Unit Code: EPI500

Unit Name: Basic Epidemiology

Description: The course begins with an introduction to epidemiology. A discussion of the measures of morbidity and mortality commonly used in epidemiological studies then follows. The course provides various epidemiological approaches to the study of disease patterns in populations and emphasizes the application of these studies to the control of public health problems. The study designs examined are descriptive, ecologic, cross-sectional, case-control, cohort, and experimental and systematic reviews. Measures of association in epidemiologic studies are describing along with issues in interpretation of epidemiological studies, in particular the roles of chance, bias, confounding and effect modification. Causation is then explored including disease prevention and control and the role of screening in public health. Following this is a discussion on principles of public health surveillance and how it relates to outbreak investigations. Finally, this course will also focus on analyzing and displaying of health data. Course assessment activities will include short tests, a major practical project and a written end point exam.

Learning Target Outcomes: On successful completion of this course, the students will be able to : 1. Describe Principles of Epidemiology 2. Describe and Measure Risks in Various Epidemiological Study Designs 3. Explain the use of Epidemiology for Screening of Disease, Prevention & Control 4. Describe Principles of Public Health Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation 5. Describe basic data analysis steps and display health data using software

Prerequisite: NA

Prerequisite Sentence: N/A

Credit Point: 15

Offered In: Semester 1,2