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Irene J Higginson, Epidemiology of Pain. IK Crombie, PR Croft, SJ Linton, L LeResche, M Von Korff (eds). Seattle, WA: IAS Press, 1999, pp.332. ISBN 0-931092-25-6., International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 31, Issue 2, April 2002, Pages 506–507, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/31.2.506
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Extract
This authoritative text examines the epidemiology of pain in several important conditions. It begins with an introduction to the potential of epidemiology, epidemiological methods and the requirements for such studies. These are covered in three chapters and give a sound introduction to the general principles of epidemiology. They are written in very general terms, although in the third chapter—Requirements for epidemiological studies —the critique is more directly applied to pain. The chapters serve as a very good initiation for individuals unfamiliar with epidemiology, but for those used to studying the epidemiology of pain there are some omissions, e.g. the problems of dealing with multiple pains, the difficulties of defining prevalence when the symptom is fluctuating and the problems resulting from multiple and varied forms of measurement. What, for example, does the prevalence of pain mean? There are such varied results from different studies that some greater guidance on the interpretation of this might have been helpful.
