Cancelled!! Components of causal inference with focus on assumptions and confounding control – an introductory course (mandatory course for AAU PhD programme Epidemiology & Biostatistics) (2023)

Welcome to Components of causal inference with focus on assumptions and confounding control – an introductory course (mandatory course for AAU PhD programme Epidemiology & Biostatistics) (2023)


Purpose: You already know that establishing a causal relationship is distinct from observing an association. While individuals who receive the flu vaccine tend to have a lower mortality rate compared to those who do not, we must consider whether this lower mortality is directly attributable to the vaccine or if it arises from other distinctions between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. The concept of confounding introduces a pervasive bias when we compare groups that are not fundamentally similar. It represents a substantial challenge to drawing accurate causal conclusions from observational data. Consequently, the course's primary focus revolves around the essential task of mitigating confounding in epidemiological research using various techniques.

 

Course objectives: This course focus on models for confounding control (or adjustment), their application to epidemiologic data, and the assumptions required to endow the parameter estimates with a causal interpretation. The course introduces participants to a set of methods for confounding control with focus on survival analysis: methods that require measuring confounders and how this could be applied in perspective to the research question of interest. Specifically, the course introduces aspects of directed acyclic graphs, outcome regression, propensity score methods, and inverse-probability weighting of marginal structural models as means for confounding control, and how this can be implemented and analysed in standard statistical software.

 

Course format: Class lectures and hands-on workshop

Credits: 0,75 ECTS

Date: 12 December 2023

Time:  9:00-15:30

Place: Room 11.00.032, SUND building, Aalborg University, Selma Lagerløfs Vej 249

Zip code:  9260

City:  Gistrup

Number of seats: 25 

Organizer: Peter Brønnum Nielsen, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Department of Clinical Medicine, AAU

Lecturers: Søren Paaske Johnsen, Peter Brønnum Nielsen

Requirements: Basic training in epidemiology required (eg., the AAU course “Epidemiology – Basic principles” or similar). Basic statistics and basic programming abilities with Stata or R. All participants must bring a laptop with either Stata or R installed.

Deadline: 21 November 2023