Epidemiology An Introduction

by Rothman, Kenneth J.

• ISBN13: 9780195135534
• ISBN10: 0195135539
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-07
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the past thirty years epidemiology has matured from a fledging scientific field into a vibrant discipline that brings together the biological and social sciences, and in doing so draws upon disciplines ranging from statistics and survey sampling to the philosophy of science. These areas of knowledge have converged into a modern theory of epidemiology that has been slow to penetrate into textbooks, particularly at the introductory level. Epidemiology: An Introduction closes the gap. It begins with a brief, lucid discussion of causal thinking and causal inference and then takes the reader through the elements of epidemiology, focusing on measures of disease occurrence and causal effects. With these building blocks in place, the reader learns how to design, analyze and interpret epidemiologic research studies, and how to deal with the fundamental problems that epidemiologists face, including confounding, the role of chance, and the exploration of interactions. All these topics are layered on the foundation of basic principles presented in simple language, with numerous examples and questions for further thought.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Epidemiologic Thinking	1	(7)
What Is Causation?	8	(16)
Measuring Disease Occurrence and Causal Effects	24	(33)
Types of Epidemiologic Study	57	(37)
Biases in Study Design	94	(19)
Random Error and the Role of Statistics	113	(17)
Analyzing Simple Epidemiologic Data	130	(14)
Controlling Confounding by Stratifying Data	144	(24)
Measuring Interactions	168	(13)
Using Regression Models in Epidemiologic Analysis	181	(17)
Epidemiology in Clinical Settings	198	(20)
Appendix	218	(3)
Index	221