Nordic Summer School in Cancer Epidemiology 2019
Statistical modules

Danish Cancer Society, 12-23 August 2019
Virrat, Finland, 24-26 January 2020

Course text Book:

Measures of Disease Occurrence: Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14
Analysis of Epidemiological Data: Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21

• Lectures:
  • Measures of Disease Frequency and Effects
    13-14 August 2019 (Esa Läärä)
    • Slides.
    • Handouts (3-ups) (10-ups).
  • Analysis of Epidemiological Data
    20-21 August 2019 (Bendix Carstensen)
    • Slides.
    • Handouts (3-ups) (10-ups).
• Practical exercises
  • The exercises in this course requires you to do calculations which (at least in principle) can be done on a hand-calculator.
    However we guess you do not have a hand calculator, and assume that you have a laptop and therefore can use the free statistical program R as a calculator. This will enable you to take the solutions with you home in the form of a file with computer code that does the analyses. It will also enable you to do analyses repeatedly on slightly different sets of data.
  • You can obtain R from CRAN (the Comprehensive R Archive Network): Under "Download and Install R" click on "R for Windows", click on "Install R for the first time", and then on "Download R 3.6.1 for Windows", which is a self-extracting installer. This means that if you save it to your computer somewhere and click on it, it will install R for you (provided that you answer the questions you are asked).
  • The Epi add-on package for R will be needed too. Once you have installed R , start it, and in the menu bar click on Packages -> Install package(s)..., chose a mirror (this is just a server where you can get the stuff), and then the Epi package. Start R and write:
    > library(Epi)
    > sessionInfo()
    - from the output of the last command it should be clear that you have R version 3.6.1 (or later) and version 2.38 of the Epi package.
  • Practical Exercises contains the exercises that you will go through during the practicals sessions in the two modules "Measures of disease frequency and effects" and "Analysis of Epidemiological Data".
    It also contains a very short introduction to getting and using R, and a section with basic probability concepts in epidemiology and demography.
  • This folder contains a number of R-scripts relating to the practicals. Hopefully the filenames are informative.
  • An introduction to R for Epidemiology may be of interest for you (about 50 pages).
• NORDCAN is an interactive database where you can get information on cancer occurrence in the Nordic countries. It will also be used during the exercises.
• After the course
  You can have more information about the Epi package for R here.
  You can enhance your R skills by attending the course Statistical Practice in Epidemiology with R (in 2020, though).
  After the course you can get help by sending queries to the R-sig-Epi mailing list. But you need to sign up to the list first, you can do that here.
• Previous courses, lectures, slides etc.