Unit information: Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology in 2019/20

Unit name	Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology
Unit code	BRMSM0012
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Theresa Redaniel
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Bristol Medical School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

The aims of this unit are to:

• Give students an appreciation of trends in non-communicable diseases in the UK and internationally
• Convey an understanding of the determinants of non-communicable diseases, and approaches to study them
• Enable students to describe the major challenges in studying non-communicable diseases and public health response to non-communicable diseases

The unit will cover both risk-factor epidemiology (e.g. the epidemiology of health-related behaviours such as alcohol use, social epidemiology, life course epidemiology, environmental epidemiology), and outcome-based epidemiology (including the epidemiology of obesity, ageing, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental health).

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Analyse patterns and trends in non-communicable diseases in the UK and internationally
2. Investigate patterns, trends and key drivers of common non-communicable diseases (mental health, cancer, cardiovascular, nutritional and maternal and child health)
3. Apply appropriate study designs to study the patterns and determinants of non-communicable diseases
4. Apply appropriate study designs to evaluate interventions to prevent non-communicable diseases
5. Evaluate the challenges involved in implementing interventions to prevent non-communicable diseases

Critically appraise published studies of non-communicable disease epidemiology

Teaching Information

There will be 10 teaching weeks, plus reading week and revision week.

Face to face teaching for a total of 50 hours will include lectures and tutorials. Directed and self-directed learning (150 hours) will include activities such as reading and preparation for assessment

Assessment Information

Formative assessment will support student learning by using informal questioning, quizzes and group exercises in lectures and tutorials. These form an assessment for learning and will not contribute to the final unit mark (ILOs 1-6). Students will be given the opportunity to work through a mock exam (ILOs 1-5): short answer questions – same format as summative exam. Students will also complete a (formative) critical appraisal exercise of a published study (ILO 6)..

The summative assessment will consist of a 1.5 hour, closed book short answer questions (100% of the Unit marks), at the end of teaching block 1 (ILOs 1-6).

A mark of 50% will be required to pass the unit.

Reading and References

There is no compulsory unit text book.

Recommended reading:

1. A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Diana Kuh and Yoav Ben Shlomo.
2. Oxford Medical Publications. 2004
3. The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. Michael Marmot. Bloomsbury Press. 2015
4. Contribution of six risk factors to achieving the 25×25 non-communicable disease mortality reduction target: a modelling study. Kontis V et al. Lancet 2014; 384: 427-37
5. WHO website on non-communicable disease: http://www.who.int/nmh/en/