Epi Info Public Health Outbreak Data Analysis Training Course

Course overview

Outbreak teams need defensible answers before case counts become public concern: who is affected, where transmission is occurring, which exposures are plausible, and whether control measures are working. This course prepares public health professionals to use Epi Info to turn line-list, surveillance and questionnaire data into timely epidemiological evidence. Participants work through the practical tasks that often delay investigations: cleaning inconsistent records, applying case definitions, calculating attack rates, comparing exposed and unexposed groups, and presenting findings clearly to incident leads and partner agencies.

The course covers the Epi Info 7 workflow from project setup through analysis and reporting. Participants design outbreak investigation forms, create validation rules and skip logic, import and reconcile data from Microsoft Excel, construct person-place-time summaries, generate epidemic curves and spot maps, and run descriptive and analytic epidemiology procedures. They practise frequency tables, stratified two-by-two analysis, risk ratios, odds ratios, confidence intervals, chi-square testing and matched-pair analysis. Attention is given to interpreting outputs in operational context rather than treating statistical significance as a decision on its own.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided work in Epi Info using a multi-source foodborne outbreak case study. Participants complete a structured investigation workbook and leave with an Epi Info project containing a validated case investigation form, cleaned line list, analysis tables, epidemic curve, map and concise outbreak findings briefing. The course is particularly valuable for staff who must produce analysis that can withstand review by epidemiologists, health protection leaders and external stakeholders.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure an Epi Info 7 project with investigation forms, coded fields, validation rules and skip patterns
• Import and reconcile outbreak line-list data from Microsoft Excel using documented cleaning and recoding steps
• Apply operational case definitions to classify suspected, probable and confirmed cases consistently
• Produce person-place-time summaries using frequency tables, epidemic curves, spot maps and cross-tabulations
• Calculate attack rates, risk ratios, odds ratios, confidence intervals and chi-square statistics in Epi Info Analysis
• Conduct stratified two-by-two analysis to assess confounding and compare exposure-specific risks
• Create an outbreak dashboard and briefing-ready tables, charts and maps from validated investigation data
• Document an auditable outbreak analysis workflow and communicate evidence-based control recommendations

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Public Health Analysts — who turn surveillance and investigation data into operational intelligence
• Field Epidemiologists — who need rapid descriptive and analytic evidence during outbreak response
• Health Protection Practitioners — who manage cases, contacts and control actions across incidents
• Infection Prevention and Control Specialists — who investigate healthcare-associated clusters and transmission patterns
• Environmental Health Officers — who assess food, water and environmental exposure data during incidents
• Surveillance Officers — who maintain line lists and produce routine or incident-specific epidemiological reports

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable using a Windows computer, working with spreadsheets and interpreting basic tables and percentages. They should understand the purpose of a line list, case definition, numerator and denominator, and common public health measures such as incidence or attack rate. Prior experience of outbreak response, surveillance, infection prevention or environmental health investigations is useful but not essential. No previous Epi Info programming, statistical software experience, advanced mathematics or coding is required. Participants who have never used Epi Info should expect a guided introduction before moving into form design, data management and analysis.

Training methodology

The course combines short instructor-led demonstrations with substantial supervised work in Epi Info 7. Each day uses an evolving outbreak scenario: participants receive imperfect line-list extracts, case definitions, exposure questionnaire data and location information, then make and document analysis decisions. Individual exercises build technical fluency in Form Designer, Enter, Analysis, Visual Dashboard and Epi Map; small-group reviews test interpretation and briefing language. On the final day, participants assemble their outputs into an outbreak findings pack and identify how the workflow will be adapted for their own service.

Course outline

Day 1: Epi Info foundations and outbreak data structures

• Epi Info 7 architecture: Form Designer, Enter, Analysis, Visual Dashboard and Epi Map
• Outbreak investigation workflow from notification to situation report
• Case definitions and classification of suspected, probable and confirmed cases
• Line-list data dictionaries, unique identifiers and minimum outbreak variables
• Designing an Epi Info project and organising forms, tables and code lists
• Building fields with legal values, required entries and range checks
• Creating conditional fields and skip logic for exposure questionnaires

Workshop: Participants build a validated case investigation form for a suspected foodborne outbreak and produce a field specification sheet.

Day 2: Data entry, import and quality assurance

• Entering records and managing related forms in Epi Info Enter
• Importing Microsoft Excel line lists and reviewing field-type conversions
• Standardising dates, categorical values, locations and free-text exposures
• Detecting duplicates using identifiers, demographics and onset-date comparisons
• Recoding variables and deriving age groups, onset intervals and exposure indicators
• Missing-data assessment and data-quality checks for outbreak analysis
• Maintaining a cleaning log and version-controlled analysis dataset

Workshop: Participants import a flawed line list, resolve specified quality issues and produce a documented cleaned analysis file.

Day 3: Descriptive epidemiology and visualisation

• Frequency tables and descriptive summaries in Epi Info Analysis
• Person analysis by age, sex, occupation, setting and clinical outcome
• Place analysis using geographic fields, facility locations and attack-rate denominators
• Time analysis using date of onset, symptom duration and exposure windows
• Constructing and interpreting epidemic curves with appropriate time intervals
• Calculating crude attack rates and subgroup-specific attack rates
• Creating tables, charts and interactive outputs in Visual Dashboard

Workshop: Participants produce a person-place-time situation summary, epidemic curve and dashboard for the simulated outbreak.

Day 4: Analytic epidemiology and exposure assessment

• Choosing cohort, case-control and matched-pair approaches for an outbreak question
• Creating exposure variables from questionnaire responses and food histories
• Two-by-two tables, risks, risk ratios and risk differences
• Odds ratios, confidence intervals and interpretation of association estimates
• Chi-square and Fisher exact testing for sparse outbreak data
• Stratified analysis and Mantel-Haenszel adjustment for confounding
• Interpreting statistical findings alongside plausibility, bias and environmental evidence

Workshop: Participants analyse a food-exposure dataset, identify the leading hypothesis and prepare an evidence table for an incident meeting.

Day 5: Mapping, reporting and operational application

• Preparing location data for Epi Map and checking geographic data quality
• Creating spot maps, area summaries and map legends for outbreak briefings
• Combining epidemiological, laboratory and environmental evidence
• Drafting concise findings, limitations and control recommendations
• Creating reproducible command files and saving analysis outputs
• Confidentiality, disclosure control and secure handling of identifiable health data
• Adapting Epi Info templates for local surveillance and incident response procedures

Workshop: Participants complete an outbreak findings pack containing a map, analysis outputs, recommendations and a local implementation plan.

Tools & standards covered

Epi Info 7, Microsoft Excel, QGIS, CDC case definitions

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions