Nutritional Epidemiology - Hardcover

Willett, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195122976 ISBN 13: 9780195122978

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

This guide is intended for those who wish to understand the complex relationships between diet and the major diseases of western civilization, such as cancer and atherosclerosis. It is aimed both at researchers engaged in the unraveling of these complex associations and at readers of the rapidly multiplying and often confusing scholarly literature on the subject.
The author starts with an overview of research strategies in nutritional epidemiology--a relatively new discipline which combines the knowledge compiled by nutritionists during this century with the methodology developed by epidemiologists to study the determinants of disease with multiple etiologies and long latent periods. A major part of the book is devoted to methods of dietary assessment using data on food intake, biochemical indicators of diet, and measures of body size and composition. The reproducibility and validity of each approach and the implications of measurement error are considered in detail. The analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data from epidemiologic studies of diet and disease are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the important influence of total energy intake on findings in such studies. As examples of methodologic issues in nutritional epidemiology, three substantive topics are examined in depth: the relations of diet and coronary heart disease, fat intake and breast cancer, and Vitamin A and lung cancer. This volume will benefit epidemiologists, nutritionists, dietitians, policy makers, public health practitioners, cancer researchers and oncologists, and cardiovascular specialists.

About this title

About the Author

Walter C. Willett is at Harvard School of Public Health.

Review

"This is a very useful book, which is extremely readable. It explains the difficulties and complexities of assessing dietary intakes in groups of free-living individuals and offers comprehensivee guidance on how to carry out these assessments and how to use and interpret the data obtained. It
is essential reading for anyone thinking of working in the area of nutritional epidemiology." --Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology

"...well-organized and written with notable clarity."--Choice

Praise for the First Edition:

"Covers, with unusual clarity, complex issues related to the nature of variation in diet and its implications in the design and interpretation of studies of nutritional epidemiology." --International Journal of Epidemiology

"Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health, is recognized as working at the cutting edge of this demanding field. His recently published book Nutritional Epidemiology was written specifically for researchers actively engaged in studies of diet and disease. It is a clear,
coherent, and eminently readable expose of a very complex, multifaceted new discipline."--Community Health Studies

"Very valuable to the growing group of researchers and graduate students wanting to understand the relationship between diet the incidence of chronic disease among adult Americans . . . . The volume as a whole makes a valuable contribution since it is comprehensive and summarizes significant
developments from the last ten years; a compilation of information about nutrition epidemiology has long been lacking. Willett's book will be most useful to advanced students, practitioners and researchers." --Journal of Nutrition Education

"Very valuable reading for anyone considering undertaking a dietary survey. For those attempting to measure dietary intakes in an epidemiologic context, Willett's book will be essential reading." --American Journal of Epidemiology

"The author is an expert in this field and both the chapters he has written as well as those contributed by others are uniformly well-organized and written with notable clarity."--Doody's Journal

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0195122976
• ISBN 13: 9780195122978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 528