Table of Contents

  1. Welcome
    1. Organization of topics
    2. Navigation and uses of the website
    3. Outline
  2. Introduction: Epidemiology in crises
    1. Different types of crises
    2. What about relief interventions?
    3. Why is epidemiology useful?
    4. Limitations of epidemiology
    5. Want to read more?
  3. Ethical issues in data collection
    1. Introduction
    2. Ethical issues in data collection - Community approval
    3. Ethical issues in data collection - Bureaucratic approval
    4. Security
  4. Need for epidemiologic competence
    1. Qualifications of an epidemiologist
    2. Where to find epidemiologists
  5. Surveys - Introduction
    1. What is a survey?
    2. Types of outcomes and indicators measured in a survey
    3. Reasons to do a survey
    4. Questions to ask before beginning or commissioning a survey
    5. Alternatives to conducting new surveys
    6. Limitations of surveys
    7. Valid questions to answer
    8. Formulation of goals and objectives
  6. Surveys - Description of sampling methods
    1. Sampling unit
    2. What is sampling?
    3. Why do sampling?
    4. Goal of sampling
    5. Simple random sampling
    6. Systematic random sampling
    7. Choosing between simple and systematic sampling - Quiz
    8. Cluster sampling
    9. Sampling - Additional resources
  7. Surveys - Sampling error, bias, accuracy, precision, & sample size
    1. Bias and sampling error
    2. Bias and sampling error 2
    3. Bias
    4. Measurement bias
    5. Sampling bias
    6. Sampling error
    7. Bias and sampling error - Quiz
    8. Confidence intervals
    9. Confidence intervals - Quiz
    10. Accuracy and precision - theory
    11. Sample size
  8. Surveys - Resources required for surveys
    1. Personnel
    2. Supplies and equipment
  9. Surveys - Critiquing survey reports
    1. Introduction
    2. Objectives
    3. Justification for survey
    4. General procedures
    5. Outcomes and risk factors
    6. Sample size
    7. Sampling method
    8. Data analysis
    9. Data analysis
    10. Discussion
    11. Conclusions
    12. Recommendations
  10. Surveillance - When to do surveillance
    1. What is surveillance?
    2. Why do surveillance?
    3. Steps in carrying out surveillance
  11. Surveillance - Methods
    1. Comparison with other data collection methods
    2. Morbidity surveillance
    3. Mortality surveillance
    4. Types of surveillance
    5. Case definitions
    6. Data flow
  12. Surveillance - Common problems
    1. Inherent problems
    2. Incomplete reporting
    3. Biases from the health system
    4. Changes in the surveillance system
    5. Denominator problems
    6. Assessing quality of data
  13. Programme data
    1. Examples
    2. Limitations
  14. Rapid assessment
    1. Definition and goals
    2. Methods
    3. Questions answered by rapid assessment
    4. Guidelines and manuals
    5. Problems and difficulties
  15. Mortality - Indicators and their measurement
    1. Why measure mortality
    2. Parts of mortality rate
    3. Formats for mortality rate
    4. Types of mortality rates
    5. Mortality rates for children
    6. Number of excess deaths
    7. Measurement of causes of death in surveys
  16. Mortality - Data sources
    1. Introduction
    2. Surveillance - Prospective death reporting
    3. Surveys (retrospective data collection)
    4. Recall period
    5. Determining the length of the recall period
    6. Data collection and the questionnaire
    7. Surveys - Quiz
    8. Surveys measuring mortality - Summary
  17. Mortality - Interpretation and action
    1. Existing recommendations
    2. Judging the quality of survey estimates of mortality
  18. Nutrition - Introduction and background
    1. Types of malnutrition
    2. Kwashiorkor and marasmus
    3. Malnutrition in adults
    4. Micronutrient deficiencies
  19. Nutrition - Indicators and their measurement
    1. Introduction to anthropometry
    2. Anthropometric indices
    3. Reference populations
    4. Calculation of percent of median
    5. Oedema
    6. Calculation of z-scores
    7. Adults and body mass index (BMI)
    8. Micronutrients - Clinical indicators
    9. Micronutrients - Biochemical indicators
    10. Calculating prevalence
  20. Nutrition - Data sources
    1. Surveillance
    2. Surveys
    3. Other data sources necessary to explain causes of malnutrion
  21. Nutrition - Interpretation and action
    1. Factors in interpreting data on acute protein-energy malnutrition
    2. Prevalence of acute protein-energy malnutrition
    3. Trends over time
    4. Underlying causes
    5. Malnutrition and mortality
    6. Interventions for acute PEM
    7. Interpreting results of micronutrient assessment
    8. Interventions for micronutrient deficiencies
  22. Health services
    1. Health service indicators
    2. Health service utilization
    3. Effectiveness of health services
    4. Delay in seeking health care
    5. Overall evaluation of health services
  23. Vaccination programmes
    1. Vaccination - Introduction
    2. Vaccination - Indicators
    3. Vaccine coverage
    4. Administrative estimate of vaccine coverage
    5. Survey estimate of vaccine coverage
    6. Comparison of administrative and survey estimates
    7. Surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases
  24. Water supply, sanitation, and shelter
    1. Introduction
    2. Water supply, sanitation, and shelter - Indicators
    3. Water supply indicators
    4. Sanitation indicators
    5. Shelter indicators
  25. Violence
    1. Violence in general
    2. Gender-based violence
  26. Presentation of results
    1. Mortality indicators
    2. Morbidity indicators
    3. Nutrition indicators
    4. Vaccination indicators
    5. Other indicators
  27. Formulating conclusions and recommendations
    1. Over-interpreting results
    2. Extrapolating results to other populations
    3. Knowing background information
    4. Interpreting in context
    5. Targeting recommendations
  28. Dissemination and action