This 2-day course will take place online and consist of approximately 15 hours of teaching (including a mixture of live and pre-recorded lectures and live practical sessions).

Registration will start at 9:30am on the first day and the course will finish by 4.00pm on the final day.

By the end of the course participants should be able to:

1. understand when and why repeated measures data require appropriate analysis;
2. understand and be able to use various approaches to model linear and nonlinear trajectories of continuous outcomes, with specific focus on regression splines (for nonlinear trajectories);
3. check the fit of models for continuous outcomes; and
4. have a basic understanding of other approaches for nonlinear trajectory modelling: penalised regression splines, Superimposition by Translation And Rotation (SITAR), and latent trajectory models.

This course is intended for researchers who are, or will be, involved in analysing longitudinal data.

This course will cover:

1. background: Why to collect, and how to analyse longitudinal data?;
2. an overview of mixed-effects modelling approach;
3. simple linear growth model for continuous outcomes;
4. regression spline models for nonlinear trajectories in continuous outcomes; and
5. penalised regression splines, SITAR, and latent trajectory models.

All teaching staff and tutors have extensive experience in performing analysis of repeated measures.

To make sure the course is suitable for you and you will benefit from attending, please ensure you meet the following prerequisites before booking:

Before booking this course, please make sure you read the information provided above about the target audience and prerequisites. It is important that you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites to ensure you can get the most from the course.

Bookings are taken via our online booking system, for which you must register an account. To check if you are eligible for free or discounted courses please see our fees and voucher packs page. All bookings are subject to our terms & conditions, which can be read in full here.

For help and support with booking a course refer to our booking information page, FAQs or feel free to contact us directly. For available payment options please see: How to pay your short course fees.

Participants are granted access to our virtual learning platform (Blackboard) 1 to 2 weeks in advance of the course. This allows time for any pre-course work to be completed and to familiarise with the platform.

To gain the most from the course, we recommend that you attend in full and participate in all interactive components. We endeavour to record all live lecture sessions and upload these to the online learning environment within 24 hours. This allows course participants to review these sessions at leisure and revisit them multiple times. Please note that we do not record breakout sessions.

All course participants retain access to the online learning materials and recordings for 3 months after the course. 

University of Bristol staff and postgraduate students who do not wish to attend the full course may instead register for access to the 'Materials & Recordings' version of this course: Further information and bookings.

90% of attendees recommend this course*.
*Attendee feedback from 2024.

Here is a sample of feedback from the last run of the course:

"Really knowledgeable course tutors, good explanations. Good overview with support for more complex questions. Good support for both R and Stata" - Course feedback, May 2024

"I thought all the tutors were fantastic and the content covered is exactly the kind of stuff I've been confused about for years" - Course feedback, May 2024

"I think the course was well structured with a good mixture of lectures, lecturers and practicals at appropriate time points to retain interest. Also in respect to the ordering of lectures; how one built on the former lecture and gradually gained complexity, this worked well for me. Good to have several ways to ask questions for those who feel less confident to speak out" - Course feedback, May 2024

"Clear oversight of different approaches, their advantages and disadvantages, and scenarios for their use. Good examples and practicals" - Course feedback, May 2024

"Really helpful to work through examples e.g. from ALSPAC. Has helped me decide my approach to analysing longitudinal cohort data" - Course feedback, May 2024