Pre-Conference Spatial Statistics Workshop

Bayesian Methods in Spatial Epidemiology using GeoBUGS

Monday 22 May - all day / Tuesday 23 May - morning

This course is designed to be of interest to researchers in areas such as biostatistics, epidemiology, medical geography and environmental science, together with public health specialists, regulators and other health-care professionals with an interest in understanding and applying advanced quantitative methods. There is a large practical component to this course with time for hands-on data analysis. The course assumes a good grasp of basic statistics, including linear and generalised linear regression analysis, but no prior experience of Bayesian methods is assumed

Summary of course content:

• Bayesian approaches to hierarchical models and disease mapping
• Introduction to MCMC and Bayesian computation
• Hierarchical spatial models with spatially dependent random effects
• Ecological regression
• Space-time models
• Hands-on analysis of geo-referenced disease and exposure data using the WinBUGS/GeoBUGS software.

Course Instructors:

Prof Sylvia Richardson, Prof Nicky Best and Dr Juanjo Abellan, Imperial College London

Background reading:

Spatial Epidemiology: Methods and Applications. Elliott, Wakefield, Best and Briggs (eds). 2000. OUP.

Disease mapping with WinBUGS and MLwiN. Lawson, Browne and Vidal Rodeiro. 2003. Wiley.

Computer Practicals:

All participants are asked to bring a laptop with them for the practical sessions. The WinBUGS software can be downloaded for free from http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs