The aims of this module are to: demonstrate the purpose of medical statistics and the role it plays in the control of disease and promotion of health explore different epidemiological concepts and study designs apply statistical methods learnt in other programmes, and some new concepts, to medical problems and practical epidemiological research enable further study of the theory of medical statistics by using this module as a base.

(LO1) Identify the types of problems encountered in medical statistics.

(LO2) Demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of different epidemiological study designs.

(LO3) Apply appropriate statistical methods to problems arising in epidemiology and interpret results.

(LO4) Explain and apply statistical techniques used in survival analysis.

(LO5) Critically evaluate statistical issues in the design and analysis of clinical trials.

(LO6) Discuss statistical issues related to systematic review and apply appropriate methods of meta-analysis.

(LO7) Apply Bayesian methods to simple medical problems.

(S1) Problem solving skills

Medical Statistics: definitions and examples.

Introduction : Motivating application to epidemiology.

Epidemiology : routine data, standardisation of illness rates, surveys, screening, cohort studies, case-control studies, causality, multiple linear and logistic regression.

Survival analysis : parametric and semi-parametric survival functions, Kaplan-Meier survival curve, log-rank test, Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.

Clinical trials : parallel two group design, randomisation, blinding, sample size, analysis, cross-over trials.

Systematic reviews and meta-analysis : introduction to systematic review, publication bias, funnel plot, test for heterogeneity.

Bayesian methods : introduction to Bayesian analysis in clinical trials.