Advanced Methods in Observational Data Analysis (Biostatistics III)

Catalog description

This is the third and most advanced installment of the biostatistics courses. The goal of this course is to provide students with knowledge and skills necessary for understanding indications and interpretation of statistical approaches used in comparative effectiveness research. A broad range of topics, more typically taught over several semesters, will be covered in a condensed format focusing on aspects of greatest relevance to clinician-researchers. In addition, students will have opportunities to apply statistical techniques using common software packages including SAS and Stata. This course extends understanding of epidemiologic concepts and methods by providing applied training in the conduct of secondary data analysis studies using either SAS or Stata. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Wave IV (adulthood; 2008), students will identify a research question; define a causal model, specific aims, and hypotheses based on review of extant literature; gain experience in management and conditioning of the data; conduct stratified analyses to assess effect modification and confounding; implement the backwards elimination method of model building using logistic regression to obtain multivariable results; interpret results with respect to the strength and precision of estimates, selection and information bias and confounding, and generalizability.