PDQ Epidemiology

In four short chapters, the authors cover a lot of ground, including: research methodology, measurement, and causation. The third chapter covering measurement is especially rich in imparting knowledge. It explains clearly many concepts such as sensitivity, specificity, and Bayes' theorem. The authors do an excellent job of explaining complex materials such as the ROC curves. This latter concept is challenging, and they make it pretty accessible. One of the reviewers thought this was a poor guide to epidemiology because it did not cover enough technical ground. I'd argue that all this book is intended to do is give you a quick overview of the field. After all, that's what the PDQ series is all about. In this perspective, the authors have done an outstanding job. They even describe some of the underlying logic pretty well. They also do a great job at demonstrating all the traps that laypersons and even scientists fall into when interpreting epidemiological studies. However, to supplement this high-level knowledge you have to study a more extensive textbook on the subject. Other reviewers recommend several good ones. And, you also got to acquire an excellent foundation in statistics. In this regard, I recommend three books you could study in sequential orders. The first one that serves as a good refresher is Forgotten Statistics. The second one that covers extensively all the statistics related to biostatistics and epidemiology is Intuitive Biostatistics. And the last one is Nonparametric Statistics: An Introduction (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences). With this acquired statistical background, you will be properly equipped to move forward in your studies in epidemiology or biostatistics.

This is the best introduction and explanation available for epidemiology. It's a very concise, illustrative but comprehensive big picture(and the trees also) of this subject. Almost everything is explained with an example, and you can read as a novel. All the others books of epidemiology are complementary to this, but if you have this and the Epidemiology: An Introduction by Kenneth J. Rothman OR Epidemiology by Leon Gordis OR Clinical Epidemiology: The Essentials by Robert H Fletcher and Suzanne W Fletcher you have all you need to understand what is epidemiology about. Thanks to the authors to share his enthusiasm and sense of humor.

If you like to understand where each part of statistics fit in with other parts, start with this book. This is a Macro view of statistical analysis, not a nuts and bolts one. Nevertheless, one needs to understand the major distinctions of the categories and subcategories of statistical analysis, and this book does a wonderful job at it. Recommend it for anyone who cares about the logic of statistics.