Main description:

This book provides an introduction to the common research methodology specific to clinical epidemiology for both students and researchers. The goal of the book is to fill the gap left by texts that concentrate on public health epidemiology and focuses on what is not covered well in such publications. The four sections of the book cover methods that have not previously been brought together in one volume and serve as a second level textbook of clinical epidemiology methods. Some of the most important topics included in this volume are: clinical agreement in quantitative measurements, interpretation of diagnostic tests, sample size considerations, modelling time-to-event data and meta-analysis. The book will be useful for clinical researchers as well as for postgraduate students in clinical epidemiology. In this second edition, sections related to modeling of binary outcomes and research synthesis methods have been extensively updated.

Contents:

Contents.- Contributors.- Table of Abbreviations.- Preface.- PART I: Clinical Agreement.- 1 Clinical Agreement in Qualitative Measurements.- 2 Clinical Agreement in Quantitative Measurements.- 3 Disagreement plots and the intra-class correlation in agreement studies.- 4 The Coefficient of Variation as an Index of Measurement Reliability.- PART II: Diagnostic Tests.- 5 Using and Interpreting Diagnostic Tests with Dichotomous or Polychotomous Results.- 6 Using and Interpreting Diagnostic Tests with Quantitative Results.- 7 Sample Size Considerations for Diagnostic Tests.- 8 An Introduction to Diagnostic Meta-analysis.- 9 Health Technology Assessments of Diagnostic Tests.- PART III: Modeling Binary and Time-To-Event Outcomes.- 10 Modelling Binary Outcomes.- 11 Modelling Time-to-event Data.- PART IV: Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis.- 12 Systematic Reviewing.- 13 Quality Assessment in Meta-analysis.- 14 Meta-analysis I.- 15 Meta-analysis II.- Index.