Course Which covariates to adjust for: An introduction to causal directed acyclic graphs

The course P237/09 Which covariates to adjust for: An introduction to causal directed acyclic graphs is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2024.

Criteria for participation: Adjust the following if necessary. University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Aim: The course aims to provide participants with an introduction to the use of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) as a tool to control for confounding and other sources of bias. Moreover, the course will include a simple method to reason about the directions of potential biases. After the course, participants will be able to use DAGs as a practical tool in their own research.

Learning outcomes: 

• To understand the basic anatomy of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)
• To draw and apply DAGs for selection of covariates to account for confounding
• To draw and apply DAGs to illustrate potential selection bias
• To draw and apply DAGs to illustrate potential information bias
• To draw and apply signed DAGs to estimate the potential direction of bias in a research projec

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 26 hours

Content: A comprehensive introduction to DAGs will be provided along with the opportunity for participants to work with DAGs in relation to their own studies.

Instructors: Niels Bjerregård Matthiesen, Chunsen Wu, Cathrine Carlsen Bach.

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus.

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 11 March 2024 08:30 - 15:00
• 18 March 2024 08:30 - 15:15
• 19 March 2024 08:30 - 15:45