Methods of measurements in epidemiology--call for a new type of paper in the IJE

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Abstract
Successes in treating and delaying advanced communicable and chronic disease has shifted research attention to understanding the mechanisms underlying early subclinical disease and its prevention. Comprehensive assessment of risk factors and sophisticated measurement of valid surrogates of clinical disease are often now required in epidemiological research. Happily, this need has been matched by technical advances over recent decades with a greater number and sophistication of assessment tools for measuring exposures, outcomes and covariables in epidemiological research. In addition to novel methods of measurement, there has always been a myriad of assessment tools for some long-established characteristics, such as socio-economic position and dietary intake and patterns, that are regularly measured in epidemiological studies. For several of these characteristics, notably socio-economic position,1,2 there is increasing recognition of how different measurements capture and highlight differing aspects of what is being measured.
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