Kenneth J. Rothman, DrPH, is a Distinguished Fellow at RTI International, an independent nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. He is also Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Medicine at Boston University. His research interests in epidemiology have spanned a wide range of health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurologic disease, birth defects, injuries, environmental exposures, and drug epidemiology, but his main career focus has been the development and teaching of the concepts and methods of epidemiologic research.

• 1. Introduction to Epidemiologic Thinking ; 2. Pioneers in Epidemiology and Public Health ; 3. What is Causation? ; 4. Measuring Disease Occurrence and Causal Effects ; 5. Types of Epidemiologic Studies ; 6. Infectious Disease Epidemiology ; 7. Dealing with Biases ; 8. Random Error and the Role of Statistics ; 9. Analyzing Simple Epidemiologic Data ; 10. Controlling Confounding by Stratifying Data ; 11. Measuring Interactions ; 12. Using Regression Models in Epidemiologic Analysis ; 13. Epidemiology in Clinical Settings ; Appendix ; Index

The small size and relaxed narrative style almost persuade the reader that they are enjoying an interesting novel, and, unlike bulkier tomes, it lends itself to reading on the move or at home. However, far from light reading, the content provides indepth, well constructed descriptions of theories and concepts. These are supported by practical examples, using widely-known studies and common conditions, which even someone at the beginning of their epidemiology education could easily connect with with... In this respect. the book is useful to the graduate student and encourages an appreciation of the public health considerations common to many diseases and conditions. The narrative style is used to great advantage in some chapters, to discuss causation, measures of disease occurrence and epidemiology in clinical settings, as well as in the new chapters in this edition which describe the pioneers of epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology.