Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: Ian Cameron, David Ames, Penelope Hawe, Ian McDonald, and Kerr L White Intervention for late life depression in residential care BMJ 2000; 320: 119a [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

4th edition of Dictionary is correcting definitions

John Last   (21 January 2000)

4th edition of Dictionary is correcting definitions 21 January 2000
John Last, Emeritus professor of epidemiology University of Ottawa Send response to journal: Re: 4th edition of Dictionary is correcting definitions	To reinforce Kerr White's correction of the historical record: Many of us have misquoted (or misconstrued) Archie Cochrane on the definition of "Efficacy". I certainly did in earlier editions of the Dictionary of Epidemiology. There is no need to dwell on the source of the error -- suffice to say that I and others were a bit lazy, and accepted without checking when an eminent epidemiologist asserted that Archie Cochrane had defined "Efficacy" in words identical or close to those that appeared in previous editions. I, and users of the 4th edition that will be published later this year, owe Kerr White a debt of gratitude for correcting us, and for reminding us of his and the late John Brotherston's clear and concise definitions, which will appear in the next, and I hope all future editions of the Dictionary of Epidemiology.