Synopses & Reviews
Analytic procedures suitable for the study of human disease are scattered throughout the statistical and epidemiologic literature. Explanations of their properties are frequently presented in mathematical and theoretical language. This well-established text gives readers a clear understanding of the statistical methods that are widely used in epidemiologic research without depending on advanced mathematical or statistical theory. By applying these methods to actual data, Selvin reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each analytic approach. He combines techniques from the fields of statistics, biostatistics, demography and epidemiology to present a comprehensive overview that does not require computational details of the statistical techniques described.
For the Third Edition, Selvin took out some old material (e.g. the section on rarely used cross-over designs) and added new material (e.g. sections on frequently used contingency table analysis). Throughout the text he enriched existing discussions with new elements, including the analysis of multi-level categorical data and simple, intuitive arguments that exponential survival times cause the hazard function to be constant. He added a dozen new applied examples to illustrate such topics as the pitfalls of proportional mortality data, the analysis of matched pair categorical data, and the age-adjustment of mortality rates based on statistical models. The most important new feature is a chapter on Poisson regression analysis. This essential statistical tool permits the multivariable analysis of rates, probabilities and counts.
Review
"This book covers a large number of statistical methods useful in analyzing epidemiologic data. The material is clearly presented and is illustrated by interesting examples based on real data. Most of the examples are analyzed by more than one method and, when models are used, by more than one model. This is extremely helpful in understanding the relationship between different analytic techniques. This should be a valuable reference book for statisticians and epidemiologists, and a good text for an intermediate level course." --Suzanne Hudson, Department of Biostatistics, East Carolina University
From reviews of previous editions:
"This book is well-written and is generally easy to read. Selvin has done a nice job of presenting methods and illustrating the methods with numerical data."--Journal of the American Statistical Association
"...an outstanding, readable, and useful presentation of the methods of analysis of disease data. The author has filled a gap admirably. I am sure that this book will deservedly become extensively used in the field of epidemiology world-wide..."--International Journal of Health Sciences
"This is a well-written book that provides an important link between the analysis and interpretation of continuous data in epidemiologic terms. The text would be useful in an immediate epidemiology course that describes the basics of life-table analysis, logistic regression, and survival analysis."--Epidemiology Monitor
Review
"This book covers a large number of statistical methods useful in analyzing epidemiologic data. The material is clearly presented and is illustrated by interesting examples based on real data. Most of the examples are analyzed by more than one method and, when models are used, by more than one model. This is extremely helpful in understanding the relationship between different analytic techniques. This should be a valuable reference book for statisticians and epidemiologists, and a good text for an intermediate level course." --Suzanne Hudson, Department of Biostatistics, East Carolina University
From reviews of previous editions:
"This book is well-written and is generally easy to read. Selvin has done a nice job of presenting methods and illustrating the methods with numerical data."--Journal of the American Statistical Association
"...an outstanding, readable, and useful presentation of the methods of analysis of disease data. The author has filled a gap admirably. I am sure that this book will deservedly become extensively used in the field of epidemiology world-wide..."--International Journal of Health Sciences
"This is a well-written book that provides an important link between the analysis and interpretation of continuous data in epidemiologic terms. The text would be useful in an immediate epidemiology course that describes the basics of life-table analysis, logistic regression, and survival analysis."--Epidemiology Monitor
Review
Praise for the First Edition" "For practical examples, and for interpretation of the parameters of logistic-regression and survival analyis, this is a very good book" --
New England Journal of Medicine"The text emphasizes the analysis of continuous data within epidemiology, a subject usually not described in very much detail in other epidemiology texts. This book therefore brings closer together the analysis of continuous data within an epidemiological context. This is a well written book that provides an important link between the analysis and interpretation of continuous data in epidemiologic terms. The text would be useful in an intermediate epidemiology course that describes the basics of life-table analysis, logistic regression, and survival analysis." Epidemiology Monitor
"Oxford University Press must be commended for adding this excellent textbook as number 17 in its series of Monographs in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Equally, its author must be congratulated on an outstanding readable and useful presentation of the methods of analysis of disease data. The author has filled a gap admirably. I am sure that this book will deservedly become extensively used in the field of epidemiology world-wide; our thanks to the author for allowing us to share the fruits of his teaching skills." International Journal of Health Sciences
"This book is well-written and is generally easy to read. Selvin has done a nice job of presenting methods and illustrating the methods with numerical data. A book I will be pleased to own. Selvin has selected his topics carefully, has given a clear exposition of the methods and their application, and has illustrated them with numerous examples....A valuable addition to the professional statisticians'/epidemiologists' library." --Journal of the American Statistical Association
Synopsis
This book combines applied and theoretical approaches to the analysis of epidemiologic issues. It goes beyond elementary material to deal with real problems generated by disease data, and delves into less usual areas such as the analysis of spatial distributions, survival data, proportional hazards regression, and "computer-intensive" approaches to statistical estimation. Each method discussed in the text is illustrated with examples which include complete sets of data. Using actual data demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of different analytic approaches in describing a disease process. The goal of the book is to allow the reader to develop a clear understanding of analytic approaches to problems in epidemiologic data analysis without relying on sophisticated mathematics and advanced statistical theory. For the Second Edition a new chapter on the analysis of matched data has been added. This covers both discrete and continuous outcomes and explains both the classic analytic approach and the conditional logistic regression model. New sections have also been added on contingency table data, misclassification, and additive models underlying tabular data. In all the chapters there are new applications and other revisions that make this Second Edition a clearer and more helpful exposition of the way statistical tools are used to analyze epidemiologic data.
Table of Contents
1. Meaures of Risk: Rates and Probabilities
2. Variation and Bias
3. Statistical Power and Sample Size Calculations
4. Cohort Data: Description and Illustration
5. Spatial Data: Analysis and Estimation
6. The 2x2 Table and the 2x2x2 Table
7. The Analysis of Contingency Table Data: Logistic Model I
8. The Analysis of Binary Data: Logistic Model II
9. The Analysis of Count Data: Poisson Model
10. The Analysis of Matched Data: Three Approaches
11. Life Table Analysis: An Introduction
12. Survival Data: Estimation of Risk
13. Survival Data: Proportional Hazard Model
Appendices
A. Description of the WCGS data set
B. Binomial and Poisson distributions
C. The odds ratio and its properties
D. Partitioning the chi-square statistic
E. Maximum likelihood estimation and likelihood functions
F. Problems