Unit details

PUBH2203 Foundations of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Credit

6 points

Offering
(see Timetable)

Availability	Location	Mode
Semester 2	Online	Online timetabled
Semester 2	UWA (Perth)	Face to face

Details for undergraduate courses

• Level 2 core unit in the Public Health; Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing major sequences
• Level 2 elective

Content

This unit introduces students to the use of epidemiology and biostatistics as tools in understanding health. The main epidemiological research designs and related statistical analyses are described and evaluated. Discussion focuses on how health and disease are measured and compared across populations and how researchers measure associations between exposures and health outcomes. Analytical skills are developed using statistical computer software (SPSS) for analysis of research data as well as the critical appraisal of epidemiological studies, which incorporates understanding of the roles of bias, chance and confounding in interpreting study results. The implications of epidemiologic research findings for public policy are also illustrated.

Outcomes

Students are able to (1) identify the research question in published literature; (2) explain the basic statistical concepts of estimation and hypothesis testing; (3) compute measures of health and disease frequency; (4) generate data summaries relevant to epidemiological research
; (5) interpret the results of epidemiological research; (6) interpret statistical methods commonly used in epidemiological studies; (7) describe the major epidemiologic study designs; and (8) Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of epidemiological studies.

Assessment

Indicative assessments in this unit are as follows: (1) an assignment and (2) short online quizzes. Further information is available in the unit outline.

For units commencing in May 2022 or later the availability of the supplementary assessment is subject to confirmation.

Student may be offered supplementary assessment in this unit if they meet the eligibility criteria.

Except where supplementary assessment is not available in a unit, it will be offered to students in all units who:

• Are in good academic standing overall;
• Have passed over half the units taken in the teaching period concerned, except where they are only enrolled in two or less units in the period;
• Have submitted all assessment items in the unit;
• Have achieved a mark between 45 and 49 for the unit overall, or the same mark in any failed component item in the unit; and
• No finding of academic misconduct has been made against them in the unit concerned.

Additionally student may apply for supplementary assessment in any unit which is the final unit required for graduation in there course and where they have achieved a mark between 45 and 49 for the unit overall, or the same mark in any failed component item in the unit.

Unit Coordinator(s)

Dr Charley Budgeon

Unit rules

Prerequisites:

for student enrolled in Population Health Major (MJD-PPHLT) and all students other than those enrolled in the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing major: one of the following; PUBH1101 Health and Illness in Human Populations or PUBH1102 Health and Globalisation or ANHB1101 Human Biology I: Becoming Human or ANHB1102 Human Biology II: Being Human or ANTH1001 Being Human: Culture, Identity and Society or ANTH1002 Global Change, Local Responses or PUBH2209 Plagues, Pox and Pandemics or SCOM1101: Communicating Science or BIOL1130: Frontiers in Biology or BIOL1131: Plant and Animal Biology;

for students enrolled in the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing major MJD-ABHWB: either (INDG1150 Aboriginal Encounters: Strangers in our Backyard or INDG1160 Boodjar Moort Katatjin: Introduction to Indigenous Heritage and Knowledge), and AHEA2201 Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing;

Co-requisites:

Nil

Advisable prior study:

knowledge of basic algebra, familiarity with hand-held calculators and familiarity with computing in the Windows environment

Incompatibility:

IMED2003 Medical Sciences Research Methodologies (ID 5971)

Contact hours

lectures: 2 hours per week; tutorials: 2 hours per week

Text

Gordis, L. Epidemiology, 5th edn: Saunders Elsevier 2014