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Abstract

Epidemiology is the study of disease and health in human populations. The word “health” means something positive in addition to the mere absence of disease. The purpose of epidemiologic research is (1) to describe the health and disease status of a population, (2) to determine the etiology (causes) of diseases, (3) to predict the occurrence of disease, and (4) to attempt to control diseases through understanding and intervention. Much of epidemiology is, of necessity, observational rather than experimental.

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References

  • An easy first book is Mausner, J. S., and Bahn, A. K. 1974. Epidemiology, An Introductory Text. Philadelphia: W. D. Saunders Co.

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  • A widely used beginning text is Lillienfeld, A. M., and Lillienfeld, E. L. 1980. Foundations of Epidemiology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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  • A readable text with the statistical details of survival analysis is Lee, E. T. 1980. Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis. Belmont, Calif.: Lifetime Learning Publications.

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© 1986 Chapman and Hall

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Tietjen, G.L. (1986). Epidemiology. In: A Topical Dictionary of Statistics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1967-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1967-2_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9168-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1967-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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