‘Introduction to Epidemiology’ (EPI4920) is the first course of the Master of Epidemiology. This brief introductory course takes place within a 5-day period at the start of the academic year, in which students will be acquainted with basic principles of epidemiological research. The course forms a common starting point for the Master of Epidemiology. Several topics that will come back in later courses during the Master programme are introduced at a basic level. As such, the course intends to create a baseline that is needed for going more in-depth into topics during subsequent courses of the Master programme.

The main aims of the course are 1) to enable students to appreciate the basic concepts of epidemiology, and 2) to practice carefully thinking about and critically assessing the design, conduct, and analysis of epidemiological studies. Use will be made of lectures, small-group meetings with practical assignments (e.g., questions or calculations related to topics of preceding lectures), and training sessions. 

Topics that will be introduced as part of this course include the following:

• Definition, scope, and domains of epidemiology
• Measures of disease frequency and association
• Observational and experimental study designs
• Validity and bias in epidemiological research
• Measurements in epidemiological research
• Principles of diagnostic and prognostic research
• Basics of systematic reviews and meta-analysis
• Introduction to SPSS as statistical software package

Knowledge and understanding

After having actively participated in this course, the student:

-      Is able to distinguish and interpret various measures expressing the frequency of occurrence of health outcomes, such as a disease (i.e., cumulative incidence, incidence density, point prevalence, period prevalence, and lifetime prevalence).

-      Is able to distinguish and interpret various measures that quantify the nature and strength of associations between determinants and health outcomes (i.e., risk difference, risk ratio, rate ratio, and attributable proportion).

-      Is able to distinguish and recognize various study designs commonly used in the field of epidemiology (i.e., ecological studies, cross-sectional studies, case-control studies, cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials).

-      Has knowledge of and insight into relevant aspects of different study designs and choice of the study population (e.g., inclusion and exclusion criteria, eligibility considerations, sources for selection, and recruitment procedures).

-      Is able to identify major advantages and disadvantages of the different epidemiological study designs.

-      Knows differences between internal validity and external validity of epidemiological studies.

-      Appreciates potential sources of bias (incl. selection bias, information bias, and confounding) that threaten the internal validity of an epidemiological study.

-      Appreciates differences between confounding and effect modification or interaction.

-      Appreciates various design measures to prevent bias or to adjust for bias in observational research (e.g., restriction, matching, stratified analysis, blinded measurement, and use of independent data sources).

-      Has basic knowledge of and insight into the principles of classifying health and disease outcomes.

-      Is able to distinguish various types of health measurement scales and relevant aspects of the quality of a health measurement scale (i.e., validity, reliability, and responsiveness).

-      Has basic knowledge of and insight into main principles and procedures of diagnostic testing (strategies) and research.

-      Has basic knowledge of prognostic research and basic principles of prognostic prediction modelling.

-      Is able to distinguish various types of literature review (e.g., narrative review, systematic review, meta-analysis) and to identify advantages and disadvantages of these types of literature review.

-      Is able to identify the subsequent steps of a systematic literature review.

Making judgments

After having actively participated in this course, the student:

-      Is able to assess and recognize important sources of bias as part of critically appraising the methodological quality of an epidemiological study (e.g., based on a research article).

For most of the topics introduced during the course, the following textbook is recommended as useful introductory text on basic epidemiological methods: Webb P, Bain C & Page A. Essential Epidemiology: An Introduction for Students and Health Professionals. Cambridge University Press (2025, 5^th edition).