Epidemiology: A Research Manual for South Africa Book

Sect. A Contextualising epidemiology 1

1 Why do epidemiological research? A South African perspective 2

2 Key concepts in epidemiology 12

3 Research ethics, human rights and community participation 30

Sect. B Epidemiological research methods and protocol development 45

4 Planning a research project 46

5 Setting objectives for research 55

6 Literature review 66

7 Study design 77

8 Population and sampling 94

9 Data collection and measurement 106

Sect. C Data presentation, analysis and interpretation 125

10 Exploring, summarising and presenting data 126

11 Analysing and interpreting epidemiological data 141

12 Precision and validity in epidemiological studies: error, bias and confounding 155

Sect. D Epidemiology applied to specific areas 171

13 Routine health information systems and disease surveillance 172

14 Community surveys 188

15 Burden of disease and mortality studies 200

16 Social epidemiology 210

17 Infectious disease epidemiology 221

18 Outbreak investigation 229

19 Epidemiology of HIV/Aids 242

20 Environmental epidemiology 251

21 Occupational epidemiology 260

22 Measuring disability in surveys 272

23 Psychiatric epidemiology 281

24 Nutritional surveys 293

Sect. E Multidisciplinary approaches complementary to epidemiology 305

25 Health services research 306

26 Qualitative methodology: an introduction 318

27 Economic evaluation 328

Appendix I Standardisation (adjustment) of rates 339

Appendix II Random number table 343

Appendix III Writing a report 344

Appendix IV Sample size calculation 346

Index 349