《公共卫生流行病学要点》第四版将理论与实践相结合，介绍了传统的和新的流行病学概念。本书内容广泛，以五章开篇，涵盖了流行病学的基本概念和数据来源。主要强调研究设计，分别用单独的章节介绍三种主要的分析设计：实验、队列和病例对照研究。

关于偏倚、混杂和随机误差的完整章节，包括统计学在流行病学中的作用，确保学生具备解释流行病学研究结果的必要信息。全书提供了有关公共卫生重要疾病的流行病学文献的最新实例。

epidemiologic concepts. Broad in scope, the text opens with five chapters covering the basic epidemiologic concepts and data sources. A major emphasis is placed on study design, with separate chapters devoted to each of the three main analytic designs: experimental, cohort, and case-control studies.

Full chapters on bias, confounding, and random error, including the role of statistics in epidemiology, ensure that students are well-equipped with the necessary information to interpret the results of epidemiologic studies. Up-to-date examples from the epidemiologic literature on diseases of public health importance are provided throughout the book.