Nutritional Epidemiology

About this book

• The standard introduction to the field of nutritional epidemiology
• A go-to resource for anyone engaged in the analysis and presentation of data relating diet to health

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 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 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.

Readership: Nutrition students, epidemiology students, and any specialist working at the intersection of health and diet, such as dietitians.

Reviews

" Reviews from the previous edition"

"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." - Journal of Nutrition Education

"It is a clear, coherent, and eminently readable expose of a very complex, multifaceted new discipline." -Community Health Studies

"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

Table of contents

1. Overview of Nutritional Epidemiology
2. Foods and Nutrients
Walter C. Willett and Laura Sampson
3. Nature of Variation in Diet
4. 24-Hour Recall and Diet Record Methods
Tom Baranowski
5. Food Frequency Methods
6. Reproducibility and Validity of Food-Frequency Questionnaires
Walter Willett and Elizabeth Lenart
7. Recall of Remote Diet
8. Biochemical Indicators of Dietary Intake
Rob M. Van Dam and David Hunter
9. Anthropometric Measures and Body Composition
Walter Willett and Frank Hu
10. Assessment of Physical Activity in Nutritional Epidemiology
Frank Hu
11. Implications of Total Energy Intake for Epidemiologic Analyses
12. Correction for the Effects of Measurement Error
13. Issues in Analysis and Presentation of Dietary Data
14. Genetics in Dietary Analyses
15. Nutrition Monitoring and Surveillance
Tim Byers and Rebecca L. Sedjo
16. Policy Applications
17. Vitamin A and Lung Cancer
Walter Willett and Graham Colditz
18. Dietary Fat and Breast Cancer
19. Diet and Coronary Heart Disease
20. Folic Acid and Neural Tube Defects
Walter C. Willett and Elizabeth Lenart
21. Future Research Directions
Index