curricular Years |
Credits UCN |
Credits ECTS |
Contact hours |
Total Time |
MNCSP |
12 |
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.