Objectives of the course: Hygiene and Epidemiology I is the first half of a course that introduces the basic concepts of hygiene, epidemiology and evidence-based medicine as applied to public health problems. Emphasis is placed on the principles and methods of epidemiologic investigation, appropriate summaries and displays of data, and the use of classical statistical approaches to describe the health of populations. Various epidemiologic study designs for investigating associations between risk factors and disease outcomes are also introduced, culminating with criteria for causal inferences. The application of these disciplines in the areas of health services, screening, genetics, and environment policy are presented.

Contents of the course: Topics include basic concepts in descriptive epidemiology (measurements, distributions, prevalence, incidence, survival, disease definitions, standardization) as well as the basic concepts in evidence-based medicine (EBM). Afterwards, students are introduced to the principles of causation, effect estimates and association measures, followed by an introduction to prognostic models, diagnostic tests, therapeutic interventions and measures thereof along with adverse events, screening methods and counseling. The students then become familiar with applied epidemiology topics such as epidemics and outbreaks, vaccination, health-related behaviors and interventions thereof, age-specific preventive measures, occupational medicine.

Finally, basic statistical tests are discussed with a special focus on bias, along with methods for a valid literature search and topics about medical education.

Mode and outcomes of teaching: The course is taught in combination with workshops in small groups. At the end of the course students should be critical consumers of the public health and medical literature, able to interpret descriptive epidemiologic results in order to develop hypotheses about possible risk factors for a disease, able to design valid and efficient studies to address public health and clinical problems, and comfortable with statistical methods for calculating summary estimates, measures of variability, and confidence intervals.

Hours of training per student: 91

Semester: 5th

ECTS: 4