Program Overview

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Program Details

The program details for the Epidemiology unit at Australian Catholic University are as follows:

Unit Description

This unit is designed to equip students with advanced epidemiological skills that build on foundational concepts, issues, and theories of public health. Students will understand the epidemiological approach to the study of disease and health events and the role of epidemiology in public health.

Unit Rationale

The aim of this unit is to enable students to conduct epidemiological research independently and to critically appraise methodological aspects of existing research.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

• Use key concepts in epidemiology to describe communicable and non-communicable public health issues in Australia
• Explain critical methodological requirements of public health studies
• Interrogate claims of causation and aetiology in public health including risk factors
• Critically appraise epidemiological research

Graduate Attributes

The graduate attributes for this unit are:

• GA4: think critically and reflectively
• GA5: demonstrate values, knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession
• GA8: locate, organise, analyse, synthesise, and evaluate information
• GA10: utilise information and communication and other relevant technologies effectively

Content

The content of this unit includes:

• The history and contemporary role of epidemiology in shaping population health
• The application of systematic counts and measures to monitor population health status
• Descriptive epidemiology
• Measures of frequency
• Condition, frequency, severity
• Defining populations and cases, incidence, prevalence, case-fatality rates
• Patterns of disease and hypothesis generation (person, place, time)
• Rates / exposures / incubation periods
• Association and causation
• Measures of strength of association
• Relative risk / Risk ratios
• Attributable risk
• Bias (measurement error, selection bias), confounding, and adjustment
• Causation claims and cases
• Analytical epidemiology and hypothesis testing
• Non-experimental study design / strengths and weaknesses
• Experimental and quasi-experimental study designs / strengths and weaknesses
• Testing interventions and demonstrating harm, benefit, and cost-effectiveness
• The development and application of public health surveillance
• Evidence summaries
• Systematic reviews / meta-analyses / narrative reviews / guidelines
• Screening: test sensitivity and specificity / lead and length bias

Learning and Teaching Strategy

This unit is offered in multi-mode to provide a streamlined and flexible learning platform. The unit comprises both lectures and tutorials, using an active learning approach to support students in acquiring and applying knowledge and skills in epidemiology.

Assessment Strategy

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome. The assessment tasks include:

• Online quizzes (30%)
• Critical appraisal of published research (30%)
• A two-hour open-book written exam (40%)

Representative Texts and References

The recommended texts for this unit are:

• Bonita, R., Beaglehole, R., Kjellstrom, T. (2006). Basic epidemiology (2nd ed.). Geneva: World Health Organization.
• Büttner, P., & Muller, R. (2016). Epidemiology (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Webb, P. & Bain, C. (2011). Essential epidemiology: An introduction for students and health professionals (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Webb, P., Bain, C., & Page, A. (2016). Essential epidemiology: An introduction for students and health professionals (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.