Validity and Bias in Epidemiology

An epidemiological study can give valuable insight into the frequency and potential causes of a disease as well as the effectiveness of the available treatments. When answering such a question, it is important to choose the right study design. This is not enough. There are many reasons why a study might yield biased results. This course will provide an overview of some of these factors as well as guidance on how to handle bias in epidemiological research. This course will teach you about the most common types of bias and how they can affect your research findings. The concept of confounding will be the focus. You will learn about various ways to detect and control confounding in different study design. The last module will focus on the phenomenon of effect modification. This is crucial for understanding and interpreting the results of studies. The course will conclude with a discussion on causality in epidemiology. We will discuss how to use all the tools we have learned to determine if your findings are true associations and if they can be considered causal.