Includes bibliographical references and index.

What is epidemiology? -- Measuring health and disease -- Searching for the causes of disease -- Establishing the causes of a disease -- Testing how to control a disease -- Following up people's health -- Investigating people's past experiences -- Mapping health and disease -- From epidemiology to medicine, prevention, and public health -- Epidemiology between ethics and politics

"What is epidemiology? How can we trace the causes of a disease, or tell when a pandemic has begun? ... Saracci provides an insight into the logic and methods of epidemiology to show the value of investigating health and disease in human populations. He explains basic statistical concepts necessary for planning and analyzing epidemiological studies, and dispels common misunderstandings abouth their interpretation, looking not only at their ethical and political implications, but on public health as a whole"--Publisher description