Data Interpretation for Public Health Professionals

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The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice modules are accessed through a secure learning environment called PH LearnLink, which allows you to keep track of your learning experiences as you take our modules.

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Idaho participants should register and take the module through the Idaho Preparedness Learning Management System.

Description

Do you find the thought of interpreting public health data intimidating? This narrated, one-hour module introduces the terms used to describe the public's health and provides a basic competency in reading and presenting data. If you've ever looked at terms such as confidence interval or p-value and wondered what they meant, this module is for you.

Objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• List at least three common data sources used to characterize health or disease status of a community.
• Define and interpret basic epidemiology measures, such as prevalence, incidence, mortality, and case fatality.
• Define and interpret basic biostatistical measures, such as mean, median, confidence interval, and p-value.
• Read and interpret tables and graphs.
• Determine the appropriate format for data presentation.