Section outline

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  • Friday, January 10, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Introduction: Causal theories and interrelationships between measures of disease occurrence

    Theories of causal inference; causal diagrams and other models for evaluation of causation; counterfactual effect measures: rate ratios, risk ratios and odds ratios, measures of attributable risk, effect measures vs. measures of association.

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Location:      China Basin 6704

  • Friday, January 17, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Cohort and case-control studies

    Design features of cohort and case-control studies; field methods for observational study designs. 

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Location:      China Basin 6704

  • Friday, January 24, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Less commonly used observational study designs
    Ecological and cross-sectional studies, surveys, case-only, case-crossover, case-time-control, special-exposure cohorts.

    Faculty: John Witte

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week 3 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      • RGL2008 Ch 7 (pp 109-110)
      • RGL2008 Ch 8 (pp125-127)
      • RGL2008 Ch 22 (pp 472-476)
      • RGL2008 Ch 25
      • RGL2008 Ch 28 (pp573-575)
      • RGL2008 Ch 30 (pp 605-606)

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Dufault and Klar 2011 File
    • Gillespie Case-chaos studies AJE 2012 File
    • Stang and Jockel 2004 File

    • Assignment Due Date:  Homework for week 3 is based on Dufault and Klar 2011, Gillespie et al. 2012 and Stang and Jockel 2004 articles. Please use discussion questions to guide your reading and to prepare for class discussion.  Please send your written answers to homework questions by 1 pm on 1/24  to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu

  • Friday, January 31, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Effects of measurement errors

    Exposure and disease misclassification; measurements and measurement errors; design features affecting precision of results, including effects of multiple comparisons.

    Faculty:  John Witte

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week # 4 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Ch 9 (pp 134-147)
      RGL2008 Ch 13

    • Recommended Reading:

      R2012 Ch 8

    • M-turk Introduction File

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Misclassification tutorial File

    • Assignment Due Date: Please send your written answers to homework for week 4 by 1 pm on 1/31 to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu.

  • Friday, February 7, 2015; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Methods to improve study accuracy and precision of estimates

    Validity and precision; methods of sampling and estimation of sample size; design features affecting precision of results, including matching and restriction.

    Faculty:  Joel Mefford

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week #5 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Chs 10-11

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Bacchetti et al 2005 File
    • Ioannidis 2005 File
    • Witte et al. 2000 File

    • Assignment Due Date:  Homework for week 5 is based on Bacchetti et al. 2005, Ioannidis 2005 and Witte et al. 2000 articles. Please use discussion questions to guide your reading and to prepare for class discussion.  Please send your written answers to homework questions by 1 pm on 2/7 to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu.

  • Friday, February 14, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Confounding

    Measured and unmeasured confounding; matching and analysis of matched data; instrumental variables and propensity scores.

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week #6 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Ch 9 (pp 129-134)
      RGL2008 Ch 12
      RGL2008 Ch 15

    • Recommended Reading:

      R2012 Ch 10

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Hernan et al 2002 File
    • Hernan and Robins 2006 File
    • Kurth et al 2005 File
    • Howards Use of DAGs and causality AJE 2012 File

  • Friday, February 21, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Interaction and effect-measure modification

    Biological vs. statistical; multiplicative and additive; evaluation of interaction, presentation of results.

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Location:      China Basin 6704

  • Friday, February 28, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Regression models and regression modeling

    Continuous and polytomous exposures and outcomes; poisson regression: individual and grouped GEE; non-parametric models

    Faculty:  Cindy Leung

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week #8 Slides File
    • Week #8 slides with exercise answers File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Chs 17, 20, 21

    • Recommended Reading:

      R2012 Ch 12

      Hosmer and Lemeshow 2000

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Assignment Due Date: Please send your written answers to homework questions by 1 pm on 2/28 to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu.

  • Friday, March 7, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Bias and sensitivity analysis

    Selection bias and information bias; multiple biases and probabilistic bias analysis; sensitivity and influence analyses; bayesian analysis

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Guest: Maria Glymour


    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week #9 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Chs 18-19

    • Recommended Reading:

      R2012 Ch 7

    • Oakes and Kaufman 2006, Ch 16 (Glymour) File
    • Hernan and Cole 2009 File
    • Fleischer Diez Roux 2007 File

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Bodnar et al 2010 File
    • Hernan et al. 2001 File
    • Schisterman et al 2009 File
    • Shrier Platt 2008 File

    • Assignment Due Date: Please use discussion questions to guide your reading and to prepare for class discussion. Please send your written answers to homework questions by 1 pm on 3/7 to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu.

  • Friday, March 14, 2014; 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM

    Lecture: Critical review of epi studies and presentation of study findings

    Public health implications of epi research findings; synthesis of findings across studies (pooled and meta-analyses); generalizability of findings; publication bias.

    Faculty:  Lydia Zablotska

    Guest: Eugenie Poirot

    Location:      China Basin 6704

    • Session Slides:

    • Week #10 slides File

    • Required Reading:

      RGL2008 Ch 33

    • Recommended Reading:

    • MDA Cochrane Review File

    • Discussion section readings and homework assignments:

    • Cochrane meta-analysis of vit A and mortality in children 2010 File
    • Cochrane meta-analysis of vit A and mortality in children 2010 short summary File
    • Bax et a. 2008 File

    • Assignment Due Date:  Homework for week 10 is based on Imdad et al. 2010 article (Cochrane meta-analysis of effects of vitamin A in children). Please use discussion questions to guide your reading and to prepare for class discussion. Please send your written answers to homework questions by 1 pm on 3/14 to course TA Cecily Miller at Cecily.Miller@ucsf.edu.