Applying Epidemiology in Palliative Care Level 7 7MRSAC20

The Applying Epidemiology in Palliative Care course is attended by people from all over the world with diverse multidisciplinary backgrounds, including nursing, medicine, allied health, pharmacy, social work, and health service research. This course covers the foundational principles of epidemiology and applies this to a palliative care context. Students leave the course with a strong foundation in epidemiological methods and extensive practice in critically appraising the evidence.

1. After completing this course, you will:

   • Understand and be able to measure disease incidence and prevalence and measures of effect.
   • Appreciate the strengths and limitations of different sources of epidemiological data on health status and health service utilization in both industrialised and less developed countries.
   • Understand the application of different study designs in palliative care research, including cross-sectional, observational, cohort, case-control, quasi-experimental and experimental studies, and those using routine data, and be able to appreciate the strengths and limitations of each one.
   • Be aware of the importance of ensuring good quality measurements of quality of life, health status, disease, and exposure status.
   • Be able to take into consideration random errors, bias and confounding effects when interpreting data and understand the difference between statistical association and causality.
   • Be aware of the practical value and limitations of different forms of epidemiological evidence, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, number-needed-to-treat or harm in formulating and influencing public health policy decisions in palliative care.

The 2-week course includes seminars, group work and self-learning and covers the following topics:

• Measuring health and disease
• Study designs (e.g. cross-sectional studies, cohort studies, experimental and quasi-experimental studies)
• How to read/critique a paper
• Interpretation of epidemiological studies
• Routine sources of epidemiological data
• Systematic reviews and meta-analyses

3,500-word assignment

23rd June 2025 - 4th July 2025 10 teaching days