Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

History of Epidemiological Methods and Concepts

  • Reference work entry
Handbook of Epidemiology

Abstract

Epidemiology emerged as a scientific discipline in the seventeenth century when the conditions became ripe for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting population data. Population comparative studies were performed in the eighteenth century. Since then, a body of methods and concepts needed to perform population studies has been developed, refined, and theorized. It constitutes the genuine core of the scientific discipline known today as epidemiology. I identify four phases in the evolution of these epidemiological methods and concepts. During the preformal phase (seventeenth to nineteenth century), there was no theory guiding the implementation of population studies. During the early phase (1900–1945), study designs were segregated, ways of dealing with non-comparability were developed and applied, epidemiology became an academic discipline, and epidemiological textbooks were published. In the third phase, classic epidemiology (1945–1980), study designs were refined, and the measurement of effects, confounding effects, interactions, and biases were formalized. The latest phase, modern epidemiology (since 1980), has been characterized by an integration of methods and concepts into a theoretical corpus that comprises study designs, measures of event occurrences and effects, confounding effects, interactions, biases, and causal inferences. There are indications that a new phase is dawning, characterized by refinements in conceptual domains such as the assessment of confounding effects, biases, and of complex interactions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 1,399.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anonymous (1876) Objects of the London Epidemiological Society. In Transaction of the London Epidemiological Society. Vol. III. Sessions 1866–1876. London: Hardwicke and Bogue, pp 3–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartley H (1832) Illustrations of cholera asphyxia in its different stages selected from cases treated at the Cholera Hospital Rivington Street. S.H. Jackson, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkson J (1946) Limitations of the application of four-fold table analysis to hospital data. Biometrics 2:47–53

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berkson J (1955) The statistical study of association between smoking and lung cancer. Mayo Clin Proc 30:319–348

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blackburn H, Labarthe D (2012) Stories from the evolution of guidelines for causal inference in epidemiologic associations: 1953-1965. Am J Epidemiol 176:1071–1077

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bracken M (2003) The first epidemiologic text. Am J Epidemiol 157:855–856

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck C (1975) Popper’s philosophy for epidemiologists. Int J Epidemiol 4:159–168

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carter KC (1983) Ignaz Semmelweis. The etiology, concept and prophylaxis of childbed fever. University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin

    Google Scholar 

  • Chalmers I (2002) MRC Therapeutic Trials Committee’s report on serum treatment of lobar pneumonia, BMJ 1934. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation (www.jameslindlibrary.org)

  • Chalmers I (2010) Joseph Asbury Bell and the birth of randomized trials. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation (www.jameslindlibrary.org)

  • Cole SR, Hernan MA, Robins JM, Anastos K, Chmiel J, Detels R, Ervin C, Feldman J, Greenblatt R, Kingsley L, Lai S, Young M, Cohen M, Munoz A (2003) Effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy on time to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or death using marginal structural models. Am J Epidemiol 158:687–694

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Comstock GW (2004) Cohort analysis: W.H. Frost’s contributions to the epidemiology of tuberculosis and chronic disease. In: Morabia A (ed) History of epidemiological methods and concepts. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 223–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Copas J (1973) Randomization models for the matched and unmatched 2 \(\times \) 2 tables. Biometrika 60:467–476

    Google Scholar 

  • Copeland KT, Checkoway H, McMichael AJ, Holbrook RH (1977) Bias due to misclassification in the estimation of relative risk. Am J Epidemiol 105:488–495

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cornfield J (1951) A method of estimating comparative rates from clinical data; applications to cancer of the lung, breast, and cervix. J Natl Cancer Inst 11:1269–1275

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Creighton C (1894) A history of epidemics in Britain. Cambridge University Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darroch J (1997) Biologic synergism and parallelism. Am J Epidemiol 145:661–668

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond E, Lilienfeld A (1962a) Effects of errors in classification and diagnosis in various types of epidemiological-studies. Am J Public Health Nations Health 52:1137–1144

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond E, Lilienfeld A (1962b) Misclassification errors in 2 \(\times \) 2 tables with one margin fixed: some further comments. Am J Public Health Nations Health 52:2106–2110

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Doll R (1991) Prospective or retrospective: what’s in a name? BMJ 302:528

    Google Scholar 

  • Doll R, Hill AB (1950) Smoking and carcinoma of the lung; preliminary report. Br Med J 2:739–748

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Doll R, Hill AB (1954) The mortality of doctors in relation to their smoking habits: a preliminary report. Br Med J 1:1451–1455

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dorn HF (1959) Tobacco consumption and mortality from cancer and other diseases. Public Health Rep 74:581–593

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elandt-Johnson RC (1975) Definition of rates: some remarks on their use and misuse. Am J Epidemiol 102:267–271

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • English JP, Willius FA, Berkson J (1940) Tobacco and coronary disease. J Am Med Assoc 115:1327–1328

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farr W (1838) “On prognosis” by William Farr (British Medical Almanack 1838; Supplement 199–216) Part 1 (pp 199–208). In: Morabia A (ed) History of epidemiological methods and concepts (2004). Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 159–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Frost WH (1933) Risk of persons in familial contact with tuberculosis. Am J Public Health 23:426–432

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Frost WH (1941) Epidemiology. In: Papers of Wade Hampton Frost, M.D.: a contribution to epidemiological methods. Common Wealth Fund, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Glendy RE, Levine SA, White PD (1937) Coronary disease in youth. J Am Med Assoc 109:1775–1781

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberger J, Wheeler GA, Sydenstricker E (1920) A study of the relation of family Income and other economic factors to pellagra incidence in seven cotton-mill villages of South Carolina in 1916. Public Health Rep 35:2673–2714

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Graunt J (1662) Natural and political observations made upon the bills of mortality. www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Graunt/. Johns Hopkins University Press (1939), Baltimore. 8-4-2004

  • Greenland S, Brumback B (2002) An overview of relations among causal modelling methods. Int J Epidemiol 31:1030–1037

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Neutra R (1980) Control of confounding in the assessment of medical technology. Int J Epidemiol 9:361–367

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Robins JM (1986) Identifiability, exchangeability, and epidemiological confounding. Int J Epidemiol 15:413–419

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Robins JM (2009) Identifiability, exchangeability and confounding revisited. Epidemiol Perspect Innov 6:4

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Thomas DC (1982) On the need for the rare disease assumption in case-control studies. Am J Epidemiol 116:547–553

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Thomas DC, Morgenstern H (1986) The rare-disease assumption revisited. A critique of “estimators of relative risk for case-control studies”. Am J Epidemiol 124:869–883

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenland S, Pearl J, Robins JM (1999) Causal diagrams for epidemiologic research. Epidemiology 10:37–48

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood M (1935) Epidemics & crowd diseases: introduction to the study of epidemiology. Ayer Company Publishers, Incorporated, North Stratford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond EC (1955) Causes and effect. In: Wynder EL (ed) The biologic effects of tobacco, with emphasis on the clinical and experimental aspects. Little, Brown, Boston, pp 171–196

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond EC, Horn D (1958a) Smoking and death rates; report on forty-four months of follow-up of 187,783 men. I. Total mortality. J Am Med Assoc 166:1159–1172

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hammond EC, Horn D (1958b) Smoking and death rates; report on forty-four months of follow-up of 187,783 men. II. Death rates by cause. J Am Med Assoc 166:1294–1308

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hammond EC, Selikoff IJ, Seidman H (1979) Asbestos exposure, cigarette smoking and death rates. Ann N Y Acad Sci 330:473–490

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy A (1999) Food, hygiene, and the laboratory: a short history of food poisoning in Britain, circa 1850–1950. Soc Hist Med 12:293–311

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hernan MA, Robins JM (2006) Estimating causal effects from epidemiological data. J Epidemiol Community Health 60:578–586

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hernan MA, Brumback B, Robins JM (2000) Marginal structural models to estimate the causal effect of zidovudine on the survival of HIV-positive men. Epidemiology 11:561–570

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hernan MA, Hernandez-Diaz S, Robins JM (2004) A structural approach to selection bias. Epidemiology 15:615–625

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hill AB (1939) Principles of medical statistics. The Lancet Ltd, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill AB (1965) Environment and disease: association or causation? Proc R Soc Med 58:295–300

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman FL (1931) Cancer and smoking habits. Ann Surg 93:50-67

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hume D (1978) A treatise of human nature (1739). Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson S (2006) The ghost map: the story of London’s most terrifying epidemic – and how it changed science, cities and the modern world. Riverheads Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson WM (1929) Tobacco smoking. A clinical study. J Am Med Assoc 93:665–667

    Google Scholar 

  • Keys A, Kihlberg JK (1963) Effect of misclassification on estimated relative prevalence of a characteristic. I. Two populations infallibly distinguished. II. Errors in two variables. Am J Public Health Nations Health 53:1656–1665

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kish L (1959) Some statistical problems in research design. Am Sociol Rev 24:328–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinbaum DG, Kupper LL, Morgenstern H (1982) Epidemiologic research: principles & quantitative methods. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y (2004) A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kupper LL, Karon JM, Kleinbaum DG, Morgenstern H, Lewis DK (1981) Matching in epidemiologic studies: validity and efficiency considerations. Biometrics 37:271–291

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lane-Claypon J (1926) A further report on cancer of the breast: reports on public health and medical subjects. Ministry of Health 32, 1–189. His Majesty’s Stationary Office, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Last JMe (2001) A dictionary of epidemiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Levin ML, Goldstein H, Gerhardt PR (1950) Cancer and tobacco smoking: a preliminary report. J Am Med Assoc 143:336–338

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld AM (1976) Foundations of epidemiology. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld AM, Graham S (1958) Validity of determining circumcision status by questionnaire as related to epidemiological studies of cancer of the cervix. J Natl Cancer Inst 21:713–720

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lind J (1753) A treatise of scurvy. University Press (1953), Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Lombard HL, Doering CR (1928) Cancer studies in Massachusetts. 2. Habits, characteristics and environment of individuals with and without cancer. N Engl J Med 195:481–487

    Google Scholar 

  • Louis PCA (1836) Researches on the effects of bloodletting in some inflammatory diseases. Hilliard, Gray and Company, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • MacMahon B, Pugh TF (1970) Epidemiology – principles and methods. Little, Brown and Co, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • MacMahon B, Pugh TF, Ipsen J (1960) Epidemiologic methods. Little, Brown and Co, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantel N, Haenszel W (1959) Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease. J Natl Cancer Inst 22:719–748

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marmor M, Friedman-Kien AE, Laubenstein L, Byrum RD, William DC, D’onofrio S, Dubin N (1982) Risk factors for Kaposi’s sarcoma in homosexual men. Lancet 1:1083–1087

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McMichael AJ (1999) Prisoners of the proximate: loosening the constraints on epidemiology in an age of change. Am J Epidemiol 149:887–897

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McNeill WH (1977) Plagues and people. Anchor Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Medical Research Council (1952) Reports for the years 1948–1950. HMSO, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Miettinen OS (1976) Estimability and estimation in case-referent studies. Am J Epidemiol 103:226–235

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miettinen OS (1985) Theoretical epidemiology. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Miettinen OS, Cook EF (1981) Confounding: essence and detection. Am J Epidemiol 114:593–603

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moore PS, Chang Y (1995) Detection of herpesvirus-like DNA sequences in Kaposi’s sarcoma in patients with and without HIV infection. N Engl J Med 332:1181–1185

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (1991) On the origin of Hill’s causal criteria. Epidemiology 2:367–369

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (1995) Poppers, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and HIV infection: empirical example of a strong confounding effect? Prev Med 24:90–95

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (1996) P. C. A. Louis and the birth of clinical epidemiology. J Clin Epidemiol 49: 1327–1333

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (1998) Epidemiology and bacteriology in 1900: who is the handmaid of whom? J Epidemiol Community Health 52:617–618

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2004) Epidemiology: an epistemological perspective. In: Morabia A (ed) History of epidemiological methods and concepts. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 1–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2007a) Epidemiologic interactions, complexity, and the lonesome death of Max von Pettenkofer. Am J Epidemiol 166:1233–1238

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2007b) Epidemiological methods and concepts in the nineteenth century and their influences on the twentieth century. In: Holland WW, Olsen J, Florey C (eds) The development of modern epidemiology. Personal reports from those who were there. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 17–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2008) Joseph Goldberger’s research on the prevention of pellagra. J R Soc Med 101:566–568

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2009) Epidemic and population patterns in the Chinese Empire (243 B.C.E. to 1911 C.E.): quantitative analysis of a unique but neglected epidemic catalogue. Epidemiol Infect 137:1361–1368

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2010) Janet Lane-Claypon – interphase epitome. Epidemiology 21:573–576

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2011) History of the modern epidemiological concept of confounding. J Epidemiol Commun H 65:297–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2012) Quality, originality, and significance of the 1939 Tobacco consumption and lung carcinoma article by Mueller, including translation of a section of the paper. Prev Med 55:171–177

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2013a) Epidemiology’s 350th Anniversary: 1662-2012. Epidemiology 24:179–183

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A (2013b) “Lung cancer and tobacco consumption’: technical evaluation of the 1943 paper by Schairer and Schoeniger published in Nazi Germany. J Epidemiol Commun H 67: 208–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A, Guthold R (2007) Wilhelm Weinberg’s 1913 large retrospective cohort study: a rediscovery. Am J Epidemiol 165:727–733

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A, Hardy A (2005) The pioneering use of a questionnaire to investigate a food borne disease outbreak in early 20th century Britain. J Epidemiol Community Health 59:94–99

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morabia A, Rubenstein B, Victora CG (2013) Epidemiology and Public Health in 1906 England: Arthur Newsholmes Methodological Innovation to Study Breastfeeding and Fatal Diarrhea. Am J Public Health 103:in press

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgenstern H, Kleinbaum DG, Kupper LL (1980) Measures of disease incidence used in epidemiologic research. Int J Epidemiol 9:97–104

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morris JN (1957) Uses of epidemiology. E. & S. Livingstone, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller F (1939a) Abuse of tobacco and carcinoma of the lung. JAMA 113:1372

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller F (1939b) Tabakmissbrauch und Lungenkarcinoma. Z Krebsforsch 49:57–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz N, Bosch FX, de SS, Tafur L, Izarzugaza I, Gili M, Viladiu P, Navarro C, Martos C, Ascunce N (1992) The Causal Link Between Human Papillomavirus and Invasive Cervical Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Colombia and Spain. Int J Cancer 52:743–749

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ochsner A, DeBakey M (1939) Primary pulmonary malignancy: treatment by total pneumonectomy. Analysis of 79 collected cases and presentation of 7 personal cases. Surg Gynecol Obstet 68:435–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochsner A, DeBakey ME, Dixon L (1947) Primary pulmonary malignancy treated by resection: an analysis of 129 cases. Ann Surg 125:522–540

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Newell DJ (1962) Errors in the interpretation of errors in epidemiology. Am J Public Health 52:1925–1928

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pearl R (1929a) A note on the association of diseases. Science 70:191–192

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pearl R (1929b) Cancer and tuberculosis. Am J Hyg 9:97–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearl R (1938) Tobacco smoking and longevity. Science 87:216–217

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pearl J (1995) Causal diagrams for empirical research. Biometrika 82:669–710

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearl J (2000) Causality: models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Petty W (1927) Concerning the study of the art of medicine. In: Lansdowne M (ed) The Petty papers. Constable, London, pp 168–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget J (1970) Genetic epistemology. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter R (1997) The greatest benefit to mankind: a medical history of humanity. Harper Collins, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Press DJ, Pharoah P (2010) Risk factors for breast cancer: a re-analysis of two case-control studies from 1926 and 1931. Epidemiology 21:566–572

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Proctor RN (2006) Angel H Roffo: the forgotten father of experimental tobacco carcinogenesis. Bull World Health Organ 84:494–496

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (1974) Synergy and antagonism in cause-effect relationships. Am J Epidemiol 99:385–388

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (1976) Causes. Am J Epidemiol 104:587–592

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (1977) Epidemiologic methods in clinical trials. Cancer 39:1771–1775

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (1986) Modern epidemiology. Little Brown and Co, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (ed) (1988) Causal inference. Epidemiology Resources, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ, Greenland S (1998) Modern epidemiology. Lipincott Williams Wilkins, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ, Greenland S, Lash TL (2008) Modern epidemiology. Lipincott Williams Wilkins, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts RS, Spitzer WO, Delmore T, Sackett DL (1978) An empirical demonstration of Berkson’s bias. J Chronic Dis 31:119–128

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin DB (1974) Estimating causal effects of treatments in randomized and nonrandomized treatments. J Educ Psychol 66:688–701

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin DB (1990) On the application of probability theory to agricultural experiments. Essay on principles. Section 9. Comment: Neyman (1923) and causal inference in experiments and observational studies. Stat Sci 5:472–480

    Google Scholar 

  • Sackett DL (1979) Bias in analytic research. J Chronic Dis 32:51–63

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schairer E, Schoeniger E (1943) Lungenkrebs und Tabakverbrauch. Z Krebsforsch 54:261–269

    Google Scholar 

  • Schairer E, Schoeniger E (2001) Lung cancer and tobacco consumption. Int J Epidemiol 30:24–27

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schrek R, Baker LA, Ballard GP, Dolgoff S (1950) Tobacco smoking as an etiologic factor in disease. I. Cancer. Cancer Res 10:49–58

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz S, Susser E (2006) Commentary: what can epidemiology accomplish? Int J Epidemiol 35:587–590

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson EH (1951) The interpretation of interaction in contingency tables. J R Stat Soc Ser B 13:238–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow J (1855) On the mode of communication of cholera. Churchill, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow J (1936) Snow on cholera. The Commonwealth Fund, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Splawa-Neyman J (1990) On the application of probability theory to agricultural experiments. Essay on principles. Section 9 (1923). Stat Sci 5:465–480

    Google Scholar 

  • Stocks P, Karn M (1933) A co-operative study of the habits, home life, dietary and family histories of 450 cancer patients and of an equal number of control patients. Ann Eugen 5:237–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Susser M (1973) Causal thinking in the health sciences. Oxford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Susser M (1977) Judgement and causal inference: criteria in epidemiologic studies. Am J Epidemiol 105:1–15

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Susser M, Susser E (1996) Choosing a future for epidemiology: I. Eras and paradigms. Am J Public Health 86:668–673

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Susser E, Schwartz S, Morabia A, Bromet E (2006) Psychiatric epidemiology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Szklo M, Nieto F (2000) Epidemiology: beyond the basics. Aspen, Gaithersburg

    Google Scholar 

  • Templeton AR (2000) Epistasis and complex traits. In: Wolf J, Brodie E, Wade M (eds) Epistasis and the evolutionary process. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 41–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Therapeutic Trial Committee of the Medical Research Council (1934) The serum treatment of lobar pneumonia. Lancet 1:290–295

    Google Scholar 

  • The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee (1964) Smoking and health. Public Health Service Publication No 1103, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Troehler U (2000) ‘To improve the evidence of medicine’: the 18th century British origins of a critical approach. Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke JP (1991) Prospective or retrospective: what’s in a name? BMJ 302:249–250

    CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke JP (2004) The history of confounding. In: Morabia A (ed) History of epidemiological methods and concepts. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 313–326

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderweele TJ, Robins JM (2007) Four types of effect modification: a classification based on directed acyclic graphs. Epidemiology 18:561–568

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vandenbroucke JP, Eelkman Rooda HM, Beukers H (1991) Who made John Snow a hero? Am J Epidemiol 133:967–973

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Villalba Jd (1803) Epidemiologia española. Fermi Villalpando, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinten-Johansen P, Brody H, Paneth N, Rachman S, Rip MR (2003) Cholera, chloroform and the science of medicine: a life of John Snow. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • von Pettenkofer M (1869) Boden und Grundwasser in ihren Beziehunen zu Cholera und Typhus. Zeitschrift für Biologie 5:170–310

    Google Scholar 

  • Wainwright J (1931) A comparison of conditions associated with breast cancer in great Britain and America. Am J Cancer 15:2610–2645

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinberg W (1913) Die Kinder der Tuberkulosen. S Hirzel, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Winkelstein W Jr (2004) Vignettes of the history of epidemiology: three firsts by Janet Elizabeth Lane-Claypon. Am J Epidemiol 160:97–101

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wynder E, Graham EA (1950) Tobacco smoking as a possible etiologic factor in bronchiogenic carcinoma: a study of six hundred and eighty four proved cases. J Am Med Assoc 143: 329–336

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wynder EL, Cornfield J, Schroff P, Doraiswani K (1954) A study of environmental factors in carcinoma of the cervix. Am J Obstet Gynecol 68:1016–1047

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Q, Khoury MJ, Flanders WD (1997) Sample size requirements in case-only designs to detect gene-environment interaction. Am J Epidemiol 146:713–720

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yule GU (1903) Notes on the theory of association of attributes in statistics. Biometrika 2:121–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang FF, Michaels DC, Mathema B, Kauchali S, Chatterjee A, Ferris DC, James TM, Knight J, Dounel M, Tawfik HO, Frohlich JA, Kuang L, Hoskin EK, Veldman FJ, Baldi G, Mlisana KP, Mametja LD, Diaz A, Khan NL, Sternfels P, Sevigny JJ, Shamam A, Morabia A (2004) Evolution of epidemiologic methods and concepts in selected textbooks of the 20th century. In: Morabia A (ed) History of epidemiological methods and concepts. Birkhauser, Basel, pp 351–362

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

    Authors
    1. Alfredo Morabia
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Epidemiological Methods and Etiologic Research, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

      Wolfgang Ahrens

    2. Department of Biometry and Data Management, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Bremen, Germany

      Iris Pigeot

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

    About this entry

    Cite this entry

    Morabia, A. (2014). History of Epidemiological Methods and Concepts. In: Ahrens, W., Pigeot, I. (eds) Handbook of Epidemiology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_52

    Download citation

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09834-0_52

    • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

    • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-09833-3

    • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-09834-0

    • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

    Publish with us

    Policies and ethics

    Search

    Navigation