Introduction to Epidemiology

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Use and explain the basic terminology and principles used in epidemiology
• State important historical developments in health sciences in general, and epidemiology in particular

In particular, you should be able to:

• Distinguish between, and apply, the different measures of frequency, association and impact that are commonly used in epidemiological research
• Calculate these measures using simple numerical examples
• Tell apart and explain the different aspects of epidemiological research (causal and descriptive).
• Tell apart and state the (dis)advantages of the different study designs used in epidemiological research: cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies.
• Read and interpret (simple) epidemiological scientific papers, and recognize in these papers which study design was used
• Apply the correct measures of frequency and association belonging to the different epidemiological study designs
• Explain the meaning of the terms ‘bias’ and ‘confounding’ and distinguish between them

• An academic (university) level of thinking
• Sufficient proficiency in English reading and writing