Main description:

The book is organized so as to address in separate sections first the preparatory topics of medicine (clinical and epidemiological), science in general, and statistics (mathematical); then topics of epidemiological research proper; and, finally, topics of 'meta-epidemiological' clinical research. In those two main sections, a further grouping is based on the distraction between objects and methods of study. In this framework, the particular topics are addressed both descriptively and quasi-prescriptively, commonly with a number of explicatory annotations.

This book is intended to serve as a handbook for whomever is, in whatever way, concerned with epidemiological or 'meta-epidemiological' clinical research. But besides this, it is also intended to serve as a textbook for students in introductory courses on 'epidemiological' research - to which end there is a suggested hierarchy of the concepts that might reasonably be covered.

Contents:

Preface.Introduction. Acknowledgements. PART I. MEDICINE, SCIENCE, AND STATISTICS. I - 1. Terms and Concepts of Medicine. I - 2. Terms and Concepts of Science. I - 3. Terms and Concepts of Statistics. PART II. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROPER. II - 1. Introduction. II - 2. Introductory Terms and Concepts. II - 3. Terms and Concepts of Objects of Study. II - 4. Terms and Concepts of Methods of Study. PART III. META-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CLINICAL RESEARCH. III - 1. Introduction. III - 2. Introductory Terms and Concepts. III - 3. Terms and Concepts of Objects of Study. II - 4. Terms and Concepts of Methods of Study. References. Index. Hierarchy of Concepts