Making Sense of Epidemiological Research. A Student’s Guide

Using clear language and real-world examples, this accessible textbook provides a concise guide to the understanding and critical evaluation of journal articles in Epidemiology.

The book offers a step-by-step process, beginning with how to find epidemiologic studies on a given topic. It then shows readers how to identify and assess the key features of a study’s design, the methods of data collection and analysis, the conclusions that can be drawn, and finally the questions that remain. Including a chapter exploring the misuse of AI, this complete companion shows students not only how to evaluate individual studies, but also to synthesize findings across multiple studies on a single topic, as well as guidance on writing a critique of a given article.

Written by an experienced instructor with over 15 years of experience teaching, and including activities so that readers can practice the skills they learn, this will be essential reading for any student of Epidemiology, Public Health and Medicine.

CONTENTS

Introduction.  1.Why do I need to critically evaluate epidemiologic articles?  2.What basic epidemiology and biostatistics concepts should I know?  3.How do I read an epidemiologic article?  4.What study design was used?  5.Who was in the study population?  6.How was the exposure measured?  7.How was the outcome measured?  8.How were the data analyzed?  9.How do I write a critical analysis of an article?  10.How do I synthesize evidence across studies?  11.How do I perform a systematic literature review?  12.Why can’t I just use artificial intelligence (AI) to critically analyze epidemiologic articles?  Appendix A.System for Taking notes on Articles (STAR) Template.  Appendix B.Critical Analysis of Mirick et al. (2002)