Workshop Introduction to Epidemiology in Health Economics
As part of the ISPOR conference, I gave a workshop on epidemiology. This focused on the uses of epidemiology in general, and in public health and health economics. The different study designs, especially those used in health economic studies, were discussed, as well as the different measures of frequency and association. The attendees completed exercises and case studies were discussed.
The International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research South Africa (ISPOR SA) is an organisation of professionals with an interest in the study and practice of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research. Its aim is to improve the standard of pharmacoeconomic and outcomes research by promoting research, education, training and providing leadership towards optimal healthcare policies and standards.
As part of their annual conference, ISPOR SA always has 1.5 day of short courses. Most are pharmaceutics related courses, but there is also an interest to provide workshops on topics related to the health economics field. Epi Result was therefore asked to give a half-day course in which epidemiology would be introduced to those working in health economics.
The course focused on the uses of epidemiology in general (natural history, describing population health status, finding causes, evaluating interventions), and in public health and health economics. Frequently, the epidemiological aspects of a disease area are the starting points of a health economic evaluation, but often the necessary details are lacking in the South African setting.
The different study designs were discussed, including examples of their use in health economics studies. It covered in detail the differentiation between a randomised controlled trial, non-randomised study, in terms of experimental designs, as well as the various observational designs. These include: cross-sectional studies, case-control studies and cohort studies. The technical details, advantages and disadvantages of all study designs were discussed.
I further went into detail on the different frequency measures used to quantify the occurrence of disease in a population: prevalence, incidence rate and cumulative incidence. Measuring the occurrence of disease is only the beginning of the epidemiological process. The next step is the comparison of occurrence in two or more groups of people whose exposures have differed. The relative risk (used in cohort studies) and the odds ratio (used in case control studies) were presented, explained and illustrated by examples. Throughout the workshop attendees completed exercises and case studies were discussed in order to enhance the learning of the participants.
Also interested in a workshop on epidemiology for a specific group of professionals? Please contact Epi Result. I also developed, for example, one related to studies on forced migration.