Introduction to epidemiology and study designs. Objectives of epidemiology, relationship of occurrence, the concept of risk factor. Experimental and observational study. Clinical trial, randomization, principle of standard therapy, principle of uncertainty about treatment, placebo effect, blindness. Descriptive observational studies. Analytical observational studies: cross-sectional, cohort, case-control studies. Sources of bias (selection, information, confounding).
Frequency measurements of the disease. The concepts of risk, population at risk, prevalence, incidence. Absolute risk, incidence rate. Raw measurements, standardized measures.
Bivariate analysis. Scatter plot, linear correlation coefficient, simple linear regression. Average difference analysis. Contingency tables and effect measures: relative risk, odds ratio, absolute difference of risk.
Introduction to inferential statistics. Confidence intervals, null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis, p-value p.
Examples of tests: t-test, chi-square test on 2 × 2 table.