Statistical Practice in Epidemiology using R.

Originally planned for August 2020 now postponed till further notice (fall 2022, hopefully)

in Tartu, Estonia

Organized by the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics and the Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu
The course starts early morning Friday, so arrival in Tartu must be on Thursday. The course ends on Wednesday at 14:00, so departure will be possible on Wednesday (flights from Tallinn later than 18:00 can be reached).
Similar courses were given every year since 2000 with the exception of 2003, 2008 and 2020. Material from the three latest courses is available here: 2019, 2018, 2017.

Audience

The course is intended for epidemiologists and statisticians who wish to use R for statistical modelling and analysis of epidemiological data.
The aim of the course is to give young statisticians (or not so young epidemiologists) who wish to enter or who has recently entered biostatistics or epidemiology access to a set of tools in current use by statisticians in epidemiology.
The course requires basic knowledge of epidemiological concepts and study types. These will only be briefly reviewed, whereas the more advanced epidemiological and statistical concepts will be treated in depth.

History of R. Language. Objects. Functions.
Interface to other dataformats. Dataframes.
Tabulation of data.
Logistic regression for case-control-studies.
Poisson regression for follow-up studies.
Causal inference.
Parametrization of models.
Graphics in R.
Graphical reporting of results.
Time-splitting & SMR.
Nested and matched case-control studies.
Case-cohort studies.
Survival analysis in continuous time.
Competing risk models and relative survival.
Multistate models.

The kissing students outside the town hall of Tartu

All methods will be thoroughly illustrated using R in practical exercises.
The Epi package which is developed for epidemiological analysis in R will be introduced. Particular attention will be given to the reporting of the results; in particular the use of graphics.

Faculty:

Janne Pitkäniemi, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, University of Tampere, Finland
Director of Statistics, Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki, Finland
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Finland
Damien Georges, Research assistant, Infections and Cancer Epidemiology section,
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
Bendix Carstensen, Senior Statistician, Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen & Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Maintainer of the Epi package.
Krista Fischer, Professor, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics and Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Estonia
Esa Läärä, Professor of Biometry, Research Unit of Mathematical Sciences, University of Oulu, Finland.
Martyn Plummer, Professor of Statistics, University of Warwick, UK. Member of the R core team.

The Mathematics building at the river Emaljõe

Venue

Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, Narva Mnt 18, 51009 Tartu.

Course fee:

TBA (will be approx. 1000 EUR)
Includes course, course material, lunches, coffee breaks and social events.
Excludes transport, accomodation and dinners.
The course is a self-supporting entity, and there are NO grants or stipends available for travel or participation.

Application

Send an e-mail briefly stating your qualifications in epidemiology and statistics, to the organizers Kristi Läll & Merli Mändul .
Deadline: TBA (will be approx. May 2021)
After the application deadline we will send you the information regarding the registration and accommodation.

If you are not very familiar with R, here is a draft version of a short introduction to R, aimed at an uninitiated audience.

Concepts in survival and demography is a brief account of basic concepts and their relationships.

Spline demonstration written by Paul Lambert, University of Leicester.

Accomodation:

TBA

Transport and getting around in Tartu

Tartu is situated 185 km south-east of the Estonian captal Tallinn. Transportation is by air (or sea from Helsinki) to Tallinn and from there approximately 2.5 hrs. by bus or train. The bus calls at Tallinn airport, the train can be boarded at Ülemiste station, close to the airport.
There is also an airport in Tartu, though thinly serviced.
For more information on transport to and around Tartu, look here.

Last updated 30 June 2020, BxC