A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts

by Alfredo Morabia (Editor)

Overview

Methods, just as diseases or scientists, have their own history. It is important for scientists to be aware of the genesis of the methods they use and of the context in which they were developed.

A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts is based on a collection of contributions which appeared in "SPM International Journal of Public Health", starting in January 2001. The contributions focus on the historical emergence of current epidemiological methods and their relative importance at different points in time, rather than on specific achievements of epidemiology in controlling plagues such as cholera, tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, or lung cancer. The papers present the design of prospective and retrospective studies, and the concepts of bias, confounding, and interaction. The compilation of articles is complemented by an introduction and comments by Prof. Alfredo Morabia which puts them in the context of current epidemiological research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783034876032
Publisher:	Birkhäuser
Publication date:	11/11/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	7 MB

Table of Contents

From the contents: Introduction.- Cohort analysis.- Cohort studies: history of the method.- The changing assessments of John Snow's and William Farr's cholera studies.- Changing images of John Snow in the history of epidemiology.- Methods of outbreak investigation in the 'Era of Bacteriology' 1880-1920.- Constructing vital statistics: Thomas Rowe Edmonds and William Farr, 1835-1845.- Statistical methods in epidemiology: Karl Pearson, Ronald Ross, Major Greenwood and Austin Bradford Hill, 1900-1945.- History of bias.- The history of confounding.- Origins and early development of the case-control study: A short history of pathology registries, with emphasis on cancer registries.- Causality in epidemiology.- Issues of causality in the history of occupational epidemiology.

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Ross M. Mullner, PhD, MPH (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Description: This book describes the evolution of epidemiologic methods and concepts.
Purpose: According to the editor, "This book retrieves the work of past scientists who in retrospect can be defined as epidemiologists and describes its evolution."
Audience: This book would only be of interest to graduate students in epidemiology.
Features: This book consists of two parts. The first part is a very long essay (125 pages) discussing the epistemological perspective of epidemiology. The second part of the book is a collection of papers, many of which have been published elsewhere, on the history of epidemiological methods and concepts. Many of the papers in the second part are very short (some are only two pages in length).
Assessment: This book is really two separate books combined into one. Although both the first and second parts of the book are well written and thought provoking, the two parts due not relate well to each other. Despite this limitation, the book is useful in describing the evolution of epidemiological concepts and methods, an area which has not received much attention.

Doody's Review Service

Morabia’s essay is fascinating. He is one of the very few practicing epidemiologists with a deep interest in the history of epidemiologic methods. The particular combination of his interests gives a special credibility to his essay, which describes how epidemiologic thinking has developed from the 18^th century around two key ideas: concepts concerned with populations and group comparisons – the hallmarks of modern epidemiology. (Bulletin of the World Health Organisation)

Morabia’s approach is didactic, combining historical snippets with lessons on epidemiology. (American Journal of Epidemiology)

…one of those few books whose reading is ‘pleasantly unavoidable’… Very likely to become one of the most important epidemiological books published in the present decade. (European Epidemiology Federation)

Morabia's approach is not only highly educational, but also a gripping read and should fascinate everybody who is concerned with epidemiology, public health, or history of medicine. Furthermore, this book will certainly be inevitable for teachers and students of public health since it offers a great variety of educational material for courses in medicine and epidemiology. Taken together, this book is highly valuable and will hopefully soon become a modern classic. (Biometrics)

From the Publisher