Public Health

The Guide to Community Preventive Services: What works to promote health?

Task Force on Community Preventive Services

Stephanie Zaza, Peter A. Briss, Kate W. Harris (eds)

This book is a primary resource on how to improve health and prevent disease in states and communities. The book uses systemic review methods to evaluate population-oriented health ... More

This book is a primary resource on how to improve health and prevent disease in states and communities. The book uses systemic review methods to evaluate population-oriented health interventions. The recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services are explicitly linked to the scientific evidence developed during systematic reviews. This book examines the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions to combat such risky behaviors as tobacco use, physical inactivity, and violence; to reduce the impact and suffering of specific conditions such as cancer, diabetes, vaccine-preventable diseases, and motor vehicle injuries; and to address social determinants on health such as education, housing, and access to care. The chapters are grouped into three broad categories: changing risk behaviors; reducing specific diseases, injuries, and impairments; and methodological background for the book itself. Less

Health Care Regulation in America: Complexity, Confrontation, and Compromise

Robert I. Field

This book is a guide to the regulatory maze that governs health care. Regulation shapes all aspects of America's fragmented health care system, from the flow of dollars to the ... More

This book is a guide to the regulatory maze that governs health care. Regulation shapes all aspects of America's fragmented health care system, from the flow of dollars to the communication between physicians and patients. It is the engine that translates public policy into action. While the health and lives of patients, and almost one-sixth of the national economy, depend on its effectiveness, health care regulation in America is bewilderingly complex. Government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels direct portions of the industry, but hundreds of private organizations do so as well. Some of these overseers compete with one another, some conflict, and others collaborate. Their interaction is as important to the provision of health care as are the laws and rules they implement. The book recaps the past and present conflicts that have guided the oversight of each industry segment over the past hundred years and explains the structure of regulation today. To make the system comprehensible, the book also presents the sweep of regulatory policy in the context of the interests, values, goals, and issues that guide it. Chapters cover the process of regulation and each key area of regulatory focus—professions, institutions, financing arrangements, drugs and devices, public health, business relationships, and research. The system thrives on confrontation between competing interests but survives by engendering compromise. The book shows that health care regulation is an inexorable force that has actually served to nurture the enterprise of American health care. Less

Health Impact Assessment

John Kemm, Jayne Parry, Stephen Palmer (eds)

Health effects are often overlooked when planning development projects ranging from new runways at major airport sites to developing water supply systems to improve sanitation. Health ... More

Health effects are often overlooked when planning development projects ranging from new runways at major airport sites to developing water supply systems to improve sanitation. Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is the assessment of the health effects, positive or negative, of a project, programme, or policy. It is therefore concerned with the health of populations and attempts to predict the future consequences for health of decisions which have not yet been implemented. HIA is a new and growing field with numerous schools of thought and areas of controversy. This book provides an overview of the concepts, theory, techniques, and applications of HIA to aid all those preparing projects or carrying out assessments. It draws on examples and thinking from many different disciplines and many parts of the world. It identifies the areas of agreement and the questions remaining unanswered. It maps a confused field and signposts possible directions for future progress. HIA is intended to help decision makers in all areas foresee the consequences of their decisions, to ensure the consequences are considered and reduce the risk of population health being damaged through some indirect and unintended consequence of a decision. Less

Health Impact Assessment: Past Achievement, Current Understanding, and Future Progress

John Kemm (ed.)

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process which helps decision making by predicting the consequences for health of choosing different options in terms of policies, plans, and projects. ... More

Health Impact Assessment (HIA) is a process which helps decision making by predicting the consequences for health of choosing different options in terms of policies, plans, and projects. There is growing interest among health professionals, planners, and politicians in using HIA to help safeguard and improve the health of populations and reduce health inequalities. This book explores the past development of HIA, its current practice, and possible future. Written in two parts, the first section provides an overview describing the various ways in which an HIA can be done. Practical in emphasis, it describes how HIA can be applied in different contexts to meet the needs of different decision makers and answer a variety of questions. It deals not only with the many good reasons for using HIA but also critically examines the weaknesses of current practice. The second part consists of chapters demonstrating the various pressures and legislative frameworks that have shaped the evolution of HIA. The aim is to illustrate the range of views about the reasons for doing HIA and how it should be done, and to reveal how the practice of HIA has been adapted to suit different cultures and help decision making in varying situations. Less

Health Measurement Scales: A practical guide to their development and use

David L. Streiner, Geoffrey R. Norman

This book covers in detail how to develop a measurement scale: a questionnaire or instrument, with specific applications in health sciences. Its organization follows the steps developers ... More

This book covers in detail how to develop a measurement scale: a questionnaire or instrument, with specific applications in health sciences. Its organization follows the steps developers will go through during the process beginning with how the individual items are developed, and the various biases that can affect responses (e.g., social desirability, yea-saying, framing). It then discusses different response options, such as Likert scales, adjectival scales, visual analogue scales, Harter scales, and face scales, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The book then explains how to select the best items in the set, using various psychometric criteria; and how to combine the individual items into a scale. There is much discussion of reliability and validity, from both a theoretical and statistical perspective, with a separate chapter on generalizability theory. Although the perspective is that of classical test theory, there is also an in-depth presentation of item response theory. It concludes with a discussion of ethical issues that may be encountered in developing and using scales; and presents guidelines for reporting the results of the scale development process. In the appendices there is a comprehensive guide to finding existing scales, and a brief introduction to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Less

The Health of Populations: General Theories and Practical Realities

Stephen J. Kunitz

In the maelstrom of current public health debate over the social determinants of health, this book offers a well-balanced discussion on the roots of prevalent strains of thought on the ... More

In the maelstrom of current public health debate over the social determinants of health, this book offers a well-balanced discussion on the roots of prevalent strains of thought on the matter. While this area of research deals in complex problems, it is often dominated by those who deploy rather categorical, partisan positions, citing from a wide range of contradictory statistical studies. This book aims to bring a measured, balanced, and independent perspective to bear on the debate, taking a step back from current arguments to look at the fundamental issues through a socio-historical lens. Part I describes how ideas about the costs and benefits of industrialization and about the causes of disease have been used by writers from different ideological persuasions to explain the health of populations. Part II focuses on some of the ideas that have been particularly influential in contemporary debates: factors such as standard of living, community and its loss, inequality, and globalization. The fact that these have been used to support differing explanations of the determinants of population health suggests that there are no easy generalizations in a field with so many discrepant findings. Scientists often ignore anomalous findings in the interests of advancing a particular paradigm, until the anomalies outweigh the norm and a new paradigm is created. This book argues that in considering social determinants of health, no meaningful over-arching explanations may be possible. Rather, it is by immersion in the reality of particular contexts—work settings, historical periods, geopolitical regions, and governmental credos—that we may gain a better understanding of the way in which social forces shape patterns of health and disease. Less

Health Statistics: Shaping policy and practice to improve the population's health

Daniel J. Friedman, Edward L. Hunter, R. Gibson Parrish (eds)

Health statistics have been an essential tool for improving the health of populations for centuries. This book provides an account of the essential concepts and complex underpinnings of ... More

Health statistics have been an essential tool for improving the health of populations for centuries. This book provides an account of the essential concepts and complex underpinnings of health statistics. It gives a broad and detailed view of the sources and uses of health statistics, and explores contemporary issues confronting the health statistics enterprise, including privacy, technology, and the emergence of health data standards. It also proposes fundamental changes needed to improve health statistics that can be embraced by practitioners at all levels of government and the private sector. The book is guided throughout by a model of population health that expands the traditionally held view of what factors influence health. The chapters are grouped into five sections: defining health statistics-context, history, and organization; collecting and compiling health statistics; putting health statistics to use; identifying current and forthcoming issues and transforming health statistics through new conceptual frameworks. Less

Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An economic and policy perspective

Richard D. Smith, Kara Hanson (eds)

This book outlines the key aspects and issues concerning health systems of low- and middle-income countries, recognizing the current global context within which these systems operate and ... More

This book outlines the key aspects and issues concerning health systems of low- and middle-income countries, recognizing the current global context within which these systems operate and the dynamics of this context. Chapters tackle the issues that face population health and health care in the 21st century. The focus is predominantly low- and middle-income countries, with a distinct meeting of economic and policy perspectives, and grounding analysis of key issues within the broader international context. The book therefore provides a unique and comprehensive analysis of health systems, with a very different and unique ‘flavour’ in the field. Less

Healthier Societies: From Analysis to Action

Jody Heymann, Clyde Hertzman, Morris L. Barer, Robert G. Evans (eds)

While extensive research has demonstrated that social determinants make a substantial difference to the health of adults and children alike, it can be difficult to understand how social ... More

While extensive research has demonstrated that social determinants make a substantial difference to the health of adults and children alike, it can be difficult to understand how social conditions actually affect biology. Healthier Societies: From Analysis to Action addresses the fundamental questions that need to be answered in this regard before countries will invest seriously in addressing social conditions as a way of improving the health of the entire population. Part I of this book addresses the extent to which health is determined by biological factors or by social factors, and, more fundamentally, how the biological and social factors interact. Part II examines four case studies that demonstrate the ways in which social change can dramatically affect the health of adults, as well as launch children's lives onto healthy trajectories; this section analyzes nutrition, working conditions, social inequalities, and geographic disparities. Part III outlines the challenge of translating the research described in the first two sections into action. Even when people are convinced that social factors are as important as biological ones in determining health, and even when they believe that the impact is enormous in both adulthood and childhood, the challenge of changing and developing public policies and programs still remains. This last section takes a serious look at what would be involved in meeting this challenge. Less