Hi everyone, and welcome
to the second module of epidemiology two.
What you'll see in this module is going to be
typical of the next few modules.
We'll review some concepts that we've learned previously
and then we'll build on those with more advanced material.
In this module, you're going to see epi study designs
and build on what you've learned before
with some more advanced case control study designs.
We'll take a deeper look at matching in our epi studies
and look at the importance of age as a critical confounder.
My message to you this week is don't wait to get started.
You have a chapter to read in your textbook
and you'll see that the chapters are pretty long.
I also want to make note about your textbook
before we go forward.
I'll be honest with you guys, it's pretty dry
compared to the "Gordis Epidemiology" textbook
that we used for epi one.
It is, however, the best and only intermediate
epi two textbook that's on the market,
so I apologize for the dryness,
but please do try to get as much
out of reading it as you can.
As in previous classes, the lecture is a summary
of what goes on in the chapters.
And the lectures do not hit on every detail,
so reading through the book is really important.
The other thing that you have this week
is an SPSS lab assignment, and this also isn't short,
so please do go ahead and get started early.
You'll see that there's some additional information
about SPSS, some videos to watch,
and some additional support should you need it
for the SPSS assignment.
The resources on this page are designed for everyone
regardless of your background with SPSS.
Take some time to look through the resources,
watch the videos, and follow along
in your own SPSS software to make sure that
you feel comfortable with what is presented.
Learning or advancing your knowledge
of statistical software is really hard.
It can be really frustrating until you get
to that learning curve enough to
feel comfortable using the software.
There are two things that I found to be
really helpful when learning statistical software.
The first is don't be afraid to play around.
Don't be afraid to click things,
try things out, and see if you can start to figure out
what SPSS is actually doing behind the scenes.
The second thing that I found useful is working with others,
so I encourage you to work with each other on these labs.
Use Yellowdig as a forum so that
you can get the most out of it.
Feel free to post screenshots of your output.
Ask if others are getting similar results
or verify that your understanding of something makes sense.
You can really learn a lot from each other,
and this discussion and collaboration
is going to be really great for your long-term retention
of the material and learning.
This mimics the real world,
and asking colleagues or the internet for help
when you run into an analytic challenge.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate
to get in touch and I'll see you in the next module.
Take care.