Epidemiology II (SVUEK_064)

1. Multifactorial theory of health determinants; models of causal inference:
a. Will define and state multifactorial theory of health and disease related events.
b. Will critically state and interpret Breadfor-Hill causality criteria.
c. Will differ causal and non-causal association possibilities of factors with parameters of health outcomes.
d. Will solve and assess causal directed acyclic graphs.
2. Age, cohort and period effects:
a. Will define age, cohort and period effect.
b. Will explain cross sectional relationships at the point in time, taking into account several possible time dimensions.
3. Strategy to choose observational study design; design of special studies:
a. Will classify and systematise studies according to population groups and in relation to time.
b. Will choose the most appropriate study design corresponding to study task.
c. Will explain difference between experimental and observational study design.
4. Measuring health events and states:
a. Will recall formulas of measuring health events and states.
b. Will identify mathematical difference between states and events.
c. Will oppose measures of proportions in closed and rates in opened populations.
d. Will describe life table and Caplan-Mayer methods for the survival analysis.
5. Measuring associations of exposure and outcome:
a. Will name measures of associations and their estimation formulas.
b. Will distinguish absolute and relative difference to express exposure function.
c. Will recognise concept of built-in bias.
d. Will relate measures of associations to cohort and case-control studies.
6. Random and systematic errors of studies:
a. Will distinguish random errors and biases.
b. Will list causes of biases and their types.
c. Will explain biases of differential and non-differential misclassification.
d. Will describe impact of combined biases on effectiveness studies of disease surveillance and screening programmes.
7. Confounding factors:
a. Will recognise concept of confounding factor; will report its essence.
b. Will define general laws of confounding factors and their exceptions.
c. Will list types of confounding factors.
d. Will list strategies to control confounding factors.
8. Interaction:
a. Will differ cause modifiers from confounding factors.
b. Will name and distinguish alternative definitions of interaction.
c. Will list and explain strategies to assess interaction.
d. Will differ additive and multiplicative interaction.
9. Stratification and standardisation:
a. Will expound tasks and methods of stratified analysis.
b. Will list and describe methods of standardisation.
c. Will explain sense and application of standardisation.
d. Will formulate Mantel-Haensel method.
10. Models of multifactorial analysis for adjustment.
a. Will identify statistical model of multifactorial analysis corresponding to the design of study.
b. Will interpret parameters of multifactorial analysis.
c. Will expound principles of statistical modelling.
d. Will explain sense of statistical modelling.
e. Will conclude about causal relationships using statistical models.
11. Control of reliability and validity of studies:
a. Will name methods to assess reliability and validity of studies; will differ reliability and validity.
b. Will identify studies of poor quality and inconsistent conclusions.
c. Will list and define measures of reliability and validity.
12. Reporting study results:
a. Will classify types of graphical presentation.
b. Will order data in tables.