Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Bioestatística e Epidemiologia

Curse code:9504101

Rui Manuel da Costa Martins

Learning outcomes of the curricular unit:

Instrumental competences

• Know the limitations of statistical analysis;
• Adapt the methodology to the problem under study;
• Distinguish descriptive statistics from statistical inference;
• Apply techniques of descriptive statistics;
• Use combinatorial analysis techniques;
• Understand the concept of sampling distribution;
• Understand the concepts of population, sample, parameter estimator and skewness;
• Estimate confidence intervals;
• Distinguish parametric and nonparametric tests;
• Apply parametric and nonparametric tests;
• Understanding the impact of epidemiology in disease prevention, health promotion and in the control of new epidemics;
• Identify the characteristics, advantages, disadvantages and indications of different epidemiological studies in the area of physiotherapy;
• Reflect on the role of epidemiology to improve the health of individuals and populations;
• Understand the impact of epidemiology on disease prevention, health promotion and control of new epidemics;
• Explain the importance of epidemiological surveillance in community morbidity and mortality;
• Understand the concept of risk and causality
• Identify the characteristics, indications, advantages and disadvantages of the different epidemiological studies in the area of physiotherapy;
• Define and explain the importance of health indicators;
• Reflect on prevention I, II, III, IV throughout the life cycle;
• Reflect on the epidemiology’s role to improve individual and population health.

Interpersonal competences

• Recognize statistics as an independent scientific field with connections to other sciences and as an important field of knowledge in the society and in the modern science;
• Literature reviews;
• Work as a team.

Systemic competences

• Collect and organize the information required for the study to be performed;
• Describe the information clearly and concisely to facilitate the research;
• Perform calculations using the statistical tool SPSS (statistical package for the social sciences) and interpret the results.

Syllabus:

1. Notions of probability
2. Random variables and univariate probability distributions
3. Confidence Intervals
4. Hypothesis testing
5. Parametric tests
6. Nonparametric tests
7. Epidemiology in Disease Prevention / Health Promotion
8. Epidemiological surveillance in community´s morbidity and mortality
9. Risk and causality
10. Epidemiological studies
11. Health indicators
12. Prevention I, II, III and IV throughout the life cycle
13. Epidemiology to improve individuals and populations health

Suggested Bibliography:

• Maroco J (2014) Análise Estatística com o SPSS Statistics. 6th ed., ReportNumber. ISBN: 9789899676343
• Mausner J, Bahn A (2004). Introdução à Epidemiologia. 3rd ed., Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa
• Pestana M, Gageiro J (2014) Análise de Dados para Ciências Sociais – A Complementaridade do SPSS. 6th ed., Edições Sílabo.