Advanced Course in Epidemiological Analysis

I had heard good things about the course from my boss and colleagues before coming, so I expected a lot. But my experience was just past it all – the course was intense, well planned and interesting.. all the time! I had no idea one could learn so much in just 2 weeks!

Every day we had lectures on different methods, before we got to try our new knowledge in practicals. All together we were around 50 people attending the course, everyone eager to learn. For the practicals we were split into smaller groups. We got assignments to work on, either by reading and discussion parts of articles, or by addressing certain statistical issues using the statistical package Stata.

During the 2 weeks we learned about different types of data and how to analyze them. We learned about risks, odds and rates and their respective ratios. We then talked about and used Mantel-Haenszel’s odds ratios, logistical regression, linear regression and poisson regression, before moving on to cox regressions and survival plots. We also learned about assumptions made for the different analyses, about multiple measures- analyses and about what is special in (matched) case-control studies.

And I just loved it. It is not that I can now say that I know all there is to know;p But I learned so much. And I also know more about all that I still don’t know – and where to find out. I am excited to keep working on my articles and theses now. I feel more confident that I can choose and interpret appropriate analyses.

I have also learned that some of the analytic choices I have made in previous studies could have been better. So hopefully they will be, next time;)

In addition to the brilliant theoretical parts, a collective trip on a riverboat on the Thames, and a swing up the London eye was organized, so we saw some of London. I had two amazing weeks, thank you so much for the grant that made me able to attend this course! I highly recommend this course to everyone who wants their methods knowledge improved!