| This unit is designed to meet the growing need for an applied course in measuring and assessing health indicators and outcomes. Epidemiology, like any research discipline, has developed a substantial body of theory, terminology and concepts and methodological approaches. It is not the expectation that you will come away from this unit knowing all there is to know about epidemiology; rather the intention is to explore the approaches and methods used by epidemiologists to measure, classify and evaluate health outcomes.
Although the unit covers many of the topics typically covered in an epidemiology course, such as rates, surveillance and screening, bias, causation, etc., the emphasis is on applying epidemiological knowledge and skills to solving public health problems in a variety of settings. This involves asking questions about the health status of individuals and populations, proposing methods to investigate problems identified, drawing conclusions as to their causes and proposing solutions designed to mitigate those causes.
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