Customer Reviews

Modern Epidemiology

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The first edition grew out to be the reference of choice of many epidemiologists. This new edition should secure that status, even though the Encyclopedia of Epidemiologic Methods (Gail and Benichou) should provide some serious competition. In fact this text is so complete that it may even stimulate the whole field.
If practising medical researchers start to apply the knowledge provided, then econometrics and psychometrics teachers will have to find a new source for their jokes.
However, in the process the book lost its attraction as a text for students. It has become more technical and less readable. That shouldn't bother students as there are plenty of good elementary books (like Hennekens) and even intermediate books (like the excellent Epidemiology: Beyond the Basics by Nieto and Szklo). The only reason I can think of why you would like to use this book in class is that you're a teacher who likes to study this ultimate reference yourself. What better way than to teach from it?
So this book isn't for students, unless however, you're a student who already has got a firm background in epidemiology, statistics, econometrics or something similar, than this may just be the book for you.

The first edition of this book was a superb, tightly written mongraph, but it was a single-authored work written in the 1980s and needed to be updated. This new edition seems to be intended as a more comprehensive reference work on epidemiologic methods, adding a dozen authors and covering many topics that were not in the first edition, such as reproductive epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology. Some readers might find it to be too detailed and broad to be easily digested in a short time. Nevertheless, as a reference guide, I don't think that it has any rival. The first 100 pages or so are a clearly rewritten update of the core material from the first edition. The middle chapters, which are new and mostly written by Greenland, are a little slow-going but are worth the effort if you want a cutting-edge insight into epidemiologic methods. The final section, with many contributors, presents the specific methodology of nearly every area of epidemiologic research. Overall, this book is essential if you are serious about understanding epidemiology.

It is a good refence-type textbook for epidemiology. I first used it in my introductory course of epidemiology at Harvard University's program of Master of Public Health. Even Prof. Rothman came to classroom in person for several lectures. It was a good book but accompanying books were needed for better understanding of the topic. Now I am in my PhD program at National Taiwan University, Taiwan and using the book for the 2nd time. There are still new things to discover from the book. For a reader who uses the textbook twice in graduate studies, I recommend it as a guide or outline for further exploration into the field. Advanced studies require lots of reading, aren't they? It should be on your shelf, for future reference, but not the only one.

With all the pros and cons of an advanced-level book written by many authors, this work is widely considered the standard text in the field. As a professor of mine says, every epidemiologist should have it on her/his bookshelf.

This book has proven immensely useful in my work. Although the text can be difficult to read at times, its thoroughness is nonetheless outstanding. It is clearly the best book regarding epidemiologic methods, particularly for those with a basic epidemiologic background seeking to advance their skills.

The trouble with this book is that the first author (Rothman) has convinced many epidemiologists that he is an authority on statistics when he is not. His crusade against adjustment for multiple comparisons has lead a large number of epidemiology students (and faculty) far astray from accepted statistical practice. The entire book becomes suspect because of Rothman's anti-statistics bias. Try the books by Friis & Sellers, MacMahon & Pugh, Clayton & Hills or the classic text 'Epidemiologic Research' by Klienbaum, Kupper & Morgenstern. Since many epidemiology faculty still require this text for their courses - try borrowing it from a classmate and purchase 'Epidemiologic Research' instead. You'll be glad you did!

This book is indeed known among the students of epidemiology as one of the worst ever. The text is very difficult to understand and the whole book is extremely disorganized without any coherence. Some chapters that are not written by the editors are somewhat better, such as ecologic studies, but those by Drs. Rothamn and Greenland are sometimes essentially useless. It is so frustrating to see that the 2nd edition of this book is even much more complicated and disorganized than the first one. To all those who need good epidemiology textbooks, there are many more available, this should be the very last choice.

Very disimilar to the first edition (unfortunately). The second edition is an expanded and more complete text than the first edition. However, it is hopelessly disjointed and it would appear that Greenland simply wrote without regard to Rothman's structured content and "pasted" his text at random. I would not even bother with this text. The confusison and frustration is too great. Attempts should be made to secure a copy of the first edition.

I found this book to be a good, rigorous, reliable general text, an epidemiology reference that belongs to everybody's bookshelf.

Some professional epidemiologists see this text as the most thorough and complete resource manual ever written on this subject. In contrast, I see this book as an encrypted enigma. To say that it is difficult-to-follow would be a gross understatement. The major problem is the middle-third of the book, which covers statistical concepts. The authors fall into the trap of presenting way too much unnecessary detail, even in situations when it is not warranted. Apparently, the authors were on a self-absorbed ego trip when they wrote this component. One is definitely better off getting statistical concepts directly from statistical texts, such as Alan Agresti's, An Introduction to Categorical Data Analysis. Still, the book is not completely useless either. The last several chapters cover specific areas in epidemiology and may be useful to those with a keen interest in a specific area.