Teaching code

4S007231

Teacher

Maria Elisabetta Zanolin

Credits

3

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

SECS-S/02 - STATISTICS FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Period

Lm Sio VR 1A 1S (Coorte 2021) dal Nov 15, 2021 al Mar 31, 2022.

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars

To show the organization of the course that includes this module, follow this link:  Course organization

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing the theoretical tools to assess the frequency of diseases in human populations and the associated risk factors, i.e. skills in epidemiology and biostatistics.

At the end of the course the student must demonstrate to have acquired knowledge and skills concerning the main designs of an observational epidemiological study and the statistical methods for the analysis of biomedical data, and to know how to interpret and communicate the results of an analysis in a clear and concise way.

Program

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

The measurement process in medicine: measurement scales, validity, precision and accuracy
Statistical variables and frequency distributions
How to summarize the distribution of one or more variables: measures of location and dispersion, contingency tables

PROBABILITY THEORY

Definitions of probability
Rules of probability calculation
Independent and conditional probabilities
Random variables
Gauss and Student's T distributions
How to assess the validity of a diagnostic tool: sensitivity and specificity, ROC curves

INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

An outline of sampling theory
Sample distribution of an estimator
Confidence interval
The logic of the statistical test: null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis, type I and type II errors, power of a statistical test, p-value, z test and t test

PRINCIPLES OF OBSERVATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGY:

Definition and objectives of epidemiology
Measures of disease frequency: prevalence, cumulative incidence, incidence rate
Measures of association: attributable risk, relative risk, odds ratio
Design and analysis of an observational epidemiological study: cross-sectional, case-control and cohort designs
Effect modification
Causal interpretation of an empirical association: random variability, systematic variability (selection bias and information bias), confounding

Examination Methods

The final test is a written exam with short answer questions and multiple choice questions.
The aim of the test is to verify the knowledge of all the topics discussed.
The final evaluation is expressed in thirtieths.