Dermatoepidemiology

Dermatoepidemiology is an important emerging discipline in dermatology. This article reviews clinical and analytic epidemiology pertinent to reading, interpreting, and critically examining the literature, and presents an overview of evidence-based dermatology as a starting point for further study. Learning objectives: At the conclusion of this review, readers should be familiar with basic clinical epidemiologic principles pertinent to dermatology, attain conceptual familiarity with the strengths and weaknesses of epidemiologic study designs (eg, case-control, cohort, and randomized controlled trials), identify bias and confounding as potential threats to study validity, and recognize evidence-based dermatology as an important tool for medical decision making. © 2005 by the American Academy of Dermatology, Inc.