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Overview
This text is intended for those who wish to understand the complex relationships between diet and risks of important diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. It is aimed both at researchers engaged in the unraveling of these complex relationships and at readers of the rapidly multiplying and often confusing scholarly literature on the subject.
The book starts with an overview of research strategies in nutritional epidemiology-still a relatively new discipline that combines the vast knowledge compiled by nutritionists during the 20th century with the methodologies developed by epidemiologists to study the determinants of diseases with multiple etiologies and long latent periods. A major section is devoted to the methods of dietary assessment using data on food intake, biochemical indicators of diet, and measures of body composition and size. 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 explored in depth. Particular attention is paid to the important influence of total energy intake on findings in such studies. To illustrate methodological issues in nutritional epidemiology, relationships of dietary factors to the incidence of lung and breast cancer, heart disease, and birth defects are examined in depth.
The first edition of Nutritional Epidemiology, published in 1989, was widely praised and quickly established itself as the standard reference in this field. The second edition, published in 1998, added new chapters on the analysis and presentation of dietary data, nutritional surveillance, and folic acid and neural tube defects. This new edition, in addition to substantial updating of existing chapters, includes new chapters on assessment of physical activity, nutrition and genetic epidemiology, and the role of nutritional epidemiology in policy. This book will benefit epidemiologists, nutritionists, dietitians, policy makers, public health practitioners, oncologists, and cardiovascular and other clinical specialists.
The book contains black-and-white figures.
Editorials
From the Publisher
Praise for earlier editions
"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
"Very valuable to the growing group of researchers and graduate students wanting to understand the relationship between diet and 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
"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... 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
"Dr. Willett in his third edition of Nutritional Epidemiology provides a practical and straightforward discussion of how to conduct and interpret studies of diet in relation to chronic disease risk, which is unparalleled in breadth and depth. He incorporates many recent advances, encourages rigorous and thoughtful conduct and interpretation of study results and often challenges conventional interpretations from medical and nutritional sciences. This outstanding book is essential reading for graduate students and researchers in the field. It is also a useful resource for any nutritional scientists, epidemiologists, and health professionals who use results of epidemiological studies to make policies that promote healthy eating." -- Julie A. Mares, PhD, Professor of Nutrition, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
"In this new edition, Dr. Willett condenses a vast and rapidly expanding literature, from the history of nutritional epidemiology to future directions. New chapters on physical activity and genetics, as well as discussion of new methodologies-and thoughtful analysis of recent debates on measurement error-make this required reading for anyone working in nutrition and health research, and a welcome up-to-date text for graduate teaching." -- Katherine L. Tucker, PhD, Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University
Praise for earlier editions
"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
"Very valuable to the growing group of researchers and graduate students wanting to understand the relationship between diet and 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
"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... 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
"This remains an excellent textbook for students learning to evaluate the literature or design their own studies. New chapters on physical activity, genetics, and policy provide much needed updates on the methods used by today's researchers. Overall, the book is a nearly comprehensive introduction to the basic principles of studying diet and long-term health and disease." -- DOODY'S
Diane S. Lauderdale
This is the second edition of what has become the standard text in nutritional epidemiology, an area of intense research activity and public interest. The aim is to provide the reader with the conceptual and methodologic grounding essential for conducting studies of diet and disease. The complexity of carrying out population-based studies of nutrition makes bringing practical and theoretical issues together in one volume invaluable. This book is intended to be an introduction to the field and a resource for investigators, as well as an aid to those interpreting the published literature. Striking a balance between the basic concepts a student needs and the analytic cutting edge which the more experienced investigator would like is difficult. This book functions primarily as a solid introduction for students or researchers who are already familiar with basic epidemiologic and statistical methods but who are relatively new to nutritional assessment and its particular analytic challenges. Some of the more complex recent methods are mentioned and references are provided. The first half incudes a description and evaluation of data collection methods for carrying out dietary assessment, including biochemical indicators. The next section covers analytic issues, while the final chapters present literature reviews of four much-studied associations (e.g. vitamin A and lung cancer; folic acid and neural tube defects) and directions for future research. 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. Much of the material in this edition is carried over from the firstedition, but there are three new chapters. References have generally been updated, but the classics of this relatively young field are included as well.From The Critics
Reviewer: Diane S. Lauderdale, PhD(University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine)Description: This is the second edition of what has become the standard text in nutritional epidemiology, an area of intense research activity and public interest.
Purpose: The aim is to provide the reader with the conceptual and methodologic grounding essential for conducting studies of diet and disease. The complexity of carrying out population-based studies of nutrition makes bringing practical and theoretical issues together in one volume invaluable.
Audience: This book is intended to be an introduction to the field and a resource for investigators, as well as an aid to those interpreting the published literature. Striking a balance between the basic concepts a student needs and the analytic cutting edge which the more experienced investigator would like is difficult. This book functions primarily as a solid introduction for students or researchers who are already familiar with basic epidemiologic and statistical methods but who are relatively new to nutritional assessment and its particular analytic challenges. Some of the more complex recent methods are mentioned and references are provided.
Features: The first half incudes a description and evaluation of data collection methods for carrying out dietary assessment, including biochemical indicators. The next section covers analytic issues, while the final chapters present literature reviews of four much-studied associations (e.g. vitamin A and lung cancer; folic acid and neural tube defects) and directions for future research.
Assessment: 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. Much of the material in this edition is carried over from the first edition, but there are three new chapters. References have generally been updated, but the classics of this relatively young field are included as well.
4 Stars! from Doody