Course Measuring socioeconomic position in epidemiological and clinical research

The course C336/01 Measuring socioeconomic position in epidemiological and clinical research is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

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

Requirements for participation: There are no prerequisite courses, but participants will require a basic understanding of epidemiology (bachelor level).

Aim: The course aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to measure and analyze socioeconomic differences in clinical epidemiological research using the Danish registries. Through a combination of lectures and group work, students will gain practical guidance on designing, implementing, analyzing, and interpreting studies involving socioeconomic position data from these registries. The course is non-examinable, focusing on active learning and application.

Learning outcomes: 

By the end of the course, students will be able to: 

• Demonstrate a broad understanding of social epidemiology, including key concepts and frameworks relevant to socioeconomic differences in health, diseases and disease outcomes. 
• Identify and evaluate data sources and variables from the Danish registries, recognizing their strengths, limitations, and potential pitfalls in measuring socioeconomic position. 
• Design a clinical epidemiologic research study addressing a specific research question, utilizing data from the Danish registries. This includes:
  • Selection of appropriate data sources and variables. 
  • Outlining data cleaning processes and analytical strategies. 
• Apply and interpret measures of social inequality/socioeconomic differences, including total and direct associations, in the context of clinical epidemiological studies. 
• Identify and assess potential sources of bias and error. 
• Critically evaluate study findings, ensuring appropriate interpretation, reporting, and contextualization of results. 

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 23 hours

Content: Teaching consists of six 3-hour sessions, each with 2 hour lectures and 1 hour workshops.

Instructors: PhD Cathrine F. Hjorth (course leader), PhD Maja Halgren Olsen, PhD Thora Kjærulf, PhD Linda Ejlskov, PhD  Mette Kielsholm Thomsen

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 November 2025 09:00 - 15:30
• 12 November 2025 09:00 - 15:30
• 13 November 2025 09:00 - 15:30