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