Department of Community Health Sciences Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Surveillance

This course is designed to enable health professionals to develop a scientifically sound, and practical approach for identification and solution of challenging field health problems.

Goals

This training aims to provide participants the practical skills in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Surveillance and Information System Management to better understand, assess and critically analyze the disease burden among the populations they serve.

Objectives

By the end of the course, the participants would be able to:

Ø    Understand and apply the basic principles of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Ø    Design a feasible and valid study to address an important health issue in their  programs.

Content

I   Epidemiology Sessions:

Ø    Community Diagnosis: Person, Place and Time

Ø    Incidence and Prevalence

Ø    Questionnaire Design and its administration

Ø    Sampling Methods

Ø    Measures of Fertility and Mortality

Ø    Epidemiological Basis of Fertility Control

Ø    Screening Tests: Sensitivity and Specificity

Ø    Study Design I: Qualitative Studies

Ø    Study Design II: Case series, correlation and Cross-sectional Studies

Ø    Study Design III: Experimental and Cohort Studies

Ø    Study Design IV: Case control studies.

Ø    Measures of Association

Ø    Bias, Chance and Confounding

Ø    Causal Inference

Ø    Sample size I &  II

Ø    Investigation of an Epidemic

Ø    Surveillance

II Biostatistics Sessions:

Ø    Introduction of population, samples, measures, variables, types of measurements and the objectives of Biostatistics

Ø    Organizing and displaying data

Ø    Summarizing data includes measures of central tendency & variability

Ø    Applications of Mean and Standard Deviation

Ø    Normal Probability Distribution

Ø    Estimation of population means: Point estimation & confidence intervals

Ø    Basic elements of Testing Hypothesis

Ø    Type I and type II errors and power of the test

Ø    Sample size determination in testing hypothesis

Ø    T-test (two independent samples) and paired T-test

Ø    Inference regarding proportions: One sample & two independent
samples

Ø    The Chi-square test and contingency tables

Ø    McNemar’s test

Project Development

This part of the course provides an opportunity to each participant to practically apply concepts and skills learned towards addressing an identified research issue related to their work.

Pre-course Task

Participants are required to identify the project topic and prepare in advance the background information that can be utilized while designing individual projects.

Medium of Instruction

English is the exclusive language of instruction.  Participants should be able to speak and write in English.

Participants’ Evaluation

The participants’ learning is evaluated through marks obtained in multiple choice questions (pre- and post-tests) at the beginning and end of the course as well as on the basis of project assignment.

Educational Strategies

The basic educational strategy will be “Learning By Doing”.  This will be accomplished through lectures, tutorials, field survey and project development.

Duration of the Course

The course takes 23 working days.  For the Year 2000, this course is schedule from August 22 – September 21.

Tuition Fee the Course

Pak. Rs. 19,500.00, which covers classroom instructions, course materials, field visit, lunch and refreshments during working hours.