Making Sense of Data: A Self-Instruction Manual on the Interpretation of Epidemiological Data - Hardcover

Abramson, J. H.; Abramson, Z. H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195145240 ISBN 13: 9780195145243

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001

Synopsis

This self-instructional manual on the interpretation and use of epidemiologic data deals with the basic concepts and skills needed for the appraisal of published reports or one's own findings. Applications in clinical medicine, public health, community medicine, and research are all taken into consideration. Making Sense of Data is designed as a workbook of short exercises and instructional self-tests that introduce fundamental approaches and procedures in data interpretation and develop competency in working with epidemiologic tools. Basic concepts are presented in the first section, which also demonstrates the step-by-step assessment of data. The next section discusses rates and other simple measures, and the third shows how to judge their accuracy. Section IV and V deal with more complex issues of associations between variables and the appraisal of cause-effect relationships. Section VI deals with meta-analysis (the critical review and integration of the findings from separate studies) and section VII with the questions to be asked before deciding to apply study results in practice. Numerous changes have been made in this edition, including the addition of a section on the practical application of epidemiological findings, discussions of new topics (Cox proportional hazards regression, qualitative studies, ROC curves), and fresh examples.

About this title

About the Author

Z. H. Abramson is at both at Hebrew University.

Review

From reviews of previous editions: "This book successfully provides its readers with the basic epidemiological concepts and skills that will help them to appraise data and to produce competence in the ABCs of data interpretation. Useful to a wide audience, Abramson's self-contained manual
masterfully delivers the analytical and conceptual tools needed to identify shortcomings in study methods or inferences. At the same time, the book makes due allowance for such shortcomings when drawing conclusions to issues found in clinical medicine, public health and community medicine, and
research."--Evaluation Practice

"This book is a small gem, well written.and is recommended to all physicians who seek to understand what they read and how what they do influences disease in their patient population."--Annals of Internal Medicine

"This book has many excellent features. It is clearly written, the examples are interesting and most epidemiological methods and many epidemiologic concepts are covered.The book is aimed primarily at students and diligently studied it would provide an excellent training. I suspect that there
are few current practitioners who would not also benefit from its study."--International Journal of Epidemiology

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0195145240
• ISBN 13: 9780195145243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 384