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3 - Epidemiology

from Part 1 - The Public Health Toolkit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2023

By
Stephen Gillam  and
Mary Fortune
Edited by
Kirsteen Watson ,
Jan Yates  and
Stephen Gillam
Kirsteen Watson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Jan Yates
Affiliation:
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Stephen Gillam
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

At the core of epidemiology is the use of quantitative methods to study health, and how it may be improved, in populations. It is important to note that epidemiology concerns not only the study of diseases but also of all health-related events. Rational health-promoting public policies require a sound understanding of causation. The epidemiological analysis of a disease or activity from a population perspective is vital in order to be able to organize and monitor effective preventive, curative and rehabilitative services. All health professionals and health-service managers need an awareness of the principles of epidemiology. They need to go beyond questions relating to individuals to challenging fundamentals such as ‘Why did this person get this disease at this time?’, ‘Is the occurrence of the disease increasing and, if so, why?’ and ‘What are the causes or risk factors for this disease?’

Keywords

Epidemiologystudy designriskodds ratiorateprevalencedisease variationmeasuresrelativebiasconfoundingprobabilitystatistical significance
Type
Chapter
Information
Essential Public Health
Theory and Practice
 , pp. 47 - 81
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Davies, H. T. O. and Crombie, I. K., What are confidence intervals and p-values? Hayward Communications 3(1), 2009, 1–8. Available at: www.bandolier.org.uk/painres/download/whatis/What_are_Conf_Inter.pdf.Google Scholar
Deeks, J., Swots corner: What is an odds ratio? Bandolier 25, March 1996. Available at: www.bandolier.org.uk/band25/b25-6.html.Google Scholar
Lilienfeld, D. E. and Stolley, P. D., Foundations in Epidemiology, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Last, J. M., A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 4th ed., New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Motulsky, H., Intuitive Biostatistics: A Nonmathematical Guide to Statistical Thinking, 4th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Spiegelhalter, D., The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data, London, Pelican Books, 2019.Google Scholar

References

Hennekens, C. and Burling, J., Epidemiology in Medicine, Boston, MA, Little, Brown and Company, 1987.Google Scholar
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Assessing Interactions Among Social, Behavioral, and Genetic Factors in Health, Genes, Behavior, and the Social Environment: Moving beyond the Nature/Nurture Debate, Washington, DC, National Academic Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Doll, R. and Hill, A. B., The mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits: A preliminary report, British Medical Journal 228, 1954, 1451–5.Google Scholar
Doll, R. and Peto, R., Mortality in relation to smoking: 20 years’ observations on male British doctors, British Medical Journal 273, 1976, 1525–36.Google Scholar
Vessey, M. P. and Doll, R., Investigation of relation between use of oral contraceptives and thromboembolic disease, British Medical Journal 1968, 2, 199–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrie, J. E., Martikainen, P., Shipley, M. J. and Marmot, M. G., Self-reported economic difficulties and coronary events in men: Evidence from the Whitehall II study, International Journal of Epidemiology 34(3), 2005, 640–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial Research Group, The effect of intensive treatment of diabetes on the development and progression of long-term complications in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, New England Journal of Medicine 329(14), 1993, 977–86.Google Scholar
Altman, D. G., Practical Statistics for Medical Research, London, Chapman & Hall/CRC, 1991.Google Scholar
Kirkwood, B. R. and Sterne, J. A. C., Essential Medical Statistics, 2nd ed., Oxford, Blackwell Science, 2003.Google Scholar
Hill, A. B., The environment and disease: Association or causation? Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 58, 1965, 295–300. Available at: www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/hill.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vandenbroucke, J. P. and Pardoel, V. P., An autopsy of epidemiologic methods: The case of ‘poppers’ in the early epidemic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), American Journal of Epidemiology 129(3), 1989, 455–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, P., Bain, C. and Pirozzo, S., Essential Epidemiology. An Introduction for Students and Health Professionals, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.Google Scholar

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