Objectives of Programme's Learning Outcomes

• Understand, describe, analyse and prioritise biological phenomena
• Understand basic scientific knowledge and be able to use it
• Problem-solve
• Understand the expression of biological realities in absolute or relative terms, the orders of magnitude, proportions and probability
• Abstract, understand and apply mathematical translations of the main laws and biological phenomena
• Understand and use different graphical representations of numerical values and their relationships
• Develop reasoning skills
• Understand and apply the basic principles of reasoning (obtaining data, analysis, synthesis, comparison, the rule of three, syllogism, analogy, Boolean logic, etc.)
• Understand the statistical and/or epidemiological methods
• Manage doubt and uncertainty
• Manage their studies
• Read, interpret, and critique a scientific article

Learning Outcomes of UE

At the end of this course, students will be able to :
- Understand basic principles of statistical hypothesis tests
- Understand basic tools used to assess normality of a distribution
- Compare central tendencies of two or more than two groups
- Compare proportions, use statistical tests of significance and compute odds ratios and related tools
- Analyze the relationship between quantitative variables : tests for linear correlation, linear regression analysis
- Understand basic principles of diagnostic tools used in medicine, and principles of Bayesian reasoning

UE Content: description and pedagogical relevance

Basics of statistical hypothesis test : null and alternative hypothesis; unilateral and bilateral tests; power of a test : concept and uses in medicine; number of subjects to include in a trial : basics and practical applications
Tests assessing the normality of a distribution : Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests; uses and practical examples; graphical methods including QQ plots; data transformations
Comparisons of two means : uses in medicine; Z-test; Student t test; Fisher's test for comparison of two variances; Welch's test; Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests; tests in case of paired samples : paired t-test and Wilcoxon paired test
Comparisons of two proportions : uses in medicine ; relative risk and odds ratio; confidence interval of an odds ratio; contingency tables; chi2 tests and related tests (Yates correction, Mc Nemar); Fisher's exact test
Comparisons of more than two sample means : uses in medicine; one-way ANOVA : basics, ANOVA table; homoscedasticity, interpretation of the results of an ANOVA test; non parametric approaches (Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman)
Linear correlation in medicine : how to compute r and its confidence interval (Fisher's transformations); tests on r; test on the slope of the linear regression
Diagnostic tests and introduction to Bayesian reasoning

Prior Experience

Not applicable