Main description:

The new edition of this popular textbook remains a clear and practical introduction to epidemiology for students in all areas of health. By emphasising the role of epidemiology across a broad range of health monitoring and research, it gives students an understanding of the fundamental principles common to all areas of epidemiology. It also integrates the study of infectious and chronic diseases as well as public health and clinical epidemiology. Avoiding complex mathematics, it steps through the methods and potential problems underlying health data and reports, while maintaining a balance of rigour and clarity. The nuts-and-bolts of epidemiology are embedded in the wider international health perspective through recent and classical examples across different areas of health to engage students from a range of backgrounds. Concepts are illustrated with charts and graphs, and end-of-chapter questions test understanding (with answers provided). Online resources include further exercises, slides for teaching and useful weblinks.

Contents:

1. Epidemiology is …; 2. How long is a piece of string? Measuring disease frequency; 3. Who, what, where and when? Descriptive epidemiology; 4. Healthy research: study designs for public health; 5. Why? Linking exposure and disease; 6. Heads or tails?: The role of chance; 7. All that glitters is not gold: the problem of error; 8. Muddied waters: the challenge of confounding; 9. Reading between the lines: reading and writing epidemiological papers; 10. Who sank the boat? Association and causation; 11. Assembling the building blocks: reviews and their uses; 12. Outbreaks, epidemics and clusters; 13. Watching not waiting: surveillance and epidemiological intelligence; 14. Prevention: better than cure?; 15. Early detection: what benefits at what cost?; 16. A final word …; Answers to questions; Appendix 1. Direct standardisation; Appendix 2. Standard populations; Appendix 3. Calculating cumulative incidence and lifetime risk from routine data; Appendix 4. Indirect standardisation; Appendix 5. Calculating life expectancy from a life table; Appendix 6. The Mantel–Haenszel method for calculating pooled odds ratios; Appendix 7. Formulae for calculating confidence intervals for common epidemiological measures; Index.