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

ECTS: 2.6

Course leader: Cathrine Carlsen Bach

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Health

Graduate program: PH

Course fee: 3,120.00 DKK

Status: Course is open for application

Semester: Spring 2025

Application deadline: 17/02/2025

Cancellation deadline: 03/03/2025

Course type: Classroom teaching

Start date: 17/03/2025

Administrator: Johanne Gregor Højgaard

The course P237 Which covariates to adjust for: An introduction to causal directed acyclic graphs is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: 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 project

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. Please note that this course  focuses on quantitative research within the medical field.

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

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus (other)

Participation in the course is without cost for:

Course dates:

  • 17 March 2025 08:30 - 15:00
  • 24 March 2025 08:30 - 15:15
  • 25 March 2025 08:30 - 15:45