Teaching code

4S007231

Teacher

Simone Accordini

Credits

3

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

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

Period

LMSIO BZ 1° ANNO 1° SEMESTRE dal Nov 12, 2018 al Jan 18, 2019.

Location

BOLZANO

Lessons timetable Moodle Seminars 0

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

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed 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.