Population Science

1. Introduction to Population Science

• Define population science, social science and public health
• Understand how they relate to healthcare
• Be able to interpret population graphs
• Be able to make inferences about the population demographics (the age, sex and ethnic make-up of a population) from them

2. Describing Data and Testing Hypotheses

• Match variable types to summaries and distributions, then interpret uncertainty, errors, power (the chance that a study detects a real effect), test choice and diagnostic performance (how well a test picks out people who do and do not have a disease). These skills let you judge whether a study result is trustworthy.

3. Epidemiological Studies

• Define the types of Epidemiological Studies and the flaws of each type
• Be able to calculate Confidence Intervals (the range in which the true value probably lies) and Error Factors (the factor by which a ratio or rate is multiplied and divided to give its confidence interval)
• Be able to work out whether a result is statistically significant (unlikely to be due to chance alone)

• Understand the definition of health and chronic disease
• Understand the possible causes of links between health and deprivation (a lack of the money and resources needed for a decent standard of living)
• Understand the two models of health: biological and biopsychosocial (combining biological, psychological and social factors)
• Understand the inequalities across Britain with regards to health and well-being
• Understand why people perform health behaviours, through conditioning (learning a behaviour through association or reward) and the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour) model
• Understand how the different models of behaviour shape the treatment of substance misuse (the harmful use of drugs or alcohol)

• Understand the effect of disability on a person’s life
• Define lay beliefs (what non-medical people believe about health and illness) and understand how these can influence health behaviours
• Understand the reasons for treatment adherence (how closely a patient follows an agreed treatment plan)
• Be able to describe the levels of health prevention and, using screening programmes as an example, explain the related key terms and how screening programmes are evaluated

• Understand the reasoning behind prioritisation in healthcare
• Be able to work out cost per QALY (quality-adjusted life year, a measure that combines length and quality of life)
• Understand the differences between implicit reasoning (decisions made without stated criteria) and explicit reasoning (decisions made using stated criteria), and evaluate both
• Be able to use the four types of economic analysis (cost-minimisation, cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analysis) and be able to choose the one that fits the question being asked

• Understand why evidence is needed in medicine, and the difficulties of getting it into practice.
• Understand what a systematic review is (a structured search for, and summary of, all the studies on a question), and the criticisms of it.
• Understand what a meta-analysis is (a statistical method that pools the results of several studies into one estimate), and the criticisms of it.
• Understand a forest plot (a graph showing each study's result and the pooled result).
• Understand the fixed effect and random effects models (the first assumes that all studies share one true effect, the second that the true effect differs between studies).
• Describe common issues with variation between study results (heterogeneity) and how they can be dealt with.
• Describe and explain publication bias (studies with positive results are more likely to be published) using funnel plots (graphs used to spot missing studies).

• Understand the use of PROMs (patient-reported outcome measures: questionnaires in which patients report on their own health) and be able to evaluate a PROM.
• List some of the ways that the NHS has changed recently to improve patient quality and safety.
• Define an adverse event (harm caused by medical management rather than by the underlying disease).
• Describe types of human error, and the systems and policies the NHS has introduced to reduce it.
• Understand the James Reason Framework of Error, the Swiss Cheese Model (errors happen when holes in several layers of defence line up) and the differences between latent failures (hidden flaws in the system) and active failures (errors made by front-line staff).
• Understand the differences between first order (fixing the immediate problem) and second order (fixing its underlying cause) problem solving.
• Describe the toolbox of techniques used in root cause analysis (finding the underlying reason an incident happened).
• Describe the difficulties faced when needing to speak up (to raise concerns about patient safety), and the ways in which the NHS has tried to make this easier.

• A succinct summary of the core concepts, knowledge bites, terms and definitions required to accurately understand Population and Social Science.