Nutritional Epidemiology

Third Edition

Walter Willett

Nutritional Epidemiology

Description
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 this 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 reproducible and validity of each approach and the implications of measurement error are considered in detail. The analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data from epidemiological 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.

Author Information

Walter Willett, Chair, Department of Nutrition; Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health

Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, is the Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.