This book is intended to provide a basic introduction to epidemiologic methods and epidemiologic thinking. After reading this book, you should be able to read an epidemiologic study, understand what the authors did and why, and identify what they found. You will also have the tools to assess the quality of that study—how good is the evidence? What are potential sources of bias, and how might those have affected the results? This book will not teach you enough to be able to design and conduct your own epidemiologic studies—that level of understanding requires several years of specialized training. However, being able to read and understand the scientific literature about human health will allow you to apply that understanding to your own work in a nuanced, sophisticated way.
This open textbook for Concepts of Fitness and Wellness at Georgia Highlands College was created through a Round Seven ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.
This course was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a self-study course. Students who successfully complete this course should be able to correctly:
Describe key features and applications of descriptive and analytic epidemiology.
Calculate and interpret ratios, proportions, incidence rates, mortality rates, prevalence, and years of potential life lost.
Calculate and interpret mean, median, mode, ranges, variance, standard deviation, and confidence interval.
Prepare and apply tables, graphs, and charts such as arithmetic-scale line, scatter diagram, pie chart, and box plot.
Describe the processes, uses, and evaluation of public health surveillance.
Describe the steps of an outbreak investigation.
An openly accessible textbook for a two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. Instructor resources including instructors guide and Powerpoint slides are downloadable from the site.
Download options in various formats: Openstax Apps, PDF, Kindle, ibooks, Chegg, and read online are available.
