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BOOK REVIEW, 'DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF VACCINE STUDIES'

Thursday, 25th of August 2011

BOOK REVIEW, 'DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF VACCINE STUDIES'

American Journal of Epidemiology
aje.oxfordjournals.org

Excerpt below; full text available to journal subscribers

1. Am. J. Epidemiol. (2011) doi: 10.1093/aje/kwr286 First published online: August 26, 2011

Design and Analysis of Vaccine Studies

By M. Elizabeth Halloran, Ira M. Longini, Jr., and Claudio J. Struchiner

ISBN-10: 0387403132, ISBN-13: 978-0387403137, Springer New York, New York, New York (Telephone: 1-800-SPRINGER or 212-460-1500, Fax: 212-460-1575, E-mail: service-ny@springer.com, World Wide Web: http://www.springer.com/), 2009, 389 pp., $89.95 Hardcover

1. 1.   Derek A. T. Cummings and
2. 2.   Justin Lessler

+ Author Affiliations

1. 1.    Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205
2. (e-mail: dcumming@jhsph.edu)

Vaccines act to control infectious diseases through multiple mechanisms. Vaccines can reduce susceptibility to infection, progression to symptomatic disease, and the probability that vaccinees will infect others. Vaccines directly protect vaccinees but also provide protection to persons around them by reducing their risk of acquisition. In Design and Analysis of Vaccine Studies, 3 pioneers in the statistical analysis of infectious disease, Elizabeth Halloran, Ira M. Longini, and Claudio Struchiner, present an excellent and comprehensive introduction to a growing methodology aimed at teasing apart the many effects of vaccines. The goal of this work has been to develop a more precise formalism and methods that are not subject to the same threats to validity as standard epidemiologic methods—that is, to develop an approach that succeeds where methods that ignore the infectious process fail. This collective effort has led to an exemplar of nomenclature and clarity of thinking that should be of interest to researchers in all fields. This text provides the clearest summary of this body of work to date, complementing texts covering the practical aspects of field trial design.