In Module 2, you will learn about how outbreak investigators use the available information to generate hypotheses. You will learn about how this data is collected and how the data is analysed to focus the scope of the investigation, as well as the tools used during the hypothesis generation stage.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this module, learners should be able to:

• Describe the purpose and high level process of a food safety investigation,
• Create case definitions for an outbreak investigation,
• List the type of information that should be included in a Public Health Alert,
• Describe routine methods for generating hypotheses,
• List the types of information collected in hypothesis-generating questionnaires,
• Interview cases with a hypothesis-generating questionnaire using proper interviewing techniques,
• Understand how published food frequency patterns can be used to guide hypothesis generation,
• Analyze data from hypothesis-generating questionnaires by comparing them to expected food frequency patterns, and
• Perform descriptive analyses and summarize relevant available information in an epidemiological summary.

Module 2 sections:

• Food safety investigations
• Case definitions
• Case finding
• Hypothesis generation
• Hypothesis generating questionnaires
• Exercise 1: Conducting a hypothesis-generating case interview
• Exercise 2: Food frequency analysis in Excel
• Interpretation of hypothesis generation results
• Exercise 3: Updated epi summary
• Conclusion

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