Epidemiological Studies: A Practical Guide

This volume provides a practical, hands on guide to the design, planning, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of epidemiological studies. The learning points are applicable to all human studies of health and disease that require the collection and analysis of data to answer questions on disease risk, health outcomes, and the effects of interventions in ‘real world’ populations. It summarizes the main study designs used in epidemiological from purely quantitative studies to assess incidence and prevalence, to the range of observational studies used in the modern practice of epidemiology. A substantial section is devoted to the practical aspects of conduct of epidemiological studies, balancing scientific quality with practicality: the latter covering issues such as costs and ethics. This book also provides a detailed menu of activities that takes the investigator through all the necessary steps following the collection of individual subject data through to generating the statistically robust results necessary to reach conclusions about the questions asked. It provides insights into how to use existing data (secondary data analysis) to answer epidemiological questions, an increasing activity in this era of ‘big data’. Similarly, with a growing epidemiological literature, with multiple studies seemingly addressing the same question, the volume explores how practically to synthesize the results of such multiple investigations and the role of meta-analysis. The book’s ultimate goal is to provide a practical toolkit to enable the successful completion of questions appropriate for applying epidemiological methods.