Aim and content

This is a generic course. This means that the course is reserved for PhD students at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH.

Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at the Graduate School, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to the waiting list.

The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD students at NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.

Learning objectives

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

• Obtain knowledge of Danish national health and socioeconomic registers.
• Design a study using Danish register data.
• Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of register data and study designs.
• Manage register data effectively.
• Conduct statistical analyses for cohort and matched case-control studies using R.

At the end of the course, students should be able to

Knowledge
• Explain the content and structure of data in selected Danish health registers.
• Describe the use of register data in cohort and matched case-control studies.
• Identify different disease classification systems used in Danish registers.
• Assess the strengths and limitations of register data and study designs.

Skills
• Manage register data efficiently using R.
• Perform statistical analyses of register data using R packages and pipelines.
• Examine epidemiological measures.
• Interpret and understand the results of statistical analyses in R.
• Evaluate the strengths and limitations of epidemiological studies.

Competencies
• Explain how register data can be used in epidemiological studies.
• Apply register data in descriptive and analytical epidemiology.
• Determine under which circumstances data can be used to inform the public.
• Analyze registry data and implement effective data management.
• Interpret and communicate findings from Danish register-based epidemiological studies published in peer-reviewed journals.

Content

Participants will be introduced to various Danish health and socioeconomic registers and their applications in epidemiological studies, with hands-on training in R (download R here). Students can use either their own data or sample datasets provided in the course.

Topics include:

• Register data and register-based epidemiological studies
• Good data management
• Statistical analysis using R packages and pipelines
• Register-based epidemiological study designs
• Design and analysis of studies using register data, including cohort and matched case-control studies

This is a three-week course structured as follows:
• Week 1 (September 8–12, 2025): Lectures, seminars, journal club, and exercises using examples from Danish registers.
• Weeks 2 & 3 (September 15–25, 2025): Independent project work and preparation of presentations.
• September 26, 2025: Mini-conference where participants present their projects and receive feedback from peers and instructors.

Participants

This course is designed for PhD students and researchers. Participants should have a basic understanding of statistics and epidemiology (equivalent to a bachelor’s level). Support for exercises and coding in R will be provided during the course and at the Coding Café sessions.

Relevance to graduate programmes

The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:

All graduate programmes

Language

English

Form

Lectures, journal club, group exercises, group discussion, and individual presentation

Course director

Youn-Hee Lim, Associate Professor, Section of Environmental Health, Department of Public Health, younhee.lim@sund.ku.dk

Teachers

Katrine Strandberg-Larsen, Professor, Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health

Stephane Tuffier, PhD Student, Section of Environmental Health, Department of Public Health

Dates

8 – 26 September 2025

5-day lectures/exercises: 8 – 12 September 2025 (mandatory participation)
2-week preparation: 15 – 25 September 2025
1-day mini-conference: 26 September 2025 (mandatory participation)

Course location

CSS (TBA)

Registration

Please register before 8 August 2025

Expected frequency

Every year.

Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.

Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.

Disclaimer:
DDSA has explicit permission from Arcanic and the owners of the https://phdcourses.dk/ website to display the courses on ddsa.dk.