In this module, we dive deeper into what lies at the heart of epidemiology: data! More specifically, we will look at routine and public health data systems.

In this module we will use data from routine and public health information systems to measure the burden of disease in the population. We will calculate crude mortality rates, and then apply direct and indirect age standardization methods.

In this module, we'll discuss health indicators, which are important measurements of the health of a population. There are numerous health indicators that help us paint the picture of a populations health. We'll talk about characteristics of good health indicators to provide a little guidance on how to choose health indicators for the public health problem of interest. Then, we'll use the example of the health indicator of liver cancer incidence to explore descriptive epidemiology. We will stratify liver cancer incidence by person, place, and time, to build our skills in descriptive epidemiology.