Title:	Methods in social epidemiology
Keywords:	Socio economic status Gender Equity Epidemiology
Country:	Sweden
Institution:	Sweden - Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University
Course coordinator:	Miguel San Sebastian
Date start:	2024-12-16
Date end:	2025-01-12
About duration and dates:	The course runs for 4 weeks with a break for the holiday season. Interactive teaching will be given 2024-12-16 to 2024-12-20. Self-studies will be performed 2025-01-06 to 2025-01-12 (During this week, students don’t need to be in Umeå
Classification:	advanced optional
Mode of delivery:	Face to face
Course location: Department of Epidemiology and Global Health Umeå University Sweden tropEd representative: Marie Lindkvist marie.lindkvist@umu.se
ECTS credit points:	3 ECTS credits
SIT: 80 SITs ● Interactive lectures: 24 SIT’s ● Supervised group discussions: 8 SITs ● Computer exercises: 8 SITs ● Self-study hours including completing the written home assignment (examination of this module): 40 SITs On average, study time is 40 hours per week.
Language:	English
Description: At the end of the module, the student is expected to: ● Understand and describe the theoretical concepts behind health inequality measurements. ● Differentiate various measures of health inequalities and judge their weaknesses and strengths. ● Calculate the different measures of health inequalities presented in the course. ● Interpret the analysis and results of health inequality measurement.
Assessment Procedures: An individual methodological home assignment (3-5 A4 pages) in which students present and describe the methodological tools to analyse inequities and inequalities in health. The purpose of the assignment is to show knowledge of the use of different measurements of health inequalities and understand its interpretations. The home assignment has the grading scale Fail, Pass or Pass with distinction. Rubrics are used for grading (see appendix). If a student receives the grade Fail, the student needs to revise the assignment within the timeline decided by the examiner. It is only allowed to revise a Fail, until they pass. To revise for being awarded a higher grade is not allowed. Grades and feedback are available within 15 working days after the assessment/examination. The home assignment needs to be submitted on the last day of the course. To further support the translation of grades, the ECTS Grading Table is used at Umeå University. For more information,see here
Content: Socioeconomic inequalities in health are a major challenge for health policy and health policy interventions. This course covers: ● Description and overview of different measures to investigate the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in health. ● Understand different perspectives of the included methods which are: -The relative and absolute slope index of inequality -The concentration index -Principal component analyses applied to socioeconomic status -Measurement of intersectionality -Decomposition analyses -Propensity score matching. ● Perform analysis of health inequalities taking into consideration magnitude and perspectives.
Methods: The course is designed as an intensive hands-on learning experience that will foster the development of theoretical knowledge and basic skills in calculation and interpretation of different health inequality measurements. Teaching is concentrated in week 1 and conducted through interactive lectures (60%), computer sessions (20%) and supervised group discussions (20%). Students are encouraged to read relevant course literature before lectures. The second week of the course consists of self-study including the home assignment.
Prerequisites: Participants must previously have passed 120 ECTS of academic studies at any level, of which a minimum of 30 ECTS are within one of the following: health sciences, environmental health, or social sciences. Students must have at least 10 ECTS credits in Epidemiology. Proficiency in English equal to Swedish upper secondary education B/6. IELT - An overall score of 6.5 and no section below 5.5. TOEFL – Score of 20 (scale 0-30) in written test, total score of 90. For more information: see
Attendance: Maximum number of students is 40. Number of tropEd students is not limited.
Selection: Students in the master programmes in public health at Umeå University have guaranteed admission to this course. In addition to those, students (among them tropEd students) applying for the course as a single subject course may be accepted (up to 40 students). The selection process for single subjects’ students is based on merit rating from previous university studies.
Fees: 1) There are no application and tuition fees for students who are citizens of countries within the European Economic Area (EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) or of Switzerland. 2) Students who are not citizens of a country covered by the EEA agreement or of Switzerland at the time they apply for studies must pay an application fee of 900 SEK to the university. Those in 2) above who are admitted and start studying at the university must pay tuition fees. The present fee 2024 for this course is 7420 SEK.
Scholarships: There are no scholarships available at this time
Major changes since initial accreditation: The organisation of the course has been stable since first accreditation in tropEd. The objectives are the same but computer exercises and questions for group work discussions have been updated. Further, students can now choose between doing the computer exercises in Stata or R (before it was only Stata)
Student evaluation: Students are very happy with the course (4-5) on different evaluation questions on a scale from 1-5. The only aspect that some students feel could be improved is details regarding R instructions
Lessons learned: The importance of detailed computer session instructions.
tropEd accreditation: Accredited in January 2019, in Lisbon. Re-accredited in Febr. Online GA 2024 This accreditation is valid until February 2029.
Remarks:
Email Address:	miguel.san.sebastian@umu.se
Date Of Record Creation:	2019-02-15 10:19:29 (W3C-DTF)
Date Of Record Release:	2019-02-15 15:26:02 (W3C-DTF)
Date Record Checked:	2019-02-15 (W3C-DTF)
Date Last Modified:	2024-03-12 10:42:48 (W3C-DTF)