Concepts et méthodes en épidémiologie

What you will learn

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

interpret scientific articles dealing with these subjects, and you will be prepared to pursue specialised teaching in epidemiology and public health.

Description

Monitoring diseases and carrying out population-based surveys to identify their causes (behaviours, environmental exposure, and genetic factors): such is the role of epidemiology, the principles and methods of which you will learn during this course.

The course begins with a presentation of the key principles of descriptive epidemiology (monitoring of diseases, investigation of epidemics) and analytical epidemiology (identification of disease risk factors). Principal risk indicators, the formulation of a scientific hypothesis, the study schemes used in population-based surveys, taking sampling fluctuations into account, the statistical analysis of results and the interpretation of bias: all of these will be explained and illustrated by examples and case studies drawn from the real world.

The course will also address the main principles of causality and the levels of proof required today to be able to say that a given “exposure” is responsible for a disease.

Format

This archived course remains open to registrations although it is not facilitated by the course teachers

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites, although knowledge of biostatistics would be useful for hypothesis tests. What about medical knowledge? Of course, the more you know, the better, but it is far from necessary. In Anglo-Saxon countries, the majority of public health specialists are not doctors.

Note: two of the case studies are drawn from scientific articles in English. An understanding of written English will therefore be important for these two exercises.

Assessment and certification

This course does not issue badges, attestations or certificates.

Course plan

Week 1: Introduction
- Context and definitions
- History of epidemiology
- Descriptive epidemiology
- Analytical epidemiology
- Level of proof and causality

Week 2: Indicators
- Prevalence and incidence
- Morbidity/mortality rate
- Standardisation of rates
- Relative risk – cohort
- Relative risk – case-control studies
- Distribution of an article on melanoma monitoring in France

Week 3: Monitoring/case-control studies
- Monitoring of disease
- Hypothesis test – value P – confidence interval
- Case-control studies: design
- Case-control studies: analysis
- Correction of the article on melanoma monitoring in France
- Distribution of an article about case-control studies on acute hepatitis C in Egypt

Week 4: Cohort studies
- Cohort studies – design
- Cohort studies – analysis
- Confounding factors – diagnostic
- Confounding factors – analysis
- Correction of the article on case-control studies of acute hepatitis C in Egypt
- Distribution of an article on the cohort studying the relation between oleaginous fruits and heart attacks

Week 5: Randomised trials/screening
- Randomised trials
- Calculation of the sample size
- Sensitivity/specificity/predictive values of a test
- Screening for diseases
- Correction of the article on the cohort studying the relation between oleaginous fruits and heart attacks

Week 6: Miscellaneous
- Selection bias
- Surveys and polls
- Matching
- Attributable fractions
- Exam

Course team

Arnaud Fontanet

Organizations

Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

Hesam Université

License

License for the course content

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