Epidemiology

Overview

This unit provides students with an understanding of the basic principles used within epidemiological research. In addition, students will develop the skills to investigate, analyse and critique various procedures relevant to the fields of epidemiology and the health sciences.

Requisites

Prerequisites

STA10003 Foundations of Statistics

Teaching periods

Location

Start and end dates

Last self-enrolment date

Census date

Last withdraw without fail date

Results released date

Semester 1

Hawthorn

02-March-2026
31-May-2026

15-March-2026

31-March-2026

21-April-2026

07-July-2026

Unit learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

Apply common statistical concepts to epidemiological and health related scenarios.
Critique and evaluate health reports
Apply appropriate methods to report health statistics
Understand the association between risk factors and disease
Identify key criteria for the appropriate use and application of cohort and case-control studies
Apply the principles of research design for the measurement of diseases in health and epidemiological investigations

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type	Hours per week	Number of weeks	Total (number of hours)
On-campus Class	2.00	12 weeks	24
Specified Activities Various	5.00	12 weeks	60
Unspecified Activities Independent Learning	5.50	12 weeks	66
TOTAL			150

Assessment

Type	Task	Weighting	ULO's
Assignment	Individual	50%	2,3,5,6
Online Tests	Individual	10%	1,3,4,6
Test	Individual	40%	1,2,3,4,5,6

Content

Basic principles and concepts for epidemiology
Ethical and professional issues in epidemiology
Measures of morbidity
Measures of mortality
Experimental design, bias and confounding
Diagnostic screening tests
Randomised clinical trials
Cohort studies
Case control studies

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.