A New Era of Scientific Discoveries: What Are Your Ambitions?

Confounding and effect modification one more time

Anders-Ahlbom

Thursday September 1, 2011, 16.00 – 17.00 hrs

Anders Ahlbom
Professor of Environmental Medicine
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Confounding and effect modification are basic concepts to epidemiologists and are on one level easy to grasp. Yet, they have created confusion and occasionally heated debate for decades. From some perspectives they have rather little in common but on the other hand they are both addressed by multivariable modeling and thus appear in tandem in many analyses. On top of this is the sometimes also heated discussion of biological interaction versus statistical interaction. The purpose of this lecture is to provide a historical perspective to the seemingly never ending discussion about these fundamental concepts and also to provide as clear as possible an explanation of what confounding and effect modification and some related concepts actually are. While the talk will be mainly on concepts and ideas there will be some discussion about methodological approaches as well.

Dr. Carlos Hormaza
Dr. Carlos Hormaza about the

Master’s Course in public health

Dr. Carlos Alberto Sanchez Hormaza is a pediatrician from Colombia. He is taking a Master’s course in public health from the EuroPubHealth organization.

“I came to Rotterdam because I concluded that this program was of high quality, featuring world-recognized teachers. And now I find it’s absolutely perfect and that I made the right choice.

These courses provide me with tools that are very useful for my future career as a researcher. Besides, the international context is ideal to exchange ideas with people from all over the world, and I was happy to find so many fellow-Colombians here.”

Jamiu Aderonmu
Jamiu Aderonmu about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

Jamiu Aderonmu from the USA is an analyst, working in healthcare administration in Florida, a state-run program helping people get subsidized for medication prescriptions.

“I would like to move to the public health sector and that’s why I came to the NIHES summer programme; I think that’s a great start to head in that direction. I’m actually going to taketwo exams, because I’m considering taking the master in Public Health in the next winter and summer programmes. I like the courses, they’re challenging and they got me thinking.

I took the courses on data analysis, meta-analysis and this week I’m taking health economics. I like the way they were put together. It was tough because you have just one week to learn all this information. All the material is a good reference for the future.”

Petra Righetti
Petra Righetti about the course

Demography of ageing

Petra Righetti is with UNFPA’s Asian-Pacific regional office in Bangkok and is taking the Demography of Ageing course.

“Ageing is becoming a problem for our area, also of social issues such as the labour market. They need information from other countries to envisage what is going to happen in 15 or 20 years.

I opted for this course because it offers a combination of how to analyze data related to demographic changes and what it entails for policy-making. We need this to provide research analyses and make recommendations on what a country should be doing on a certain topic, and ageing falls under our mandate.

The course is relatively short and compact; I have no time for longer courses. I’m only in my second day, but so far the professor is very good.”

Rosa Gini
Rosa Gini about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

Rosa Gini from the Regional Agency for Public Health of Tuscany, Italy, is a PhD-student at the Erasmus MC department of medical informatics.

“I’m a mathematician and did a master’s in data mining. I’m taking courses for the full three weeks. The programme is dense, but very satisfactory. I learned a lot already, both from a methodological point of view and content-wise, especially the Causal Inference course. This is a great opportunity: exposure to such an amount of information in a short time. I also like the international environment and made new friends.”

Izabel de Souza
Izabel de Souza about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

Izabel de Souza is one of the Brazilian research-training Fellows. She is a PhD-student at the University of São Paulo and works with the City Health Department.

“I think this is an enriching experience. The teachers are really good. Even if you already know about a subject, you learn other ways of looking at things. Also we get to meet people from many countries, so we can discuss public health from different perspectives.”

Lam Phung
Lam Phung about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

One of this year’s research-training Fellows, medical doctor Lam Phung from Vietnam is a PhD-student at the Oxford University, but based in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I need knowledge to develop a Dengue prognostic model and am especially interested in clinical decision analysis. I really enjoy the courses. The contents are very useful for my study and the teachers are very interesting and professional. I’m glad my supervisor advised me to come here.”

Steffen Pauws
Steffen Pauws about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

Computer scientist Steffen Pauws from the Philips Healthcare research division is involved in formalizing medical guidelines for cardiologists.

“I’m here to learn how clinical decisions are made. I really enjoy it; I missed the opportunity when I was young. Biomedical engineers could learn from it, too. I’ll come back for the Winter Programme of course!”

Fufa Tori
Fufa Tori about the

NIHES research master programme

Fufa Tori, MD, from Ethiopia, is enrolled in the NIHES research master programme.

“I’m learning a lot about meta-analysis, the course provides a nice sort of summary. It’s interesting, I like it, and I would surely recommend it to research-minded colleagues.”

Mehrdad Talebian Yazdi
Mehrdad Talebian Yazdi about the course

Topics in Meta-analysis

Medical doctor Mehrdad Talebian Yazdi is of dual Netherlands/Iranian nationality and is taking the Topics in Meta-analysis course.

“Very useful for my PhD-study and it’s well taught in a structured manner covering all aspects. Good handouts for that matter. Theory is nicely combined with practical exercises.”

Maria Carolina Medina Gómez
Maria Carolina Medina Gómez about the

Erasmus Summer Programme

ERACOL exchange student Maria Carolina Medina Gómez from the Università de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, is preparing her PhD-thesis at Erasmus MC.

“I’m working on genetic epidemiology and this programme is compulsory for us. It’s quite hard, but the quality is very high. I’d like to take home the statistical knowledge that we’re lacking there.”