In the past thirty years epidemiology has matured from a fledgling scientific field into a vibrant discipline that brings together the biological and social sciences, and in doing so draws upon disciplines ranging from statistics and survey sampling to the philosophy of science. These areas of knowledge have converged into a modern theory of epidemiology that has been slow to penetrate into textbooks, particularly at the introductory level. Epidemiology: An Introduction closes the gap. It begins with a brief, lucid discussion of causal thinking and causal inference and then takes the reader through the elements of epidemiology, focusing on the measures of disease occurrence and causal effects. With these building blocks in place, the reader learns how to design, analyze and interpret problems that epidemiologists face, including confounding, the role of chance, and the exploration of interactions. All these topics are layered on the foundation of basic principles presented in simple language, with numerous examples and questions for further thought.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

The Most Boring but also the Most Helpful:

This was the first Epidemiology book that I got my hands on when beginning graduate school 2 years ago. I absolutely hated the book and wanted nothing to do with it. However, now that I have my Master's in Public Health, I wish some of the teachers that I TA'ed for used this book in the school I transferred to. It's so ridiculously helpful for epidemiology majors that it should be a staple in every epidemiologist's library. It truly breaks down the concepts that are the bread and butter of epi, and teaches... more info

An outstanding introduction to epidemiology:

I'm a doctoral student in epidemiology and I have become familiar with a number of introductory textbooks in epidemiology over the past few years. I think Rothman's book is one of the best of the lot. I found it particularly useful as a bridge between basic introductory textbooks such as Gordis' "Epidemiology" and Rothman & Greenland's "Modern Epidemiology". Rothman's introductory text does an excellent job of selectively covering important topics in epidemiology at a level of detail that is appropriate... more info

Not Bad, Mr. Rothman.... Not Bad.:

Rothman's introductory Epidemiology book is quite user friendly in that it is well organized, clear, and concise. Some students may run into some difficulties, however, if they rely solely on this book as their main resource for their graduate level work. Rothman only scratches the surface in some areas, which may be frustrating at times...The book certainly lives up to its title of being "An Introduction." Unfortunately, that means starving graduate students will have to splurge on "Epidemiology: The Body"... more info

Best conceptual epi book published to date:

To my knowledge, this is the best and simplest textbook in epidemiology that has been published to date. I could compare it with practically all the 'mainstream' textbooks that I have been using, more or less recent, and more or less detailed textbooks.
If a potential reader has already some familiarity with epi this is not the best reference in terms of details (R&G "Modern Epi" is far better), but it can definitely be considered the best reference available for epi concepts. Ideal to refresh a... more info

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