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:

  1. 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.
  2. To study the sources and effects of bias, confounding, and interactions (effect modification).
  3. To provide an introduction to multivariate models, including an understanding of preliminary analyses necessary to guide successful modeling.
  4. To examine the foundations of causal thinking and its interrelationship with specific study designs and analytic strategies.
  5. 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 / Chapter
1-6 / 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)