BMTRY 747 - Foundations of Epidemiology II
BMTRY 747 Foundations of Epidemiology II
Spring 2015
Instructor:Jeffrey E. Korte, PhD
Office: Cannon Place 302M, phone: 876-1122, email:
TA:James Small
Office: Cannon Place graduate student lab, email:
Class Time/Place:10:30 – 12:00 Tue/Thu
Cannon Place 301
Text:Szklo M, Nieto FJ. Epidemiology: Beyond the Basics (third edition). Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Course Description:This course builds on the foundation provided by Epi I, providing a comprehensive and quantitative view of the design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of epidemiologic studies. Lecture material is supplemented with exercises, examples from epidemiologic literature, and guest lecturers. 3 hours.
Grading:Midterm exam34% (take-home portion 17%; in-class portion 17%)
Project45% (5% part 1; 15% part 2; 25% part 3)
Homework16%
Class participation5% (professor and peer evaluations)
Course Objectives:
- To build on basic knowledge of epidemiologic study designs, and go into details of planning and execution of specific study designs, highlighting the advantages, disadvantages, and pitfalls of each.
- To study the sources and effects of bias, confounding, and interactions (effect modification).
- To provide an introduction to multivariate models, including an understanding of preliminary analyses necessary to guide successful modeling.
- To examine the foundations of causal thinking and its interrelationship with specific study designs and analytic strategies.
- To improve the student’s ability to understand and critically evaluate published epidemiologic studies.
BMTRY 747 Foundations of Epidemiology II
Spring 2015
(approximateschedule)
Note: semester runs 1/6/15 to 4/28/15
Date / Topic / Chapter1-6 / Lecture 0: Introduction and orientation to course, including project requirements
Hand out articles on causation (Krieger and Susser)
1-8 / Discussion of Krieger and Susserarticles
1-13 / Lecture 1: Overview: fundamentals of design and analysis / 1, 2
1-15 / Lecture 2: Biologic and statistical concepts: sources of bias (selection bias and information bias)
Hand out articles on healthy worker survivor effect / 4
1-20 / Class discussion: articles on healthy worker survivor effect; coffee and pancreatic cancer
Hand out homework 1
1-22 / Lecture 3: Biologic and statistical concepts: confounding (part 1)
Homework 1 due – go over in class / 5
1-27 / Lecture 4: Confounding (part 2)
1-29 / Lecture 5: Biologic and statistical concepts: confounding (part 3) and interactions (part 1) / 6
2-3 / Article discussion: Impey, Safaeian, and Mink
Hand out homework 2
2-5 / Homework 2 due – go over in class
Lecture 6: Interactions (part 2)
2-10 / Lecture 7: Prospective cohort studies: planning and execution
Hand out homework 3 / 3
2-12 / Homework 3 due – go over in class
Lecture 8: Prospective cohort studies: further design considerations
2-17 / Article discussion
2-19 / Project Part 1: 10-minute presentations
Project Part 1: written report due by5:00 pm, February 20.
SAS lab: what you need to know to do Project Part 2 (bring your data set and laptop with SAS)
Hand out homework 4
2-24 / Homework 4 due – go over in class
Lecture 9: Retrospective cohort studies, nested case-control studies, and case-cohort studies: planning and executionHand out homework 5
Hand out take-home portion of midterm exam / 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
2-26 / Lecture 10: Cohort Studies Part 1: statistical analysis: rate ratios and risk ratios; introduction to logistic regression; variable coding issues
Homework 5 due – go over in class / 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7
3-3 / SAS lab: evaluation of confounding and effect modification using stratification; work on Project Part 2
3-5 / Midterm exam
(take-home portion is due by 5:00 pm, Friday March 6)
3-10 / Spring break
3-12 / Spring break
3-17 / Go over take-home and in-class portions of midterm
SAS lab: logistic regression; other types of generalized linear models
3-19 / Lecture 11: Cohort Studies Part 2: introduction to survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier, Cox proportional hazards regression), Poisson regression
Discuss article with Cox and Poisson analysis of cohort study
3-24 / Lecture 12: Case-control studies: planning and execution
Discuss articles: case-control studies, control selection / Review 3.4
3-26 / Project Part 2 lab: bring laptop to class with data and SAS
SAS lab: Demonstration of odds ratio calculation from logistic regression modeling results (examples include models with and without interactions)
3-31 / Project Part 2: 15-minute presentations (written portion due by5:00 pm April 1 via email)
4-2 / Lecture 13: Case-control studies: further design considerations-matching
Hand out homework 6 / Review 1.4.5
4-7 / Homework 6 due – go over in class
Lecture 14: Case-control studies: statistical analysis / Review 7.4.3
4-9 / Lecture 15: Cross-sectional studies, ecologic studies, and other study types
Hand out homework 7 / Review 1.3, 1.4.3, 3.3
4-14 / Homework 7 due – go over in class
Discuss articles (led by TA)
4-16 / Lecture 16: Variable construction, selection, and use in multivariate models / Review 7.4
4-21 / Project Part 3 Modeling and Interpretation Lab: bring laptop to class with data and SAS
4-23 / Project Part 3: 15-minute presentations, part one
4-28 / Project Part 3: 15-minute presentations, part two (written portion due at 5:00 pm, May 2, 2014)