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

ECTS: 2

Course leader: Cathrine Carlsen Bach

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Health

Graduate program: PH

Course fee: 2,400.00 DKK

Status: Course is finished

Semester: Spring 2022

Application deadline: 14/02/2022

Cancellation deadline: 28/02/2022

Course type: Classroom teaching

Start date: 14/03/2022

Administrator: Johanne Gregor Nielsen

The course P237/07 Which covariates to adjust for: An introduction to causal directed acyclic graphs is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, spring 2022.

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).

Basic knowledge of confounding, selection bias, and information bias is beneficial but not a prerequisite. The course is addressed at both clinical and epidemiological researchers.

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

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.

Preparation: Day 1: The participants are expected to read the lecture notes “A short introduction to the use of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) in Epidemiology”. Day 2: We ask the participants to prepare a DAG related to their own research project. Optional: A list of supplementary literature will be provided.

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

Venue: Kollokvierum Øst (1268-218) The Victor Albeck Building, Vennelyst Boulevard 4, 8000 Aarhus C

Participation in the course is without cost for:

  • PhD students, Research Year students and Research Honours Programme 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:

  • 14 March 2022 09:00 - 15:15
  • 21 March 2022 09:00 - 15:45
  • 22 March 2022 08:30 - 15:45