Unit information: Introduction to Statistical and Epidemiological Methods in 2022/23

Unit name	Introduction to Statistical and Epidemiological Methods
Unit code	BRMSM0055
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Chris Metcalfe
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	None
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	Bristol Medical School
Faculty	Faculty of Health Sciences

Unit Information

The aims of this unit are to:

• Introduce statistical and epidemiological methods and give students an appreciation of their role in epidemiological research.
• Provide a level of knowledge upon which the other units on the course will build.
• Introduce probability theory.
• Introduce statistical inference, including both likelihood and Bayesian approaches.
• Demonstrate the presentation of quantitative results in text, tabular and graphical formats.
• Introduce basic epidemiological study designs (e.g., cohort, case-control, cross-sectional)
• Introduce the basic concepts in randomized controlled trials.
• Introduce concepts in research synthesis, including methods for meta-analysis.
• Introduce the basic rules governing conditional independence as encoded by directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).

Throughout the unit research case studies from within Population Health Sciences at Bristol will be presented to give real world published examples of the different epidemiological study designs.

The unit will also introduce some of the history of medical statistics and its contribution to advances in health care, and reflecting on the association of some statistical pioneers with the Eugenics movement..

Your learning on this unit

On successful completion of the unit, a student should be able to:

1. Calculate and interpret measures of disease frequency, measures of association and effect size, including basic nonparametric methods (e.g., Kruskal-Wallace, Mann Whitney U-test, etc.).

2. Describe the principles of, and evaluate the strength and limitations of, different study designs.

3. Explain sampling variation, confidence intervals, p-values, Bayesian credible intervals, and use these to interpret statistical analyses.

4. Explain concepts in probability theory.

5. Explain concepts in statistical inference.

6. Explain the conditional independencies between variables encoded in a DAG and be able to explain confounding, colliding, and mediation using DAGs.

How you will learn

• There will be 10 teaching weeks
• Teaching will include learning activities including lectures, small group work, discussions, individual tasks, and practical sessions.
• Directed and self-directed learning will include activities such as reading, accessing web-based supplementary materials, critical analysis, and completion of assessments.
• 150 hours of directed and self-directed learning. The directed learning includes 50 hours of teaching and the self-directed learning includes activities such as reading, quizzes, and multi-media learning.

How you will be assessed

Formative assessment:

• This will take the form of questions and quizzes in lectures and practical sessions and the associated feedback obtained from lecturers/tutors and peers.
• Practical activities will include group work, for which each group undertakes a critical appraisal of an epidemiological paper and presents their findings, with feedback from lecturers/tutors and peers (ILOs 1-3).
• Further practical sessions will allow students to apply what they have learnt to the planning, conduct and presentation of statistical analyses, with feedback from their lecturers/tutors and peers (ILOs 1-6).
• Homework questions will be provided in the same format as used in the summative assessment, and model answers subsequently provided. (ILOs 1-6).

Summative assessment

This unit will be assessed by a 2-hour short-answer written exam (January, 100%, ILOs 1-6).

A mark of 50% is required to pass the unit.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. BRMSM0055).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.