Teaching code

4S007231

Credits

7

Coordinator

Simone Accordini

Language

Italian

Moodle Seminars 0

The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

The teaching aims to provide descriptive and inferential statistics fundaments, students will learn to recognize the most frequently study designs used in epidemiology and in the medical literature. The course will also cover the subject of clinical risk and patient safety as well as logics of health management and services planning.
STATISTICS FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH (STATISTICA PER LA RICERCA SPERIMENTALE): 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.
METHODOLOGICAL BASES FOR APPLIED RESEARCH (BASI METODOLOGICHE PER LA RICERCA APPLICATA): Learning outcomes:
The course provides knowledge and methods to analyze the research process (qualitative-quantitative approaches), develop a research protocol, develop the skills necessary to critically appraise or assess the validity and the generalizalibilty of a research article or a clinical practice guideline and trasform a clinical question in one or more research questions.
HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH (EPIDEMIOLOGIA E SANITA’ PUBBLICA): Learning outcomes:
- Provide students with epidemiological tools for observational studies
- Provide students with the tools to analyze the health needs of the population.
- Provide students with the data collection paths and data evaluation tools
- Provide students with indicators for health planning.

Program

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MM: STATISTICA PER LA RICERCA SPERIMENTALE
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DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: - measurement of a statistical variable (measurement scales, validity, precision and accuracy); - univariate and bivariate distributions (contingency tables); - how to summarize the distribution of a statistical variable (measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion). PROBABILITY: - elements of probability theory (definitions of probability, axiomatic theory of probabilities, rules of probability calculation, independent and conditional probabilities, probability estimates); - expected events; - discrete random variables (Bernoulli distribution); - continuous random variables (Gauss, Student's T and chi-squared distributions); - standardised normal deviate; - validity of a diagnostic test (sensitivity, specificity and ROC curves); - performance of a diagnostic test (positive predictive value and negative predictive value). INFERENTIAL STATISTICS: - an outline of sampling theory; - point estimation (sampling distribution of a mean and a proportion); - interval estimation (confidence interval of a mean and a proportion); - statistical hypothesis test (null and alternative hypotheses, test statistic, regions of rejection and non-rejection of the null hypothesis, type I and type II errors, power of a statistical test); - statistical significance test (p-value); - Z and Student's T tests; - Pearson's chi-squared test; - relationship between confidence interval and hypothesis testing. PRINCIPLES OF THE OBSERVATIONAL EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: - definition and objectives of the epidemiological research; - statistical variables of interest in the epidemiological research (outcome and determinant); - measures of disease frequency (prevalence, cumulative incidence and incidence rate); - the occurrence relation and measures of association (attributable risk, relative risk and odds ratio); - design and analysis of the observational epidemiological studies (ecological, cross-sectional, case-control, cohort); - effect modification; - causal interpretation of an empirical association: random variability, systematic variability (selection and information bias), confounding. The module is structured in frontal lessons during which the topics listed in the program are presented and discussed, exercises are solved and results of statistical analyses of biomedical data are interpreted. The didactic material (slides of the lessons, exercises with solutions) is made available to the students on the e-learning web page of the course (Moodle platform).
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MM: BASI METODOLOGICHE PER LA RICERCA APPLICATA
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The research process - Selection and definition of the problem, questions research hypotheses, research design - Sample selection - Classification of research studies (experimental and observational studies mixed method ) - Data collection methods
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MM: EPIDEMIOLOGIA E SANITA' PUBBLICA
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EVALUATION TOOLS • indicators of the health status of the population (rates, indices, mortality, morbidity, causes of death, causes of illness, avoidable mortality) • population structure indicators (birth rate, aging index, Lexis curve, family composition, population distribution in the area) • indicators of use of healthcare facilities (number and size of hospital facilities in Italy, hospitalization rates, hospital discharge cards, consumption of drugs, number of services and efficiency of facilities) • performance evaluation indicators (Il Programma Nazionale Esiti (PNE); Sistema di Valutazione delle Performance dei Sistemi Sanitari Regionali) PROGRAMMING TOOLS applied to specific problems: • needs assessment • evaluation of resources • tools for analyzing the effectiveness of resource allocation MANAGEMENT OF CLINICAL RISK IN HOSPITAL AND TERRITORIAL CONTEXTS THE POLICY FOR OBJECTIVES AND THE BUDGET MANAGEMENT HISTORY PROCESS

Bibliography

Examination Methods

The final exam consists of three tests, one for each module, based on the didactic contents of the whole teaching. The exam is passed if the student receives a positive evaluation (greater than or equal to 18/30) for all three tests. The final grade is calculated as the weighted average on the credits of the individual modules.
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MM: STATISTICA PER LA RICERCA SPERIMENTALE
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The final examination is a written test (duration of the test: 2 hours). The written test covers potentially all the topics listed in the program and is structured in groups of questions related to solving exercises and understanding the theory. Items are formulated as short answer questions and multiple-choice questions. The questions in the written test aim to assess the ability: - to calculate probabilities and epidemiological measures, and to perform basic inferential statistical analyses, critically using the methodological tools learnt during the course; - to identify the design of an observational epidemiological study and to justify its choice in a research context described in the examination text; - to identify the presence of effect modification and confounding using descriptive analyses of contingency tables. Each question is assigned a score. The grade of the test (expressed in thirtieths) is given by the sum of the scores obtained by correctly answering the individual questions. The test is considered passed if the student gains a minimum grade of 18/30.
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MM: BASI METODOLOGICHE PER LA RICERCA APPLICATA
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The final examination will consist of multiple choice and open questions to assess students' understanding of the EBP and research concepts covered in the course and their ability to apply critical appraisal skills to the assessment and interpretation of clinical evidence.
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MM: EPIDEMIOLOGIA E SANITA' PUBBLICA
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The final test is a written exam with short answer questions The aim of the test is to verify the knowledge of all the topics discussed. The final evaluation is expressed in thirtieths.