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Free course

Medical statistics

Medical statistics

This free course is concerned with some of the statistical methods used in epidemiology and more widely in medical statistics. Section 1 introduces cohort studies in which individuals are classified according to their exposure and followed forward in time to evaluate disease outcomes. Section 2 looks at models for cohort studies. Section 3 introduces case-control studies in which individuals are selected according to their disease status and past exposures are then ascertained. Section 4 covers testing for no association in cohort studies and case-control studies.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • estimate relative risks and odds ratios using data from a cohort study
  • estimate odds ratios using data from a case-control study
  • calculate and interpret confidence intervals for the relative risk and odds ratio
  • test for no association using the chi-squared test
  • interpret the results of a chi-squared test for no association and Fisher's exact test.

First Published: 19/12/2017

Updated: 17/07/2019

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