THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTH SCIENCES

SYLLABUS FOR CHS 685: DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS

Instructor: Amal Mitra, M.D., M.P.H., Dr.P.H.

Professor

Department of Community Health Sciences

108 31st Ave North

Phone: 266-5705; E-mail: amal.mitra@usm.edu

Time and Place: Thursday; Nursing Computer Lab, 3:50 - 6:25 pm.

Required Text:

Brian C. Cronk. (Editor). How to Use SPSS: A Step-by-Step Guide to Analysis and Interpretation. 3rd edition. Pyrczak Publishing, Glendale, CA. 2004.

Objectives: At the end of this course, the students are expected to:

1. Apply statistical and epidemiologic knowledge to design a research proposal

2. Use SPSS for data management, data analysis and interpretation

Materials: A statistical program, called SPSS will be used for all statistical purposes. A scientific calculator will compliment the data analysis.

ADA policy: If a student has a disability that qualifies under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and requires accommodations, he/she should contact the Office for Disability Accommodations (ODA) for information on appropriate policies and procedures.  Disabilities covered by ADA may include learning, psychiatric, physical disabilities, or chronic health disorders. Students can contact ODA if they are not certain whether a medical condition/ disability qualifies. Box 8586; Telephone (601) 266-5024; TTY (601) 266-6837; Fax (601) 266-6035

Cellular phone/pager: Please turn them off in the class.

Grading policy:

95 - 100% points : A

90 – 94% points : A -

87 - 89% points : B +

84 – 86% points : B

80 – 83% points : B –

77 – 79% points : C +

74 – 76% points : C

70 – 73% points : C -

64 - 69% points : D +

60 – 63% points : D -

Below 60% : F

Your final grade will be determined by your performance in the following areas:

Tests on data analysis

and interpretation (4) 40 points

Research proposal (10 pages

excluding references) 20 points

Questionnaire development 10 points

Data management: creating variables,

data entry, data editing 10 points

IRB certification 10 points

Class participation 10 points

Total: 100 points

Exams:

Tests: Mainly interpretation of the statistical analysis and short answers. You may need a calculator. There will be no makeup exams given. If you miss an exam for an inexcusable reason, you will receive no credits for that exam. If you have prior knowledge of a schedule conflict regarding an exam, please make arrangements to take it early with valid documents.

Assignments: Deadlines for the assignments will be honored. If you turn in an assignment in late without an excusable reason, 2 points will be deducted for each day being late.

Research Proposal: Your proposal need to be approved by the instructor. It includes the following sections:

1. Introduction: Public health importance of your topic. Previous information related to this topic. Any controversies, unsolved questions, or future directions. Aim of the project. Hypothesis if any. Use appropriate references in the text.

2. Methods and Materials: Population, site of the study, and study design. Selection criteria. Exclusion criteria. Methods of interventions (if any). Clinical/laboratory/community based procedures. Monitoring. Variable of interest. Any confounders. Sample size estimation. Statistical methods.

3. Data analysis plan: Show dummy tables and figures and rationale for the analysis.

4. Reference (in APA or Vancouver style).

Questionnaire Development: You will develop a questionnaire based on your research questions. The minimum length of variables is 20.

IRB certification: Complete a computer-based training module offered by NIH.  The web site is:  http://ohsr.od.nih.gov   Click on "Computer-Based Training" then "IRB Member" (although you are not a member) and register.  The module takes about an hour to complete.  You may exit the module at any time and reenter at your convenience.  Upon completion you may print out a "Certificate of Completion".  Please bring me a copy of your certificate, you get 10 points. 

A tentative schedule

WEEK / DAY TOPIC

1 Jan 13 Basic statistics

2 Jan 20 Research proposal writing

3 Jan 27 Sampling techniques

4 Feb 3 Sample size estimation. Test 1

5 Feb 10 Collecting and Managing Data

6 Feb 17 SPSS session 1: Defining variables; Entering new data; Editing data; Editing variables; Data cleaning

7 Feb 24 SPSS session 2: How to write a SPSS program for data analysis; How to analyze data without writing SPSS programs

8 Mar 3 SPSS session 3: Data analysis and interpretation: Frequency distribution. Measures of central tendency and dispersion. Test 2

9 Mar 10 SPSS session 4: Data analysis and interpretation: Comparing two independent sample means using Student’s t-test

*** Enjoy Spring Holidays***

10 Mar 24 SPSS session 5: Data analysis and interpretation: Comparing two dependent sample means using paired t-test. Research proposal due

11 Apr 7 SPSS session 6: Data analysis and interpretation: Comparing multiple sample means using ANOVA; Post-Hoc tests. Test 3

12 Apr 14 SPSS session 7: Data analysis and interpretation: Examine percent distribution of categorical variables; Chi-square test for categorical variables

13 Apr 21 SPSS session 8: Data analysis and interpretation: Correlation between variables

14 Apr 28 SPSS session 9: Data analysis and interpretation: Multiple regression analysis to predict a variable. Test 4

15 May 5 SPSS session 10: Data analysis and interpretation: Non-parametric tests. Questionnaire due