Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	Morgan Swanson, BS (University of Iowa College of Public Health)

Description
This textbook includes four sections, as described in the title: epidemiology, biostatistics, preventative medicine, and public health. Each of the 30 chapters is organized in sections with accompanying review questions (answers and explanations provided), summaries, references, additional readings, and website links. Online material is available and includes an ebook, additional review and exam questions, and concise study guides for each chapter. This is the fifth edition; the fourth edition was published in 2014.

Purpose
The purpose is to provide health professional students (medical, dental, nursing, preventative, and public health) with an overview of epidemiology, biostatistics, preventative medicine, and public health for the purpose of board exam review and increasing knowledge for their future health profession careers. This purpose may be most needed for students looking for a broad overview of these materials in preparation for board exams, as the book provides a broad glimpse into each topic rather than a lot of depth in each area. Some students may find other books specific to their board exam reviews to be a more targeted resource. The online format is useful to supplement the print format as it adds additional questions and concise review guides. The textbook meets the authors' stated objectives.

Audience
According to the book, it is written for medical, dental, nursing, preventative, and public health students. In my opinion, it may be most useful for students in these fields without a previous public health background or training in the four topic areas, as many parts of the book are very introductory. Many preventative and public health students may already have this knowledge from their studies, so this may best serve students new to these fields. The authors are highly credible. According to the book, Dr. Jekel has taught this information in a very similar format to medical students for many years. His notes and lecture formats have been transformed into this textbook with the feedback of other authors, collaborators, and students.

Features
The book is divided into four sections, as described by the title: epidemiology, biostatistics, preventative medicine, and public health. The epidemiology section provides a clear, concise overview of the field with emphases on data, outbreak investigation, bias, study design, and medical data. The biostatistics section provides information on describing data, hypothesis testing, bivariable and multivariable statistics, sample size, and a few additional statistical areas (meta-analysis, Bayes theorem, decision analysis). For both the epidemiology and biostatistics sections, the very interested reader may want to consider supplementing this book with introductory epidemiology and biostatistics texts to obtain more information on topics not covered in this book or more detail. The preventative medicine section covers the three tiers of prevention from primary to tertiary; outlines chronic and infectious disease prevention; and expands on mental health, occupational health, and injury prevention. The focus on current public/preventative health issues like injuries distinguishes the fifth edition from previous editions. Finally, the public health section combines health policy topics (e.g., health services, healthcare payment, organization) with public health overview (e.g., community health, One Health, disaster epidemiology, and surveillance). This chapter is primarily focused on U.S. public health and healthcare systems.

Assessment
The value of this book is in the organization and explanations of the subject areas for students looking for a baseline understanding of the topics in a digestible format. Other books that may be of interest to this audience would be introductory epidemiology, biostatistics, and public health texts (for readers looking for more breadth and depth) or board exam review books (for readers looking for a more concise presentation of the material with notation high-yield items for board exam review). The fifth edition adds information (e.g., injury prevention chapter) and includes a reorganized biostatistics section. For this book review, the fourth edition was not available for direct comparison to comment on the extent of these changes.