Content
There are mainly two approaches to statistics, frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Although most health research and education utilizes frequentist methods, Bayesian methods have become more common during the last few years, especially in areas related to bioinformatics (machine learning and similar approaches) and in psychology.
The main difference is that frequentist methods only take into account existing evidence in planning and interpretation of studies, while preexisting evidence directly influences the analyses when applying Bayesian methods. This can especially be relevant in cases, where evidence from different sources has to be aggregated, because it is infeasible to conduct large systematically conducted studies, either for practical reasons (e.g. rare diseases or life style exposures) or ethical reasons (e.g. some types vaccine research).
This course will introduce the basic concepts of Bayesian statistics as applied in health research. We will read and discuss research papers applying Bayesian approaches as well as apply Bayesian methods on data sets using the statistical software package Stata and compare results obtained from Bayesian and frequentist approaches. Moreover, we will discuss important aspects of planning, execution and interpretation of studies utilizing Bayesian methods.
All days from 1 pm to 4 pm
Language
The course will be taught in English if any non Danish speaking students participate and otherwise in Danish (but with most/all materials in English).
Expected learning outcomes
Basic understanding of the concepts behind Bayesian statistics, the skill to read and interpreted papers sing Bayesian methods in health research, the skill to carry out simple Bayesian statistical analyses in Stata.
Course fee
The course is free of charge for PhD Students enrolled in Universities that have joined the "Open market agreement".
For other participants there is a course fee of
DKK 5.100
EUR 685