Author: Who needs another introductory epidemiology text? Certainly, there are many introductory epidemiology books currently in print, and many of them are excellent. Nevertheless, there are four reasons why I believe that this new text is justified.
Firstly, it is much shorter than most introductory texts, many of which contain more material than is required for a short introductory course. This is a short introduction to epidemiology, and is not intended to be comprehensive. Secondly, I have endeavoured to show clearly how the different basic epidemiologic methods fit together in a logical and systematic manner.
For example, I attempt to show how the different possible study designs relate to each other, and how they are different approaches to a common task. Similarly, I attempt to show how the different study design issues (confounding and other types of bias) relate to each other, and how the principles and methods of data analysis are consistent across different study designs and data types. Thirdly, in this context, rather than attempt a comprehensive review of available methods (e.g. multiple methods for estimating confidence intervals for the summary risk ratio), I have attempted to select only one standard method for each application, which is reasonably robust and accurate, and which is consistent and coherent with the other methods presented in the text
Consider buying the book!
