Detailed contents

Symbols and abbreviations

Glossary of terms

Statistical formulae

Section 1 Epidemiology in the clinic

Introduction

1 The diagnostic process

Introduction: epidemiology in the clinic

Measures of disease frequency

Distribution of disease

Is there anything wrong?

Risk factors

Identifying risk factors

Validity of diagnostic tests

Clinical uses of predictive value

Pre-test probability

Likelihood ratios and post-test probabilities

So what has my patient got? The Bayesian clinician

2 Management decisions

Decisions, decisions . . . the principles of clinical management

What is prognosis? Looking into the crystal ball

Prognosis: mortality

Prognosis: morbidity

Evidence-based management

Clinical guidelines

How effective is the treatment?

Interpreting reports of clinical trials

How appropriate is the treatment?

Patient-centred decision-making

3 Risk communication and promoting health

Health promotion in clinical practice

Could it have been prevented?

Communicating risk

Health promotion in the clinic

Smoking and alcohol advice

Exercise, weight, and dietary advice

Sexual health

Outbreak investigation

Breaking the chain of infection

Section 2 Evidence-based practice

Introduction

4 Finding and summarizing evidence

Finding and evaluating existing evidence

Electronic resources

Critical appraisal

Appraisal checklists

CONSORT statement

Systematic review

Meta-analysis

Analysis and interpretation of a meta-analysis

5 Preventive medicine and screening

Prevention strategies

Levels of prevention

Preventing communicable disease

Preventing non-communicable disease: example of cardiovascular disease

Basic infectious disease epidemiology

Vaccination

Screening overview

Screening programmes

Evaluating screening programmes

Major UK screening programmes

6 Evaluating clinical practice

Introduction

Clinical governance and ethics

Carrying out an audit: getting started

Choosing the standards

Writing your protocol

Choosing the sample

Data collection

Data collection: examples

Analysing data

Interpreting findings

Changing practice

Completing the process

Section 3 Epidemiological methods

Introduction

7 Types of study

Types of evidence and study designs

Basic concepts in epidemiological research

Interpreting associations

Confounding

Association or causation?

The nature of causality

Time trend and geographical (ecological) studies

Ecological studies: examples

Surveys and cross-sectional studies

Cross-sectional studies: examples

Case–control studies

Case–control studies: examples

Cohort studies

Cohort studies: examples

Intervention studies and clinical trials

Clinical trials: examples

Clinical trial phases

Choosing the right type of study

8 Sources of data

Introduction: good quality data

Routine data

Clinical uses of routine data

Death certification

Referral to the coroner

Infectious disease notification

Cancer registration

9 Statistical concepts

Introduction

Data and variables

Summarizing sample data

Measures of central location

Measures of dispersion

Sampling variability

Probability distributions

Confidence intervals

Hypothesis tests

Statistical or clinical significance

Sample size and power calculations

When to consult a statistician

10 Statistical techniques in clinical medicine

Independent t-test

Paired t-tests

Confidence intervals for a proportion

Normal test for difference in proportions

Chi-squared test for association

Parametric and non-parametric tests

Mann–Whitney U test

Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test

Linear regression

Correlation coefficients

T-tests for regression coefficients

Multiple regression

Analysis of variance

Logistic regression

Measuring survival

Kaplan–Meier product limit estimator

Log-rank test

Cox proportional hazards model

Receiver operating characteristic curves

Section 4 Epidemiology of common diseases

Introduction

11 Global burden of disease

Terminology

Global burden of non-communicable disease

Burden of non-communicable disease in the UK

Global burden of communicable disease

Burden of communicable disease in the UK

12 Epidemiology of diseases

Arthritis

Asthma

Bladder cancer

Brain and CNS cancer

Breast cancer

Cardiovascular disease

Cerebrovascular disease

Cervix cancer

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Cirrhosis of the liver

Colorectal cancer

Coronary heart disease

Dementia

Depression

Diabetes

Emerging infectious disease

Gastroenteritis

Healthcare associated infections

High blood pressure and hypertension

HIV/AIDS

Influenza

Kidney cancer

Leukaemia

Liver cancer

Lung cancer

Malaria

Malignant melanoma

Measles

Meningococcal disease

Neglected tropical diseases

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Oesophageal cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Peptic ulcer disease

Prostate cancer

Road traffic accidents

Self-inflicted injuries

Sexually transmitted infections

Stomach cancer

Tuberculosis

Viral hepatitis

Index

References