Syllabus and reading list of HLTH460: Epidemiology and Critical Appraisal

Description

The purpose of this course is to develop skills and knowledge of critical appraisal of health research. Upon completion of this course, students will develop or enhance skills and understanding necessary for interpretation of research designs, analysis of health research data, reports, review of literature, and gain skills that will enable them to successfully write grants and research proposals.

Goal of this course

The goal of this course is to teach how to critically appraise epidemiological studies, identify knowledge gaps in epidemiological studies and use such gaps to independently develop research projects for further study and investigations.

Learning objectives (LO)

1. The student will identify relevant research in his/her discipline to address an important public health problem (LO1)
2. The student will reflect on his/her discipilne (LO2)
3. The student will identify gaps in research and epidemiological studies (LO3)
4. The student will critically appraise health research (LO4)
5. The student will be able to synthesise information from diverse epidemiological studies (LO5)
6. The student will be able to develop a research proposal in his or her area of study including successful Maori consultation (LO6)

Learning objectives mapped to graduate attributes

GA1. A graduate of the UC must be innovative and enterprising and must have analytical, critical thinking skills and problem solving ability in diverse contexts (LO1 and LO2 will meet this attribute) GA2. A graduate will demonstrate digital literacy (All learning objectives will meet this attribute as all assignments to be completed make use of digital tools and the course is delivered online) GA3. The UC graduate must demonstrate bicultural competence and confidence: (Application of bicultural competence and confidence in a chosen discipline and career). (LO5 will meet this graduate attribute as the student will have to demonstrate a successful Maori consultation for that assignment) GA4. The UC graduate will be globally aware: The graduate must demonstrate understanding the global nature of his/her discipline (this is met by all five objectives) GA5. The UC graduate must show evidence of community engagement: (Understand and articulate how the content and skills of the course enhances the community), this objective is met by all learning objectives

Assignments

Students will complete three related assignments for this course. These are as follows

• Assignment I (A1): Write an annotated bibliography on a selected topic of interest (30% weight, marked out of 30)
• Assignment II (A2): Develop an Evidence Gapmap on the chosen topic of interest (30% weight, marked out of 30)
• Assignment III (A3): Write a research proposal on a selected research area (40% weight, marked out of 40)

Assignment I (A1)

In this assignment, you will write an annotated bibliography of a chosen topic that interests you. This assignment corresponds to LO1 and LO2 and will be marked out of 30 marks

Step by step instructions:

1. Select a topic of interest
2. Run a search of the scholarly databases (Google Scholar, Pubmed, UC Library databases, any other relevant database that can contain the articles of your subject area)
3. Identify at least five articles and read each article
4. For each article, do:

• Write the author, title, journal, issue and other identifying information of the article
• Summarise the article and write the main concepts or points
• Write a note critiquing the article, its methods, your lessons, and take away points

5. In your annotation, you can include links to other references if you want, and any tables and figures you like.
6. The TOTAL word count for this annotated bibliography is 2500 words. The word count EXCLUDES any word contained in the title, table, figures, and reference lists. All other words will be included in the word count.
7. The deadline for this assignment: 26th March, 5 PM NZ Time
8. For grading rubric and assignment template, please view the Learn Course Management System

Assignment II (A2)

In this assignment, you will write an evidence gap map of a chosen topic that interests you. This assignment corresponds to LO1 - LO4 and will be marked out of 30 marks. An evidence gap map is a visual presentation of the evidence that respective studies including in the map show. It is usually in the form of a table where studies and what constitutes evidence are shown on a matrix.

Step by step instructions:

1. Select a topic of interest
2. Run a search of the scholarly databases (Google Scholar, Pubmed, UC Library databases, any other relevant database that can contain the articles of your subject area)
3. Identify the relevant interventions and outcomes (or if you do not want to study exposures and outcomes, then use that)
4. Create your framework and write about it (do not have to do stakeholder engagement as you will not have the time for such things, but base on your own interpretation of the field)
5. Follow the procedures outlined in the gapmap document to make a map
6. A copy of the document, some sample maps, and a template document will be uploaded on Learn.
7. The TOTAL word count for the evidence gap map is 2500 words. The word count EXCLUDES any word contained in the title, table, figures, and reference lists. All other words will be included in the word count.
8. The deadline for this assignment: 30th April, 5 PM NZ Time
9. For grading rubric and assignment template, please view the Learn Course Management System

Assignment III (A3)

In this assignment, you will write a research proposal of a chosen topic that interests you and you want to research. This assignment corresponds to LO1 - LO6 and will be marked out of 40 marks. In the research proposal you will write the main reearch problem, provide a brief review of the relevant literature, write about the methods of the study you will use to investigate, and include an evidence of Maori consultation of your work. You will not have to write the Ethics application and you will not have to write a budget.

Step by step instructions:

1. Select a topic of interest that you want to research
2. Write a research proposal
3. A copy of the instruction document, some sample research proposal, and a template document will be uploaded on Learn. Please follow the template.
4. The TOTAL word count for the evidence gap map is 2500 words. The word count EXCLUDES any word contained in the title, table, figures, and reference lists. All other words will be included in the word count.
5. The deadline for this assignment: 28th May, 5 PM NZ Time
6. For grading rubric and assignment template, please view the Learn Course Management System

Frequency of the class

For 2021, the class will be held online over Zoom every week on Friday 2-4 PM NZ time. Address: Zoom Link for the class

Reading lists by week

Access the reading list here

Week 1: Getting started

• A Study in Scarlet
• Why most research findings are false
• How to read a paper

Week 2: How to critically appraise a single paper using STROBE

• STROBE checklist itself latest version, PDF
• Read the accompanying article FIRST
• READ the explanatory article NEXT
• PRACTICE on this article

Week 3: How to describe and read charts and graphs

• Read the Midway article
• Read the Rodenbeck article about best practices and guidelines about graphics
• Optional, practice with this tutorial to learn how to work with ggplot()
• Read this article and discuss how information was presented

Week 4: Measurements in Epidemiology and health sciences

• Measurements of descriptions of diseases
• Measurements of risk

Assigned readings for this week:

• Breslow, 2006 paper
• Hatch, 1993 paper
• Story, 2019 paper

The document to practice what you learned

• SF-36 questionnaire, PDF version

Questions when we meet on 19th March, Friday 2-3 PM NZ Time

• Summarise each paper
• Comment on each paper and the key learnings
• Critique the SF-36 questionnaire
• How would you design this questionnaire?
• I will talk about questionnaire validation - validity/reliability

Week 5: Introduction to cause and causality

Read the following article:

• The tale wagged by the DAG: broadening the scope of causal inference and explanation for epidemiology
• In the class, we will discuss causal inference and causality, so read this article, summarise and come prepared to discuss

Week 6: Advanced and graphical models of cause and causal inference

• Read Rohrer, 2018 article to learn about directed acyclic graphs
• Learn to use Dagitty
• Use the dagitty cheat sheet to draw diagrams

Week 7: Study designs in health

Week 8: Appraise the quality of evidence using GRADE tools

Week 9: How to design your own study: sample size and power

This week we will learn about sample size and power calculation. Here are a few things to read and prepare:

Homework:

• Before coming to the class, please watch the following video: Normal Distribution Video It will take about 30 minutes
• Then watch the following video (about 20 minutes): Hypothesis Testing

After watching these two videos, you will have a good idea of

• Z distribution
• Null and alternative hypotheses

We will discuss some of these things in tomorrow's class

Bring to the class

• A problem or a research idea that you want to discuss
• Prepare to discuss a research plan around the idea

Browse the following website and optional reading

• Openepi

Read (for later):

• A sample size primer by Hickey et al
• A second article on sample size primer by Schulz etal

See you tomorrow at our usual Zoom location at 2 PM Meanwhile, I will also discuss the second assignment

Week 10: How to design your own study: data analysis and writing

Week 11: How do studies contribute towards policy framing

Week 12: Concluding week, where to from here