PUBH7630
Introduction to Biostatistics
Course Coordinator: Dr Abdullah Al Mamun
Delivery Mode: Internal and External
Introduction
This core course introduces you to biostatistics, one of the basic disciplines underpinning the practice of health care and health research at all levels, health evaluation, and disease prevention. Biostatistics is the science of describing, summarising and analysing health data. An understanding of the methods of biostatistics is a necessary prerequisite to the design and conduct of health studies. This course complements PUBH7600 Introduction to Epidemiology.
Aims
This course demonstrates the fundamental importance of biostatistics to both health research and the practice of health care. You will learn the fundamental principles and methods used in biostatistics and how they are used in practice.
Content
This course demonstrates the fundamental importance of biostatistics to both health research and the practice of health care. You will learn the fundamental principles and methods used in biostatistics and how they are used in practice. Specific topics include: populations and samples, data summary and presentation, sampling variability and complex sampling, basic data analysis, and sample size estimation. Course activities include regular statistical computing exercises in parallel with the learning modules. The exercises use the statistical packages Epi lnfo and Stata.
Assessment
Assessment is by assignments on problem sets and exercises, data analysis and an online examination.
Recommended texts
Kirkwood, BR & Stone, JAC (2003), Essential Medical Statistics, 2nd ed., London: Blackwell.
Bland, M (2000), An Introduction to Medical Statistics 3rd ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Resources
The Study Guide contains week-by-week learning materials. These include learning objectives, lecture notes, required readings and practical exercises.
An online Blackboard site provides the interactive environment for students and teachers. Reliable and regular access to the Internet is essential.
Further details are provided in the Course Profile.
http://www.uq.edu.au/study/course.html?course_code=PUBH7630
Course Coordinator Contact Details
Dr Abdullah Al Mamun
School of Population Health
University of Queensland
Herston Road
Herston
QLD 4006
AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61 7 334 64689
Fax: +61 7 336 55599
Email: mamun@sph.uq.edu.au
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