Biostatistics and Epidemiology: A Primer for Health and Biomedical Professionals

This book teaches foundations of epidemiological design and statistical methods, as well as including topics applicable to new areas of research. Since the publication of the first edition, Biostatistics and Epidemiology has attracted loyal readers from various specialty areas in the biomedical community. The Fifth Edition includes coverage of fixed and random effects and mixed effects models; Poisson regression; constructing confidence intervals for U-shaped relationships; analysis of rare variants; Mendelian randomization; and aspects of machine learning and big data analytics. Biostatistics and Epidemiology was written to be accessible for readers without backgrounds in mathematics. It provides clear explanations of underlying principles, as well as practical guidelines of ＂how to do it＂ and ＂how to interpret it.＂ Key features include a philosophical and logical explanation at the beginning of the book, subsections that can stand alone or serve as reference, cross-referencing, recommended reading, and appendices covering sample calculations for various statistics in the text.

Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, PhD, is professor of epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is the Dorothy and William Manealoff Foundation and Molly Rosen Chair in Social Medicine, Emerita. In addition to her teaching, her research spans both cardiovascular disease and cancer epidemiology. She has been a leader in landmark clinical trials in the prevention of heart disease and stroke and in major national and international collaborative prospective studies that have informed guidelines for medical practice. She has won awards for mentoring students and junior faculty, as well as the Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. She lives in New York.

Jordan Smoller, MD, ScD, is professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. He is director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Genomic Medicine, director of the Center for Precision Psychiatry at MGH, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The focus of Dr. Smoller’s research is understanding the genetic and environmental determinants of psychiatric disorders across the lifespan and using big data to advance precision mental health including improved methods to reduce risk and enhance resilience. He is the recipient of numerous research awards, an author of more than 500 scientific articles, book chapters and reviews, and author of the book The Other Side of Normal (HarperCollins/William Morrow, 2012). He lives with his family in Boston.