Epidemiology : oso

Nutritional Epidemiology

Walter Willett — 2013-01-24

Author:: Walter Willett
ISBN:: 9780199754038
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Public Health
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754038.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book is about the complex relationships between diet and risks of important diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. The book starts with an overview of research strategies in nutritional epidemiology—still a relatively new discipline that combines the vast knowledge compiled by nutritionists during this century with the methodologies developed by epidemiologists to study the determinants of diseases with multiple etiologies and long latent periods. A major section is devoted to the methods of dietary assessment using data on food intake, biochemical indicators of diet, and measures of body composition and size. The reproducibility and validity of each approach and the implications of measurement error are considered in detail. The analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data from epidemiologic studies of diet and disease are explored in depth. Particular attention is paid to the important influence of total energy intake on findings in such studies. To illustrate methodological issues in nutritional epidemiology, the relationships of dietary factors to the incidence of lung and breast cancer, heart disease, and birth defects are examined in depth. This new edition, in addition to updating existing chapters, includes new chapters on assessment of physical activity, nutrition, and genetic epidemic ology, and the role of nutritional epidemiology in policy.

Health Impact Assessment

John Kemm — 2013-01-24

Author:: JohnKemmFormer Director, West Midlands Public Health Observatory, and Director, JK Public Health Consulting Ltd, UK
ISBN:: 9780199656011
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656011.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

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.

Food Fortification

Mark Lawrence — 2013-01-24

Author:: Mark Lawrence
ISBN:: 9780199691975
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199691975.001.0001
Published in print:: 2013
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This research book presents a critical analysis of mandatory food fortification as a technology for protecting and promoting public health. Increasing numbers of foods fortified with novel amounts and combinations of nutrients are being introduced into the food supplies of countries around the world to raise populations’ nutrient intakes. Three topical food fortification case studies representing the different public health rationales for adding nutrients to food were assessed for their public health benefits, risks and ethical considerations: Universal salt iodisation (USI) to help prevent iodine deficiency disorders; mandatory flour fortification with folic acid (MFFFA) to help prevent neural tube defects; and mandatory milk fortification with vitamin D (MMFVD) to help prevent vitamin D deficiency. These assessments found that whereas USI performs strongly as a public health intervention, MFFFA and MMFVD are associated with more risks and less ethical justification than an alternative policy option. Food fortification can be a blunt policy response to complex policy problems. The findings highlight that the primary predictor of a mandatory food fortification policy’s benefits, risks and ethics is its ability to address the underlying cause of the policy problem. The analysis of the policy-making processes for each case study found that certain powerful actors use their influence to determine what counts as evidence in policy processes to privilege food fortification activities over alternative policy options. Policy-making frequently was notable for the low prominence it afforded ethical considerations and its lack of public engagement. Priority activities to help strengthen policy processes and outcomes are suggested.

Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic

Jody Heymann, Lorraine Sherr, and Rachel Kidman — 2012-05-24

Author:: JodyHeymannFaculties of Medicine and Arts, McGill UniversityLorraineSherrRoyal Free and University College Medical School, University College LondonRachelKidmanSchool of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University
ISBN:: 9780199765126
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765126.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

Each year, over a quarter of a million children die of AIDS. Another 2 million children currently live with HIV, most in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions more are affected when AIDS enters their families or their communities. Orphans are perhaps the most visible: 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS; 12 million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. The increasing burden of care due to HIV/AIDS is borne mainly by extended family: First they care for the sick and dying relatives, then they assume responsibility for the children left behind. Today, the extended family cares for over 90% of double orphans. Parents who take on these immense caregiving burdens have less quality time for their own children, fewer financial resources, and greater difficulties securing food and shelter. Thus, children who have parents providing care to AIDS-sick relatives or who share scarce resources with foster children may also experience disadvantage. In communities severely affected by AIDS, traditional safety nets are often overwhelmed by cumulative mortality, teachers are absent from school because of their own illness or that of family members, and basic health facilities are crippled by AIDS care—all of which leave children increasingly vulnerable. The impact is most severe in environments in which government- and state-level support is the weakest; where universal education, health care and social welfare are either not available or only partially available. Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic will bring together lessons from experts around the world on what has worked, and what needs to be done to transform the outcomes of children of all ages whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Specifically, the book examines which public policies and programs work best to meet the full range of children’s needs, from medical care to social support, and from infancy to adolescence.

Manual of Infection Prevention and Control

Nizam Damani — 2012-05-24

Author:: Nizam Damani
ISBN:: 9780199698356
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698356.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

It has been estimated that in developed countries up to 10% of hospitalized patients develop infections every year. Not only is there a substantial cost to healthcare systems, but some health care-associated infections (HCAIs) can be fatal. Since the majority of HCAIs are preventable, reducing HCIAs is now considered to be an integral part of patient safety and quality of care provided by all healthcare institutions worldwide. Unlike other books on infection control, the main strength of this book is to provide practical guidance in infection control in a format which can act as a quick source of reference on all aspects of HCAIs.

Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health

Ross C. Brownson, Graham A. Colditz, and Enola K. Proctor — 2012-05-24

Author:: Ross C.BrownsonWashington University in St. LouisGraham A.ColditzWashington University in St. LouisEnola K.ProctorWashington University in St. Louis
ISBN:: 9780199751877
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199751877.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

Fifteen to twenty years is how long it takes for the billions of dollars of university-based research to translate into evidence-based policies and programs suitable for public use. Over the past decade, an exciting science has emerged that seeks to narrow the gap between the discovery of new knowledge and its application in public health, mental health, and health care settings. Dissemination and implementation (D&I) research seeks to understand how to best apply scientific advances in the real world, by focusing on pushing the evidence-based knowledge base out into routine use. To help propel this crucial field forward, this book aims to address a number of key issues, including: how to evaluate the evidence base on effective interventions; which strategies will produce the greatest impact; how to design an appropriate study; and how to track a set of essential outcomes. D&I studies must also take into account the barriers to uptake of evidence-based interventions in the communities where people live their lives and the social service agencies, hospitals, and clinics where they receive care. The challenges of moving research to practice and policy are universal, and future progress calls for collaborative partnerships and cross-country research. The fundamental tenet of D&I research—taking what we know about improving health and putting it into practice—must be the highest priority.

Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Richard D. Smith and Kara Hanson — 2012-01-19

Author:: Richard D.SmithProfessor of Health System Economics; Head, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UKKaraHansonReader in Health System Economics; Head, Department of Global Health and Development Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
ISBN:: 9780199566761
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566761.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

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.

An Insider’s Guide to Clinical Trials

Curtis L Meinert — 2011-09-22

Author:: Curtis L Meinert
ISBN:: 9780199742967
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Public Health
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742967.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

Clinical trials receive a lot of media attention; we hear or read about them almost daily in reports heralding new and promising treatments or reports raising questions about the safety or efficacy of an established treatment. The randomized trial is the foundation of evidence-based medicine and the cornerstone for comparative effectiveness research. This book discusses the inner workings of trials, how they are reported, who and what gets studied, what to make of results, and how to shop for trials as a patient.

Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology

Germaine M. Buck Louis and Robert W. Platt — 2011-05-01

Author:: Germaine M. Buck Louis, Robert W. Platt
ISBN:: 9780195387902
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195387902.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

This book provides an overview of reproductive and perinatal epidemiology with the goal of providing the reader with a working knowledge of both the substantive and methodologic issues underlying this exciting avenue of study. A conceptual paradigm for reproductive and perinatal epidemiology is presented to define the field and its spectrum of possible study outcomes, followed by an overview of the relevant sensitive windows for study and substantive and methodologic issues underlying key study outcomes ranging from human fecundity to adverse birth outcomes. Emerging conceptual and methodologic issues that offer promise for novel research opportunities are discussed in latter chapters. This text is among the first aimed at classroom instruction or for individuals wanting a comprehensive overview of reproductive and perinatal epidemiology and its unique characteristics.

Epidemiology and the People’s Health

Nancy Krieger — 2011-05-01

Author:: Nancy Krieger
ISBN:: 9780195383874
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383874.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

Epidemiology is often referred to as the science of public health. However, unlike other major sciences, its theoretical foundations are rarely articulated. While the idea of epidemiologic theory may seem dry and arcane, it is at its core about explaining the people's health. It is about life and death. It is about biology and society. It is about ecology and the economy. It is about how myriad aspects of people's lives—involving work, dignity, desire, love, play, conflict, discrimination, and injustice—become literally incorporated into our bodies and manifest in our health status, individually and collectively. And it is about essential knowledge critical for improving the people's health and minimizing inequitable burdens of disease, disability, and death. Tracing the history and contours of epidemiologic from ancient societies on through the development of—and debates within—contemporary epidemiology worldwide, this book shows how epidemiologic theory has long shaped epidemiologic practice, knowledge, and the politics of public health. Outlining an ecosocial theory of disease distribution that situates both population health and epidemiologic theory in societal and ecologic context, it offers a more holistic picture of how we embody the human experience.

Sleep, Health and Society

Francesco P. Cappuccio, Michelle A. Miller, and Steven W. Lockley — 2011-01-01

Author:: Francesco P.CappuccioCephalon Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine & Epidemiology and Consultant Physician, University of Warwick, Warwick Medical School & University Hospital, Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust, UKMichelle A.MillerAssociate Professor (Reader) of Biochemical Medicine, University of Warwick, Warwick Medical School and Honorary Senior Research Associate, Department of Epidemiology, University College London, UKSteven W.LockleyAssociate Neuroscientist, Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, USA; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA; Honorary Associate Professor in Sleep Medicine, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, Warwick Medical School and UK Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Australia
ISBN:: 9780199566594
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566594.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation are common in modern society. Increasingly, populations have been subjected to a steady constant decline in the number of hours devoted to sleep, due to changes in a variety of environmental and social conditions. Through the application of epidemiological methods of investigation, sleep deprivation has been shown to be associated with a variety of chronic conditions and health outcomes, detectable across the entire lifespan, from childhood to adulthood to older age. Sleep medicine is rapidly being recognized as a growing area of clinical medicine, affecting wide-ranging specialists including respiratory physicians, neurologists, cardiologists, and psychiatrists. However, it also has huge implications in the fields of epidemiology, public health, and preventive medicine. This book summarizes the epidemiological evidence linking sleep deprivation and disruption to several chronic conditions, and explores the public health implications with the view to developing preventive strategies.

Obesity Epidemiology

David Crawford, Robert W. Jeffery, Kylie Ball, and Johannes Brug — 2011-01-01

Author:: DavidCrawfordDirector, Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University, AustraliaRobert W.JefferyProfessor, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, USAKylieBallSenior Research Fellow, Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research, Deakin University, AustraliaJohannesBrugDirector of the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, Professor of Epidemiology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ISBN:: 9780199571512
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571512.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Although recognized clinically for some time as an important condition that increases risk of ill-health in affected individuals, it is only recently that obesity had been recognized as a population-wide problem that requires preventive action. Obesity is a major contributor to diseases and disability, the associated health costs are enormous and obesity has already reached epidemic proportions in many countries, and incidence is continuing to increase in children and adults. Disturbingly the epidemic is not confined to developed countries, with many developing countries and those in transition affected. While recognized as a major population health problem, our understanding of the causes of the epidemic is poor, there has been relatively little population-based research that has focused on the prevention of unhealthy weight gain, and as a consequence knowledge regarding how and where best to intervene is limited. This book provides a scholarly text that assists those concerned with understanding prevalence and trends in obesity; its health, social, and economic consequences, the underlying causes of the obesity epidemic, the existing evidence regarding strategies to prevent obesity, and the potential of public health initiatives to impact on the population prevalence of obesity.

Evidence-Based Public Health

2011-01-01

Author:: Ross C. Brownson, Elizabeth A. Baker, Terry L. Left, Kathleen N. Gillespie, William R. True
ISBN:: 9780195397895
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195397895.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This second edition of this text returns to the question: How much of our work in public health is evidence based? The exact answer to that question can never be known, however, the answer would certainly include the words “not enough”. Public health has successfully addressed many challenges. Programs and policies have been implemented and, in some cases, positive results have been reported that show improvements in population health. Yet some populations still suffer health disparities and social inequalities. This leads us to questions such as: Are there ways to take the lessons learned from successful interventions and apply them to other issues and settings? Are we applying the evidence that is well established in scientific studies? How do we foster greater political will that supports evidence-based decision making? How do we develop incentives so practitioners will make better use of evidence? The format for this second edition is very similar to the approach taken in the course and the first edition. Chapter 1 provides the rationale for evidence-based approaches to decision making in public health. Chapter 2 presents concepts of causality that help in determining when scientific evidence is sufficient for public health action. Chapter 3 describes a set of analytic tools that can be extremely useful in finding and evaluating evidence—these include economic evaluation, health impact assessment, meta-analysis, and expert guidelines. The next seven chapters lay out a sequential framework which includes: conducting a community assessment, developing an initial statement of the issue, quantifying the issue, searching the scientific literature and organizing information, developing and prioritizing intervention options, developing an action plan and implementing interventions, and evaluating the program or policy.

Diabetes Public Health

K.M. Venkat Narayan, Desmond Williams, Edward W. Gregg, and Catherine C. Cowie — 2011-01-01

Author:: K.M. VenkatNarayanDesmondWilliamsEdward W.GreggCatherine C.Cowie
ISBN:: 9780195317060
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195317060.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Numerous research programs have developed over the last decade to improve the understanding of the causes, prevention, and treatment of diabetes and its complications. Efficient synthesis of the data and information from these diverse sources is crucial to prioritize interventions and assemble resources for the implementation of public health programs. This book meets this need and builds on previous works to reflect the evolution of science related to diabetes public health. Through compelling evidence related to the current health and economic impact of diabetes, the book provides effective approaches to prevent and manage diabetes through the practice of public health. It combines descriptions of risk factors and complications, effective and cost-effective approaches to prevention and treatment, translational research, and genomics to give an analysis on diabetes public health. Critical review and synthesis of influential epidemiologic studies and consensus statements, expected future advances in trials and technologies, and public health information resources are also highlighted topics.

Chronic Pain Epidemiology

Peter Croft, Fiona M. Blyth, and Danielle van der Windt — 2011-01-01

Author:: PeterCroftProfessor of Epidemiology and Director of the Arthritis Research Campaign National Primary Care Centre, Keele University, UKhttp://www.keele.ac.uk/research/pchs/pcmrc/staff/senior/croft.htmFiona M.BlythHead of Pain Epidemiology, University of Sydney Pain Management Research Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, AustraliaDaniellevan der WindtProfessor in Primary Care Epidemiology, Arthritis Research Campaign National Primary Care Centre, Keele University, UK
ISBN:: 9780199235766
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235766.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Chronic pain is a major cause of distress, disability, and work loss, and it is becoming increasingly prevalent through the general move towards an ageing population, which impacts dramatically upon society and health care systems worldwide. Due to improvements in health care, it is becoming more common for patients to continue living with long-term illness or disease (rather than these being terminal). Yet little attention has been paid to chronic pain as a public health problem or to the potential for its prevention, even though it can be studied and assessed using concepts and ideas from classical epidemiology. This book takes an unusual approach in making a symptom the focus of public health research and policy. Written by leaders in the field of pain, it fills a gap in current literature by presenting chronic pain in terms of cause, impact, consequence, and prevention. It presents individual conditions as examples of chronic pain, together with chapters that provide overviews on the assessment of pain and methodological issues behind population assessment.

A Biologic Approach to Environmental Assessment and Epidemiology

Thomas J. Smith and David Kriebel — 2011-01-01

Author:: Thomas J. Smith, David Kriebel
ISBN:: 9780195141566
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195141566.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

Environmental chemical hazards are a highly contentious topic in modern life. Nearly every nation on earth has faced its own environmental crises, and also shares perspectives on the possibility of global catastrophes. Of the many global concerns we face, the environmental issue is unique in many ways. The greatest of these is the fundamental scientific nature of the issue, and the extent to which our opinions are formed based on high-level scientific inquiry and assessment. The two key fields of study on this issue, environmental epidemiology and exposure assessment, are still given separate names because of their separate historical roots and scientific traditions, but are seen increasingly as inseparable aspects of the same basic investigation. In this book, the authors assert that important advances in the quantification of environmental risks can only come through a true synthesis of the two fields. They have built a common biologic model of exposure, physiologic response and disease, a synthesis of the various existing models which serves to both simplify and improve the application of environmental epidemiology and exposure assessment to current and future environmental chemical risks. When exposure assessor and epidemiologist agree from the start on the model for their study, the conceptual framework for the study they design and the analyses they carry out are much more likely to yield useful exposure-risk information. An explicit biologic model of the apparent processes linking exposure to disease should form the basis for any study seeking to quantify risk from environmental chemicals.

Tobacco

Peter Boyle, Nigel Gray, Jack Henningfield, John Seffrin, and Witold Zatonski — 2010-09-01

Author:: PeterBoyleDivision of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, ItalyNigelGrayHonorary Senior Associate, Cancer Council Victoria, AustraliaJackHenningfieldProfessor, Behavioral Biology and Director, Innovators Awards Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Vice President, Research and Health Policy, Pinney Associates, USAJohnSeffrinChief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society, Inc, USAWitoldZatonskiDirector and Professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention Center and Institute of Oncology; Founder and President of the Health Promotion Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
ISBN:: 9780199566655
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566655.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-09-01

This book covers the science and policy issues relevant to one of the major public health disasters of modern times. It pulls together the aetiology and burden of the myriad of tobacco-related diseases with the successes and failures of tobacco control policies. The book looks at lessons learnt to help set health policy for reducing the burden of tobacco-related diseases. It also deals with the international public health policy issues which bear on control of the problem of tobacco use and which vary between continents. New chapters in this edition cover subjects such as market manipulation, the ways in which the tobacco industry recruits and retains smokers, and how product design is manipulated in order to maintain addiction.

Teaching Epidemiology

Jørn Olsen, Rodolfo Saracci, and Dimitrios Trichopoulos — 2010-05-01

Author:: JørnOlsenProfessor and Chair, UCLA School of Public Heath, California, USA and Professor, University of Aarhus, DenmarkRodolfoSaracciDirector of research in Epidemiology, National Council, Pisa, Italy; Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, University of Aarhus, Denmark; and Scientific consultant, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, FranceDimitriosTrichopoulosVincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention and Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA
ISBN:: 9780199239481
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239481.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

The aim of this book is to help the inexperienced teacher in epidemiology when planning a course, and to be an inspiration for experienced teachers when he/she is trying to improve teaching performance. Each chapter includes a suggested course structure, syllabus, and set of key literature references related to the topic of the course. The chapters also include personal guidelines for how to teach the course and how to evaluate student performance. The book includes courses in methodology at different levels as well as courses in specific diseases, specific disease determinant and data collection methods. You will also find guidelines in how to use computer technology in the classroom, and how to make good use of teaching assistants. The book includes chapters on public health epidemiology and clinical epidemiology.

Social Networks and Health

Thomas W. Valente — 2010-05-01

Author:: Thomas W. Valente
ISBN:: 9780195301014
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301014.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Social Networks and Health provides a comprehensive introduction to how social networks influence health behaviors. Section one provides an introduction to major research themes and perspectives used to understand how networks form, evolve, and channel the spread of ideas and behaviors. An intellectual history of the field is provided as well as conjectures on why network science took so long to develop. Methodologies for studying networks and assessing personal network data are discussed. Section two covers algorithms and applications of the most common network metrics divided into four chapters: centrality, groups, positions, and network level. For each chapter, descriptions of how the metrics are calculated and how they influence health behavior are presented. Section three reviews applications of social network analysis to health behaviors. The actor-oriented stochastic evolution model is presented first which provides a way to statistically test network evolution properties. Diffusion of innovations models are presented next which describe how networks influence the spread of ideas and practices within and between communities. Network interventions are also presented and a typology describing network interventions and evidence from empirical studies presented. This book enables researchers to understand how network data are collected and processed; and how to calculate appropriate metrics and models used to understand network influences on health behavior. Simple examples and data are presented throughout so researchers can adopt this methodology and perspective in their own investigations. Examples of health behaviors include smoking, substance use, contraception, HIV/AIDS, obesity, and many others.

Public Health

John Walley and John Wright — 2010-05-01

Author:: JohnWalleyProfessor of International Public Health, Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UKJohnWrightProfessor of Clinical Epidemiology, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Bradford and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Bradford, UK
ISBN:: 9780199238934
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199238934.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Many of the health problems in the developing world can be tackled or prevented through public health measures such as essential health care, improved living conditions, water, sanitation, nutrition, immunization, and the adoption of healthy lifestyles. Public Health is an action guide to improving public/community health, with a particular focus on low- to middle-income countries. It explains public health approaches to developing effective health services and preventive programmes. This Second Edition contains real examples, illustrations and case histories to bring an important subject to life for the reader. The book covers the essential clinical services and preventive programmes — including those for TB, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and diarrhoeal diseases — and the integrated management of childhood and adult illnesses. Practical methods are given for assessing health needs and working with communities to develop health services; and the development of hospital, health centre, and community health services — particularly mother, neonatal, and child health services — are explained. Additionally, gender, social, and economic influences on communities' health are explored.

Principles in Health Economics and Policy

Jan Abel Olsen — 2010-05-01

Author:: Jan Abel Olsen
ISBN:: 9780199237814
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237814.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Principles in Health Economics and Policy is a concise introduction to health economics and its application to health policy. It introduces the subject of economics, explains the fundamental failures in the market for health care, and discusses the concepts of equity and fairness when applied to health and health care. The book takes a policy-oriented approach, emphasizing the application of economic analysis to universal health policy issues. It explores the key questions facing health policy-makers across the globe right now, such as: how should society intervene in the determinants that affect health? How should health care be financed? How should health care providers be paid? And, how should alternative health care programmes be evaluated when setting priorities? Exercises and suggested readings are included after each chapter.

Human Genome Epidemiology, 2nd Edition

2010-05-01

Author:: MuinKhouryCenters for Disease Control and PreventionSaraBedrosianCenters for Deisease Control and PreventionMartaGwinnCenters for Disease Control and PreventionJulianHigginsInstitute of Public Health, UKJohnIoannidisUniversity of Ioanna School of MedicineJulianLittleUniversity of Ottowa
ISBN:: 9780195398441
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398441.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

The first edition of Human Genome Epidemiology, published in 2004, discussed how the epidemiologic approach provides an important scientific foundation for studying the continuum from gene discovery to the development, application and evaluation of human genome information in improving health and preventing disease. Since that time, advances in human genomics have continued to occur at a breathtaking pace. With contributions from leaders in the field from around the world, this new edition is a fully updated look at the ways in which genetic factors in common diseases are studied. Methodologic developments in collection, analysis and synthesis of data, as well as issues surrounding specific applications of human genomic information for medicine and public health are all discussed. In addition, the book focuses on practical applications of human genome variation in clinical practice and disease prevention. The book is a useful tool for understanding the rapidly evolving methods of the discovery and use of genetic information in medicine and public health in the 21st century.

Drug Policy and the Public Good

2010-05-01

Author:: Thomas F. Babor, Jonathan P. Caulkins, Griffith Edwards, Benedikt Fischer, David R. Foxcroft, Keith Humphreys, Isidore S. Obot, Jürgen Rehm, Peter Reuter, Robin Room, Ingeborg Rossow, John Strang
ISBN:: 9780199557127
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557127.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Drug use represents a significant burden to public health, through disease, disability and social problems, and policy makers are becoming increasingly interested in how to develop evidence-based drug policy. It is therefore crucial to strengthen the links between addiction science and drug policy. Drug Policy and the Public Good is collaboratively written by an international group of career scientists, to provide an analytical basis on which to build relevant global drug policies, and to inform policy makers who have direct responsibility for public health and social welfare. Drug Policy and the Public Good presents the accumulated scientific knowledge on illicit drugs that has direct relevance to the development of drug policy on local, national, and international levels. The authors describe the conceptual basis for a rational drug policy, and present new epidemiological data on the global dimensions of drug misuse. The core of the book is a critical review of the cumulative scientific evidence in five general areas of drug policy: primary prevention programs in schools and other settings; supply reduction approaches, including drug interdiction and legal enforcement; treatment interventions and harm reduction approaches; criminal sanctions and decriminalization; and control of the legal market through prescription drug regimes. The final chapters discuss the current state of drug policy in different parts of the world, and describe the need for a new approach to drug policy that is evidence-based, realistic, and coordinated.

Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity

2010-05-01

Author:: Thomas F. Babor, Raul Caetano, Sally Casswell, Griffith Edwards, Norman Giesbrecht, Kathryn Graham, Joel W. Grube, Linda Hill, Harold Holder, Ross Homel, Michael Livingston, Esa Österberg, Jürgen Rehm, Robin Room, Ingeborg Rossow
ISBN:: 9780199551149
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199551149.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity - Research and Public Policy Second Edition is a collaborative effort by an international group of addiction scientists to improve the linkages between addiction science and alcohol policy. It presents the accumulated scientific knowledge on alcohol research that has a direct relevance to the development of alcohol policy on local, national, and international levels. It provides an objective analytical basis on which to build relevant policies globally, and informs policy makers who have direct responsibility for public health and social welfare. By locating alcohol policy primarily within the realm of public health, this book draws attention to the growing tendency for governments, both national and local, to consider alcohol misuse as a major determinant of ill health, and to organize societal responses accordingly. The scope of the book is comprehensive and international. The authors describe the conceptual basis for a rational alcohol policy and present new epidemiological data on the global dimensions of alcohol misuse. The core of the book is a critical review of the cumulative scientific evidence in seven general areas of alcohol policy: pricing and taxation; regulating the physical availability of alcohol; modifying the environment in which drinking occurs; drink-driving countermeasures; marketing restrictions; primary prevention programs in schools and other settings; and treatment and early intervention services. The final chapters discuss the current state of alcohol policy in different parts of the world and describe the need for a new approach to alcohol policy that is evidence-based, realistic, and coordinated.

Sports Injury Research

Evert Verhagen and Willem van Mechelen — 2010-02-01

Author:: EvertVerhagenSenior Researcher, Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsWillemvan MechelenProfessor, Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ISBN:: 9780199561629
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199561629.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

With the increasing focus on tackling obesity and other lifestyle-related illnesses and conditions, participation in sports and physical activity is growing. The consequences are that injuries and unwanted side-effects of healthy activity are becoming major health problems. Prevention is crucial to health gain, both in the short-term (preventing immediate injury), and in the longer term (reducing the risk of recurrence and prolonged periods of impairment). Prevention follows four main steps: 1) the sports injury problem must be described in incidence and severity; 2) the etiological risk factors and mechanisms underlying the occurrence of injury are identified; 3) preventive methods that are likely to work can be developed and introduced; and 4) the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of such measures are evaluated.

Social Marketing and Public Health

Jeff French, Clive Blair-Stevens, Dominic McVey, and Rowena Merritt — 2010-02-01

Author:: JeffFrenchExecutive Director, National Social Marketing Centre, London, UKCliveBlair-StevensDirector of Strategy & Operations, National Social Marketing Centre, London, UKDominicMcVeyDirector of Research and Development, National Social Marketing Centre, London, UKRowenaMerrittProgramme Manager for local practitioner development and support, National Social Marketing Centre, London, UK
ISBN:: 9780199550692
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199550692.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing tools and principles to the design, implementation, and evaluation of health and social behaviour-change programmes. It focuses on target groups within the population, tailoring campaigns and awareness with the aim of achieving specific behavioural goals relevant to the public good. It is increasingly recognised as a valuable tool within public health, where it can improve health and reduce health inequalities. It is particularly important for influencing voluntary lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, drug use, drinking, and diet. Social Marketing and Public Health: Theory and Practice gives an international focus on social marketing. It covers both theory and practice, frames social marketing within its political and policy context, and takes an ecological view of health improvement. The book includes case examples to allow the reader to understand some of the benefits and challenges of this approach, and provides a step-by-step guide to developing, implementing, and evaluating social marketing.

Risk, Safety and Clinical Practice

Bob Heyman, Andy Alaszewski, Monica Shaw, and Mike Titterton — 2010-02-01

Author:: Bob Heyman, Andy Alaszewski, Monica Shaw, Mike Titterton
ISBN:: 9780198569008
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198569008.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

All too often, service users, health professionals, policy makers, educators, and researchers draw upon risk management frameworks without reflecting critically on their assumptions or limitations. This book is designed to promote ‘risk literacy’. It introduces the reader to a range of issues, often unrecognized, which underlie all health risk management. The book is designed for practitioners, managers, educators, policy makers, researchers, service users, and members of the public who are concerned with health risks. It will help readers to critically evaluate the claims made about organized responses to identified risks in an informed and critical way. The topics covered in the book are illustrated through real clinical examples that demonstrate their relevance for practice. The book unpicks the core elements of risk-thinking; namely, categorization, valuing, inductive probabilistic reasoning, and time-framing. It then reviews key issues relating to organized health risk management: encoding, media representation and influence, regulation, and the patient safety agenda. The concluding chapter analyses responses to the 2009 swine flu pandemic in order to illustrate and draw together the themes discussed in the book.

Risk Communication and Public Health

Peter Bennett, Kenneth Calman, Sarah Curtis, and Denis Fischbacher-Smith — 2010-02-01

Author:: PeterBennettHead of Analysis for Health Protection, Department of Health, London, UKKennethCalmanChancellor, University of Glasgow, UKSarahCurtisProfessor of Health and Risk, Durham University, UKDenisFischbacher-SmithProfessor of Risk and Resilience, CHERR - Centre for Health, Environment and Risk Research, University of Glasgow, UK
ISBN:: 9780199562848
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562848.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Controversies about risks to public health regularly hit the news, whether about food safety, environmental issues, medical interventions, or ‘lifestyle’ risks such as drinking. To those trying to manage or regulate risks, public reactions sometimes seem bizarre. To the public, the behaviour of those supposedly ‘in charge’ can seem no less odd. Trust is currently at a premium. This new edition of Risk Communication and Public Health covers the theoretical and research background, and presents a wide range of contemporary case studies and the learning experiences from these, and the political, institutional and organisational issues they raise. It concludes with an analysis of the lessons learned and gives pointers for the future. The book offers international perspectives, and contributors include representatives from consumer organisations as well as public health practitioners and academics. This edition is substantially updated with new material and case studies, but retains the same focus: the improvement of communication and promotion of ‘good practice’ in risk communication, Government, the Health Service and elsewhere.

Research for Health Policy

Erica Bell — 2010-02-01

Author:: Erica Bell
ISBN:: 9780199549337
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549337.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Individuals working in health research want to be able to use their findings to influence health policy. However, frequently, research evidence remains detached from practice, and there is a divide between research and policy. Research for Health Policy is an introduction to the emerging genre of applied research for policy decision-making, offering new research methods that go beyond the traditional classical experimental techniques and standard qualitative methods. This practical and practice-based book is relevant to researchers in different disciplines and countries, and will equip the reader with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to deliver policy-relevant research in the government, not-for-profit, and private sectors. As a book that helps its reader to develop the blend of strategic people skills, methodological inventiveness, research entrepreneurship, creative design, and policy writing know-how that is critical to delivering useful research evidence for policy, Research for Health Policy is essential reading for anyone doing, studying, or teaching health policy advocacy and research. It also has much to offer postgraduate and professional development students and their educators, who want to move beyond the common undergraduate focus on policy content areas and policy theory/process, to learn more advanced practical research skills for policy-making.

Evidence-based Public Health

Amanda Killoran and Mike P. Kelly — 2010-02-01

Author:: AmandaKilloranPublic health analyst, Centre for Public Health Excellence, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, London, UKMike P.KellyDirector, Centre for Public Health Excellence, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, London, UK
ISBN:: 9780199563623
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199563623.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Evidence-Based Public Health: Effectiveness and Efficiency continues the themes raised in Public Health Evidence: tackling health inequalities. Written by the same team, this book is a comprehensive reference to evidence-based approaches in public health. It covers the context and role of evidence-based public health in England; frameworks for evaluating the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of public health policies and interventions; diversity, vulnerability and risk as a focus for understanding the role of social context in influencing health-related behaviours; approaches and methods to generate and synthesize evidence of what works to improve health and tackle health inequalities; current best available evidence on the effectiveness of a diverse range of interventions; and the role of evidence-based guidance and standards in changing policy and practice.

Economic Evaluation in Child Health

Wendy Ungar — 2010-02-01

Author:: WendyUngarSenior Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children; Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, The University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ISBN:: 9780199547494
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199547494.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

As the conduct of health economic evaluations to inform health budget decision-making becomes more common, the special challenges of measuring costs and health consequences in children, from neonate to adolescent, have become increasingly evident. It is imperative that these challenges be considered so that high quality child health evidence may be generated and this population can be included in evidence-based allocation decisions. This book is divided into three sections: Methods, Applications, and Using evidence for decision-making, with chapters contributed by international experts. The Methods section presents detailed discussions of measuring lifetime costs and consequences, capturing productivity losses, obtaining unbiased self- and proxy reports, incorporating externalities, choosing valid outcome measures, assessing utility and quality of life, and designing studies using value of information. The Applications section reviews economic evidence in common childhood conditions and areas of investigation, including newborn screening, harm prevention, mental health services, brain injury, asthma, and immunization. The final section explores the use of economic evidence in decision-making, and includes descriptions of the WHO-CHOICE approach, the role of clinical research, how to value health gains by children, and the emerging field of pediatric health technology assessment. In addition to an emphasis on methods, a deliberate effort was made to include issues relevant to developing countries, where the burden of childhood disease is greatest, and for whom high quality economic evidence is critical.

Where's the Evidence?

William A. Silverman and David L. Sackett — 2009-09-01

Author:: William A. Silverman, David L. Sackett
ISBN:: 9780192630889
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192630889.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The chapters in this book focus on problems ignored. This book is a collection of critical and controversial chapters on intractable ethical issues and evidence-based problems in modern medicine. Although it is impossible to prevent all missteps in medicine, the book argues, a hedging strategy using concurrent controls when new therapies are introduced always reduces the number of patients killed or injured. It is dangerous to use treatments widely, it warns, before they are subject to rigorous comparative trials. Additionally, the book points out, questions have emerged about how to wield medicine's new capabilities wisely. How do we draw the line, it asks between ‘knowing’ (the acquisition of new medical information) and ‘doing’ (the application of that new knowledge). What are the long-term consequences (moral, social, economic, and biological) of responding to a demand that medicine always do everything that can be done?

War and Public Health

Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel — 2009-09-01

Author:: Barry S.LevyTufts University School of MedicineVictor W.SidelAlbert Einstein Medical College and Montefiore Medical Center
ISBN:: 9780195311181
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311181.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book has two main purposes. The first is to provide a systemic survey of information on the direct and indirect consequences of war on public health and the roles that health professionals and their organizations can play in preventing war and its consequences. A wide spectrum of other individuals and their organizations, including diplomats, economists, sociologists, and policy makers, also play roles in the prevention of war and its consequences, and can benefit from this information. The second purpose of this book is to help make war and its prevention an integral part of public health education, research, and practice. The book is divided into six parts. Part I places war in the context of public health. Part II addresses the epidemiology of war and the impact of war on health, human rights, and the environment. Part III focuses on major categories of weapons and their adverse health effects. Part IV addresses the adverse effects of war on children, women, refugees and internally displaced persons, and prisoners of war. Part V addresses the health impact of five specific wars of varied type and magnitude. Part VI discusses the roles of health professionals and organizations during war and the roles they can play in preventing war and reducing its health consequences.

Using Cost-Effectiveness Analysis to Improve Health Care

Peter J. Neumann — 2009-09-01

Author:: Peter J. Neumann
ISBN:: 9780195171860
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171860.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

It is widely agreed that cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) could shed light on ways for the U.S. health care system to achieve better value. However, to date American policy makers have largely avoided using CEA and researchers have devoted little attention to understanding why this is so. By considering the economic, social, legal, and ethical factors that contribute to the situation, and how they can be negotiated in the future, this book offers a unique perspective. It traces the roots of CEA in health and medicine, describes its promise for rational resource allocation, and discusses the nature of the opposition to it, using Medicare and the Oregon health plan as examples. In exploring the disconnection between the promise of CEA and the persist failure of rational intentions, the book seeks to find common ground and practical solutions.

Unequal Opportunity

Richard J. Wolitski, Ron Stall, and Ronald O. Valdiserri — 2009-09-01

Author:: Richard J.WolitskiCenters for Disease Control and PreventionRonStallCenters for Disease Control and PreventionRonald O.ValdiserriCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
ISBN:: 9780195301533
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301533.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Most public health students, academicians, and practitioners readily recognize the association between racial/ethnic minority status and the disproportionate burden of preventable disease in the United States. However, much less attention has been directed toward health disparities that affect gay and bisexual men. Until recently, the relative invisibility of this group, homophobia, and a lack of empirical data have hampered attempts to identify and characterize health disparities in this population. This book represents a comprehensive effort to review and synthesize evidence of health disparities among gay and bisexual men. It examines the evidence documenting health disparities across a wide range of health problems including mental health, suicide, alcohol use, tobacco use, drug use, violent victimization (hate crimes and intimate partner violence), sexual abuse, sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis, and HIV and AIDS. This book identifies individual and societal factors that contribute to these disparities and articulates how these “syndemics” or co-occurring and interacting epidemics may arise as a result of developmental experiences that are common to the lives of many gay and bisexual men in contemporary American society. Specific consideration is given to health care issues and the unique concerns and experiences of racial/ethnic minorities, younger men, and older men. Most important, this book identifies key directions for future research and articulates much-needed strategies for eliminating the multiple health disparities experienced by gay and bisexual men in the United States.

The Trust Crisis in Healthcare

David A. Shore — 2009-09-01

Author:: David A.ShoreTrust Initiative, Harvard School of Public Healthhttp://www.extension.harvard.edu/about-us/faculty-directory/david-shore
ISBN:: 9780195176360
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176360.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The lack of trust in the U.S. healthcare system brings ominous results, from decreasing health outcomes to increasing costs, from organizational inefficiencies to a pattern of litigation. The trust famine carries dire consequences if allowed to continue, but measures to regain trust are possible. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the causes and consequences of declining trust in healthcare, and provides suggestions for restoring trust. Part I describes the state of trust in society and in healthcare. Part II examines the impact of quality and safety on trust. Part III considers the relationship between medical communication and trust. Part IV suggests innovations which lead to building trust. Critical areas discussed include: the changing patient-physician relationship; systemic conditions that lead to medical errors; novel modes of interaction to improve satisfaction; definition of patient-centered care and metrics to evaluate its presence or absence; the sources of exaggerations in the media and on the internet; new standards for medical reporting; insights from clinical settings applied to concerns about the use of human subjects in biomedical research; recommendations for revising medical school curricula and strengthening the peer-review process in medical journals; and practical strategies for decreasing the lingering discord between patients, providers, and health plans. As healthcare professionals are now coming to realize what other professionals have known for years: trust is earned, not assumed. This book aims to demonstrate that trust-building is not only good medicine, but good business as well.

Textbook of Cancer Epidemiology

Hans-Olov Adami, David Hunter, and Dimitrios Trichopoulos — 2009-09-01

Author:: Hans-OlovAdamiHarvard School of Public Health, USA, and Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, Karolinska InstituteDavidHunterHarvard School of Public HealthDimitriosTrichopoulosHarvard School of Public Health
ISBN:: 9780195311174
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311174.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book offers an overview of the epidemiology and primary prevention for most forms of human cancer. It summarizes concepts and methods of epidemiology, the biology of cancer, cancer genetics, and the emerging potential of biomarkers. It also reviews specific cancer sites in a consistent way, providing clinical and pathological outlines, descriptive epidemiology, and a comprehensive account of traditional and molecular risk factors and their etiological importance. An epilogue summarizes the major contributions that epidemiology has made in the last few decades to our understanding of the causes of cancer, and speculates about future developments.

Terrorism and Public Health

Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel — 2009-09-01

Author:: Barry S.LevyTufts University, School of Medicine, and Independent ConsultantVictor W.SidelAlbert Einstein Medical College
ISBN:: 9780195325256
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325256.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book addresses terrorism and public health, and presents a balanced approach to strengthening systems and protecting people. It provides up-to-date, science-based expert information on, and a systematic practical approach to a wide range of relevant public health issues as they relate to terrorism. The book is designed to assist public health workers and others in responding to terrorist attacks and reducing and preventing threats of future terrorism; and reducing or preventing inappropriate or dysfunctional responses to the threats of future terrorism. Part I describes the public health response to 9/11 and its aftermath. Part II describes terrorist weapons and their use. Part III describes, in practical detail, the challenges and opportunities that terrorism presents to public health.

Statistical Analysis of Epidemiologic Data

Steve Selvin — 2009-09-01

Author:: Steve Selvin
ISBN:: 9780195172805
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172805.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Analytic procedures suitable for the study of human disease are scattered throughout the statistical and epidemiologic literature. Explanations of their properties are frequently presented in mathematical and theoretical language. This text provides a clear understanding of the statistical methods that are widely used in epidemiologic research without depending on advanced mathematical or statistical theory. By applying these methods to actual data, this book reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each analytic approach. The book combines techniques from the fields of statistics, biostatistics, demography, and epidemiology to present an overview that does not require computational details of the statistical techniques described. Throughout, the text contains illuminating discussions with new elements for this edition, including the analysis of multi-level categorical data and simple, intuitive arguments that exponential survival times cause the hazard function to be constant. There are also new applied examples to illustrate such topics as the pitfalls of proportional mortality data, the analysis of matched pair categorical data, and the age-adjustment of mortality rates based on statistical models. The most important new feature is a chapter on Poisson regression analysis. This essential statistical tool permits the multivariable analysis of rates, probabilities, and counts.

Spatial Epidemiology

Paul Elliott, Jon Wakefield, Nicola Best, and David Briggs — 2009-09-01

Author:: PaulElliottProfessor of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, Imperial College School of MedicineJonWakefieldSmall Area Health Statistics Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine and Department of Statistics, University of Washington, SeattleNicolaBestSmall Area Health Statistics Unit, Imperial College School of MedicineDavidBriggsSmall Area Health Statistics Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine
ISBN:: 9780198515326
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515326.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book explores the field of geographical variations in disease. Especially with respect to variations in environmental exposures at the small-area scale, the book gives an account of current practice and developments. The recent and rapid expansion of the field looks set to continue in line with growing public, governmental, and media concern about environmental and health issues, and the scientific need to understand and explain the effects of environmental pollutants on health. The book is concerned with fostering an understanding of the geographical distribution of disease and the effects of environmental exposures on human health.

Social Injustice and Public Health

Barry S. Levy and Victor W. Sidel — 2009-09-01

Author:: Barry S.LevyTufts University School of MedicineVictor W.SidelAlbert Einstein College of Medicine
ISBN:: 9780195171853
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171853.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The aim of this book is to offer a comprehensive approach to understanding social injustice and its impact on public health. Part I explores the nature of social injustice and its adverse effects on public health. Part II describes in detail how the health of ten specific population groups is affected by social injustice. Part III explores how social injustice adversely affects health in ten different areas, ranging from infectious diseases to mental health, from prevention of assaultive violence and war, to occupational health and safety. Part IV provides an action agenda for what needs to be done to prevent social injustice and to minimize its impact on health. In sum, the book examines social injustice as a principal causative factor and as a consequence of many public health problems.

Social Inequalities in Health

Johannes Siegrist and Michael Marmot — 2009-09-01

Author:: JohannesSiegristProfessor and Director, Department of Medical Sociology, University of Duesseldorf, Germanyhttp://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/MedicalSociology/Direktor.58.0.htmlMichaelMarmotDirector, International Centre for Health and Society; Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK
ISBN:: 9780198568162
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568162.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Health inequalities according to people's social standing are persisting, or even growing, in modern societies. Recent decades have revealed evidence of strong variations in life expectancy, both between countries and within them. This widening of social inequalities has developed despite considerable progress in medical science and an increase in health care spending. The reasons behind this are complex, and the implications considerable. This book provides a summary of the major achievements of a five-year European Science Foundation (ESF) Programme on ‘Social Variations in Health Expectancy in Europe’. The contributors to this book are major figures in their subjects, and combine state of the art reviews with the latest results from interdisciplinary research in epidemiology, sociology, psychology, and biomedicine. Three conceptual frameworks of life course influences, health effects of stressful environments, and macro social determinants of health, are unified, while each chapter addresses the policy implications and recommendations derived from currently available evidence. The major topics covered include the role of family in early life, social integration and health, work stress and job security, successful ways of facing adversity, and the impact of the larger environment on health.

Social Determinants of Health

Michael Marmot and Richard Wilkinson — 2009-09-01

Author:: MichaelMarmotDirector, International Institute for Society and Health; Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UKRichardWilkinsonSocial Epidemiology, University of Nottingham Medical School; visiting Professor Institute for Society and Health, University College London, UK
ISBN:: 9780198565895
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198565895.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The health of populations is related to features of society and its social and economic organization. This crucial fact provides the basis for effective policy-making for improving population health. While there is, understandably, much concern regarding the appropriate provision and financing of health services as well as ensuring that the nature of the services provided is based on the best evidence of effectiveness, health is a matter that goes beyond the provision of health services. Policies pursued by many branches of government and by the private sector, both nationally and locally, exert a powerful influence on health — and this book shows the direction in which we should be going. Just as decisions about health services should be based on the best evidence available, so should policies related to the social determinants of health. The social determinants covered by the book include the impact of early life; the life course, the social gradient, and health; labour market disadvantage, unemployment, non-employment, and job insecurity; the psychosocial environment at work; transport; social support and social cohesion; the politics of food; poverty, social exclusion, and minorities; social patterning of individual behaviours; social determinants of ethnic/ racial inequalities; social determinants of health in older age; neighbourhoods, housing, and health; sexual behaviour and sexual health; and social vulnerability.

Silent Victories

John W. Ward and Christian Warren — 2009-09-01

Author:: John W.WardCenter for Disease ControlChristianWarrenNew York Academy of Medicine
ISBN:: 9780195150698
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150698.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Americans' health improved dramatically over the 20th century. Public health programs for disease and injury prevention were responsible for much of this advance. Over the century, America's public health system grew dramatically in scientific expertise and political authority. As the disease burden of the old scourges of infection, infant mortality, and dietary deficiencies began to lift, public health's mandate expanded to take on new health threats, such as those resulting from a changing workplace, the rise of the automobile and chronic conditions caused by smoking, diet, and other lifestyle and environmental factors. Public health's successes become part of everyday life, a fact already apparent early in the last century, when C. E. A. Winslow noted that the lives saved and healthy years extended were the “silent victories” of public health. In its exploration of ten major public health issues addressed in the 20th century, this book traces the discoveries, practices, and programs in ten areas of pubic health—infection disease control, vaccination, food safety, maternal and infant health, nutrition, occupational health, family planning, oral health, vehicular safety, cardiovascular disease prevention, and tobacco control—coupled with chapters highlighting key issues or conflicts that shaped public health action. The book concludes with a look toward the future challenges for public health.

Shattered Dreams?

Gerald M. Oppenheimer and Ronald Bayer — 2009-09-01

Author:: Gerald M. Oppenheimer, Ronald Bayer
ISBN:: 9780195307306
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195307306.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book is an oral history of how committed doctors and nurses in South Africa struggled to ride the tiger of the world's most catastrophic AIDS epidemic. Based on more than 250 hours of interviews with almost 90 physicians and nurses—black, Indian, and white, gay and heterosexual—it seeks to capture the understandings of these health care providers as they confronted indifference, opposition, resistance, and material scarcity that was both a legacy of apartheid and a consequence of the global power of the international pharmaceutical industry. While there was in South Africa an epidemic among gay white men in the early and mid-1980s that mirrored AIDS in the United States and Europe, it was only at the decade's end, as the racially oppressive apartheid regime was in its death throes, that HIV began to spread among the black majority. At the very moment that the toll of HIV was mounting in South Africa, powerful life-extending medications had transformed the face of AIDS in Europe and America. But these pharmaceuticals were unaffordable to most in countries like South Africa. Only in the year 2000 did health care workers, in alliance with AIDS activists, begin to demand that those dependent upon the public sector have access to such drugs. By doing so, they confronted both global and local inequities and concurrently faced resistance from the very government that had opened the way to political freedom, forcing it to reverse itself in 2003. This book is a collective portrait of clinicians who refused to surrender to despair or nihilism.

Setting Limits Fairly

Norman Daniels and James E. Sabin — 2009-09-01

Author:: Norman Daniels, James E. Sabin
ISBN:: 9780195149364
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149364.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The central idea for this book is that we lack consensus on principles for allocating resources and, in the absence of such a consensus, we must rely on a fair decision-making process for setting limits on health care. The book provides a cogent analysis of the current situation and reviews the usual candidate solutions. It also describes the book's own approach, which represents a clear advance in thinking. The goal of this book is to answer a central question about justice and health care: how can a society or health plan meet population health care needs fairly under resource limitations?

Screening

Angela E. Raffle and J. A. Muir Gray — 2009-09-01

Author:: Angela E. Raffle, J. A. Muir Gray
ISBN:: 9780199214495
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214495.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book presents a wealth of experience derived from improvements in UK screening over recent years and it covers all aspects of screening. The first four chapters of the book deal with concepts, methods, and evidence, explaining what screening is and how it is evaluated. Chapters five to eight describe practical aspects, for example how to make policy, and how to deliver screening to a high standard. The book includes many examples and real-life case histories, a glossary of medical terms, and each chapter concludes with a summary and self-test questions. Reference is made to the UK National Health Service, a leader in screening, but the book is internationally relevant because the principles of good screening apply in any setting. The controversies, paradoxes, uncertainties, and ethical dilemmas of screening are explained in a balanced way.

Safe and Healthy School Environments

Howard Frumkin, Robert Geller, I. Leslie Rubin, and Janice Nodvin — 2009-09-01

Author:: HowardFrumkinNational Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Subtances and Disease Registry, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionRobertGellerDepartment of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Emory UniversityI. LeslieRubinMoorehouse School of Medicine, AtlantaJaniceNodvinEmory Southeast Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, Emory University
ISBN:: 9780195179477
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179477.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

School is the child's workplace. Children spend many of their waking hours at school, in circumstances that are often suboptimal. There may be excessive crowding, poor indoor air quality, unsatisfactory lighting, or exposure to hazardous chemicals. Violence may threaten children's safety. Outside the school, the playground may be dangerous, and on the way to school, children may face risks, whether they walk, bicycle, or ride the bus. Safe and healthy schools offer many benefits. They protect children's health. They enhance learning. They are pleasant places to be. Finally, safe and healthy schools are often environmentally friendly schools, which use less energy, produce fewer pollutants, and model environmental responsibility for teachers and students. This book provides an overview of the school environment, from the perspective of environmental public health. It includes chapters on the physical environment (such factors as crowding, lighting, and noise), air quality within and outside the school, toxic exposures, nutrition and physical activity, violence and disasters, and transportation. It also includes chapters on management issues and on health services at schools.

Rose's Strategy of Preventive Medicine

Geoffrey Rose, Kay-Tee Khaw, and Michael Marmot — 2009-09-01

Author:: Geoffrey Rose, Kay-Tee Khaw, Michael Marmot
ISBN:: 9780192630971
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192630971.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The Strategy of Preventive Medicine, by Geoffrey Rose, first published in 1993 remains a key text for anyone involved in preventive medicine. Rose's insights into the inextricable relationship between ill health, or deviance, in individuals and populations they come from, have transformed our whole approach to strategies for improving health. His personal and unique book, based on many years of research, sets out the case that the essential determinants of the health of society are to be found in its mass characteristics. The deviant minority can only be understood when seen in its societal context, and effective prevention requires changes which involve the population as a whole. Rose's book explores the options for prevention, considering them from various viewpoints — theoretical and scientific, sociological and political, practical, and ethical. The applications of Rose's book's ideas are illustrated by a variety of examples ranging from heart disease to alcoholism to road accidents. The book's pioneering work focused on a population wide approach to the prevention of common medical and behavioural disorders has become the classic text on the subject. This reissue of that text brings the original book to a new generation. This book retains the original text intact, but it includes new perspectives on the work. It examines what relevance Rose's ideas might have in the era of the human genome project and other major scientific advances, it considers examples of how the theory might be applied and generalized in medicine and beyond, and discusses what implications it holds for the future. There is also an explanation of the population perspective, clarifying the often confused thinking and arguments about determinants of individual cases and determinants of population incidence.

Research Methods in Occupational Epidemiology

Harvey Checkoway, Neil E. Pearce, and David Kriebel — 2009-09-01

Author:: Harvey Checkoway, Neil E. Pearce, David Kriebel
ISBN:: 9780195092424
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092424.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This text provides a critical summary of research approaches applied in epidemiologic studies on workplace hazards. It describes the historical development of occupational epidemiology, methods for characterizing exposures, and techniques for designing and implementing studies. The relative strengths and limitations of various study designs for investigating specific health outcomes are emphasized. Also included are presentations of basic and relatively advanced statistical analysis methods, exposure and dose modeling, and subsequent applications of data derived from epidemiologic research, such as in meta-analysis and risk assessment. Throughout, the book illustrates methodological concepts with examples drawn from the peer-reviewed epidemiologic literature. This second edition is an update to the first edition in several notable respects. This text contains descriptions of more recent methodological developments, including the design features of case-cohort and case-crossover studies, and methods for repeated measures analyses. There is also a new chapter on occupational health surveillance. The book concentrates on exposure assessment, describes applications of quantitative exposure data in dose-response modeling, and examines the recognition that improvements in workplace risk identification and quantification requires careful integration of these approaches.

Public Health Branding

W. Douglas Evans and Gerard Hastings — 2009-09-01

Author:: W. DouglasEvansProfessor and Director of Public Health Communication and Marketing, The George Washington University,Washington, DC, USAGerardHastingsProfessor and Director of the Institute for Social Marketing and the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, University of Stirling and The Open University, Stirling, UK
ISBN:: 9780199237135
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237135.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Over a decade ago an editorial in the journal Tobacco Control posed the question: ‘What is the best known word in the world: Sex? Life? Death? Jesus? ....’ ‘No’, the answer came, ‘It's Coca Cola’. This impressive tribute to the power of branding suggested that any attempts to tackle youth smoking would need to take on tobacco brands. Brands build relationships between consumers and products, services, or lifestyles by providing beneficial exchanges and adding value to their objects. Brands can be measured through associations that consumers hold for products and services. Through brand promotion, these associations can lead to a long-term relationship between the product or service and consumer. Similarly, public health brands are the associations that individuals hold for health behaviours, or lifestyles that embody multiple behaviours. Brands in both sectors can also apply to organizations, and upstream factors that promote organizational impact and well being. This book examines the specific tactics and evidence of effectiveness of commercial marketing applied in public health programs. Recently, public health branding has been successfully applied across a wide range of chronic and infectious disease issues and behaviours — from tobacco control to HIV/AIDS — and globally across the developed and developing world. Branding is critically important in public health because often multiple behaviours need to be changed in order to have lasting health outcome benefits. Such behaviour change can be more difficult, thus making the development of improved branding strategies crucial for public health.

Public Health and Primary Care

Alison Hill, Siân Griffiths, and Stephen Gillam — 2009-09-01

Author:: Alison Hill, Siân Griffiths, Stephen Gillam
ISBN:: 9780198508533
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508533.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Primary care teams have had a long established role in public health, providing preventive services to populations, through the registered population in general practice. This model of a registered practice population has withstood multiple reconfigurations and reorganizations within the NHS and is the envy of many countries trying to create a public health system with primary care at its heart. There are clear differences in approach, with the inevitable conflicts between the rights of the individual set against the responsibility to ensure services are delivered fairly and equitably to whole populations. This book explores this dilemma, showing how people working in primary care can cross the divide to become part of the public health system, and in doing so are well placed to make a difference to the health of their populations.

Psychiatric Epidemiology

Ezra Susser, Sharon Schwartz, Alfredo Morabia, and Evelyn Bromet — 2009-09-01

Author:: Ezra Susser, Sharon Schwartz, Alfredo Morabia, Evelyn Bromet
ISBN:: 9780195101812
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195101812.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Searching for the causes of mental disorders is as exciting as it is complex. The relationship between pathophysiology and its overt manifestations is exceedingly intricate, and often the causes of a disorder are elusive at best. This book provides a resource for anyone trying to track these causes. Uniting theory and practice and rather than attempting to review the descriptive epidemiology of mental disorders, this book gives a dynamic exposition of the thinking and techniques used to establish it. The book starts out by tracing the brief history of psychiatric epidemiology, then describes the study of risk factors as causes of mental disorders. Subsequent sections discuss approaches to investigation of biologic, genetic, or social causes and the statistical analysis of study results. The book concludes by following some of the problems involved in the search for genetic causes of mental disorders, and more complex casual relationships.

Principles of Exposure Measurement in Epidemiology

Emily White, Bruce K. Armstrong, and Rodolfo Saracci — 2009-09-01

Author:: Emily White, Bruce K. Armstrong, Rodolfo Saracci
ISBN:: 9780198509851
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198509851.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The accurate measurement of exposure to putative causes of disease is essential to the validity of epidemiologic research. This book covers general principles and methods that can be applied to accurately measure a wide range of exposures (risk factors) in epidemiology, including demographic, anthropometric, nutritional, medical, reproductive, genetic, metabolic, and environmental factors. It covers the methods and quality control approaches for the most commonly used data collection methods in epidemiology, including personal interviews, self administered questionnaires, abstraction of records, keeping of dairies, measurements in blood and other body products, and measurements of the environment. The emphasis is on general methods and examples, but not on detailed reviews of the measurement methods for specific exposures. This book also covers three other major topics relevant to exposure measurement. The first is methods to design, analyze, and interpret validity and reliability studies that quantify the degree of measurement error for a specific exposure. This topic is included because such ancillary studies are important in understanding the effects of exposure measurement error on the ‘parent’ epidemiologic study. The second is methods to maximize response rates. While this topic falls under the construct of reducing selection bias, and most of the rest of the book is focused on reducing misclassification bias, it is included because it is an important aspect of the data collection phase of most epidemiologic studies. The third additional topic, ethical issues in the conduct of epidemiologic research, is included for the same reason.

The Practice of International Health

Daniel Perlman and Ananya Roy — 2009-09-01

Author:: DanielPerlmanUniversity of California, BerkeleyAnanyaRoyUniversity of California, Berkeley
ISBN:: 9780195310276
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310276.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Global health remains a worldwide collection of problems. There is to date no agreed-upon definition of the boundaries of topics meaningfully examined under this rubric. This book acknowledges the importance of understanding the problems routinely classified under this rubric as well as the limitations of international health as a framework. The book comprises a series of vivid first person accounts in which physicians, epidemiologists, health workers, and public health professionals from around the world present the critical dilemmas and challenges facing the field. The chapters in this book are grounded in nine geographically distinct settings and collectively offer a history of international health that situates place-based studies in broad context, while conveying the vividness of experiences told through first-person accounts. Many of the topics addressed in the book reflect four recurring themes. These are: moving beyond the medicalization of health; considering the geopolitics of health; adopting a case-based approach; and taking a hard look at the ethics of practice.

Poverty, Inequality, and Health

David Leon and Gill Walt — 2009-09-01

Author:: DavidLeonGillWaltLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
ISBN:: 9780192631961
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192631961.001.0001
Published in print:: 2000
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book raises new and critical issues about health inequalities. It provides an international perspective on this problem, with contributions from the developed and developing world. The outcome of a Public Health Forum organized by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, this book brings together material from internationally recognised contributors from a wide range of disciplines and countries. The chapters reflect this diversity, ranging from the micro- to the macro-level, and from aetiology to intervention. Topics covered include: the over-arching concepts linking economic and social forces and health status the extent to which ethical concerns lie at the heart of the issue of inequalities in health and attempts to ameliorate them; macro-level features of inequalities in health within and between countries; an overview of the main body of work on inequalities in health in developed countries and those in transition within Europe; specific pathways and mechanisms at the individual level that link poverty and inequality to health status; the interaction of social and biological influences on health status throughout life; specific disease-specific links; and issues of policy and interventions aimed at reducing inequalities in health.

The Potential for Health

Kenneth C. Calman — 2009-09-01

Author:: Kenneth C. Calman
ISBN:: 9780192629449
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192629449.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book has two purposes. First, it aims to identify key issues in health and health care, and, second, it aims to identify ways in which improvements in both might occur. Its title recognises that more might be achieved now if we were able to use our existing knowledge more effectively. We already know what needs to be done the question is how can that potential be realised. It is also acknowledged that change will only come about through people, individually and collectively, changing their behaviour. One important feature of this is to improve quality of life. The aim is to make people feel better and enjoy life in addition to living longer. This concept includes the whole population, it is about health for all, regardless of race, social class, place of birth, and so on. It also requires that decisions and actions are based on evidence and requires a rigorous scientific approach. The basis of the change is education, built on a knowledge base which is constantly being revised and improved and at the heart of the process are ethical issues which provide the framework around which decisions are made.

Population Health

T. Kue Young — 2009-09-01

Author:: T. Kue Young
ISBN:: 9780195158540
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158540.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book focuses on the key concepts and methods of “population health”, which is the study of the health status and health determinants of populations, and the policy development, research agenda, and resource allocation which flow from it. It discusses ways and means of describing the health of populations and estimating their disease burden, assessing and quantifying health risks, designing research studies, and evaluating interventions. It is multidisciplinary in scope—while firmly based on epidemiology and quantitative science, it introduces and integrates concepts from the social sciences and humanities. It uses boxes, case studies, and exercises that provide additional information from the whole spectrum of public health issues and problems, with examples drawn from around the world.

Obesity Epidemiology

Frank Hu — 2009-09-01

Author:: FrankHuHarvard School of Public Health
ISBN:: 9780195312911
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195312911.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

During the past twenty years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. An estimated 30% of adults in the US are obese; in 1980, only 15% were. The issue is gaining greater attention with the CDC and with the public health world in general. This book offers practical information about the methodology of epidemiologic studies of obesity. The book is structured in four main sections. The first section considers issues surrounding the definition of obesity, measurement techniques, and the designs of epidemiologic studies. The second section addresses the consequences of obesity, looking at epidemiologic studies that focus on cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. The third section looks at determinants obesity, reviewing a wide range of risk factors for obesity including diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviors, sleep disorders, psychosocial factors, physical environment, biochemical and genetic predictors, and intrauterine exposures. The final section addresses the analytical issues and challenges for epidemiologic studies of obesity.

Nutritional Epidemiology

Walter C. Willett — 2009-09-01

Author:: Walter C. Willett
ISBN:: 9780195122978
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195122978.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book is intended to increase understanding of the complex relationships between diet and the major diseases of western civilization, such as cancer and atherosclerosis. The book starts with an overview of research strategies in nutritional epidemiology—a relatively new discipline which combines the knowledge compiled by nutritionists during this century with the methodology developed by epidemiologists to study the determinants of disease with multiple etiologies and long latent periods. A major part of the book is devoted to methods of dietary assessment using data on food intake, biochemical indicators of diet, and measures of body size and composition. The reproducibility and validity of each approach and the implications of measurement error are considered in detail. The analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data from epidemiologic studies of diet and disease are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the important influence of total energy intake on findings in such studies. As examples of methodologic issues in nutritional epidemiology, three substantive topics are examined in depth: the relations of diet and coronary heart disease, fat intake and breast cancer, and Vitamin A and lung cancer.

Nutrition for Developing Countries

Felicity Savage-King and Ann Burgess — 2009-09-01

Author:: Felicity Savage-King, Ann Burgess
ISBN:: 9780192622334
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192622334.001.0001
Published in print:: 1993
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book covers the essential facts about nutrients, nutrient needs, foods, and meals. It explains how nutrition workers can help families with nutrition problems, how to treat malnourished children, and how nutrition workers can work in communities and in schools. The book is illustrated, with many new drawings, as well as some from the old edition of the book. This new edition brings the subject to a slightly more advanced level, and includes new ideas on working in and with communities, and about nutrition education. It includes many ideas for exercises for training nutrition workers.

Neuroepidemiology

2009-09-01

Author:: Lorene M.NelsonStanford University, USACaroline M.TannerParkinson's Institute, Sunnyvale, California, USAStephen Van DenEedenKaiser Foundation Research Institute, Oakland, California, USAValarie M.McGuireStanford University, School of Medicine, USA
ISBN:: 9780195133790
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195133790.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book provides the foundation for conducting rigorous epidemiologic and clinical research on neurologic disorders. The book has three parts, each emphasizing the unique aspects of studying neurologic disorders. The first focuses on classic principles of epidemiologic and clinical research, including study design, sources of study bias, and methods for assessing the role of environmental and genetic factors in neurologic disorders. The second part covers each of the major neurologic disorders, with an emphasis on the methodologic aspects of studying these disorders and discussion of future research directions. The third part is devoted to clinical and translational research methods, including the design and conduct of clinical trials and prognostic studies, as well as the principles of health services research and evidence-based medicine. Throughout the book, the principles of neuroepidemiology are illustrated with examples from published studies.

Neighborhoods and Health

Ichiro Kawachi and Lisa F. Berkman — 2009-09-01

Author:: IchiroKawachiLisa F.Berkmanboth at the Harvard School of Public Health, USA
ISBN:: 9780195138382
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138382.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Do places make a difference to people's health and well-being? This book demonstrates how the physical and social characteristics of a neighborhood can shape the health of its residents. Researchers have long suspected that where one lives makes a difference to health in addition to who one is. Almost everyone understands that smoking, unhealthy eating, lack of exercise can compromise longevity and good health, but can a person's ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle be affected by the smoking habits of other people close by, or access to grocery stores, or the existence of safe parks and recreational space? The answers to this question and other similar ones require new ways of thinking about the determinants of health as well as new analytical methods to test these ideas. This book brings together these ideas and new methods. The book contains various parts. The first part deals with methodological complexities of undertaking neighborhood research. The second part showcases the empirical evidence linking neighborhood conditions to health outcomes. The last part tackles some of the major cross-cutting themes in contemporary neighborhood research.

The National Study of Health and Growth

Roberto Rona and Susan Chinn — 2009-09-01

Author:: Roberto Rona, Susan Chinn
ISBN:: 9780192629197
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192629197.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The National Study of Health and Growth (NSHG) was a surveillance system of growth in primary school children of England and Scotland from 1972 to 1994. The system included a representative sample and an inner city sample. The study was valuable for assessing the possible impact of food welfare policy and social factors on nutritional status, mainly assessed in terms of height. The NSHG was the first study to document an increase in child obesity in the United Kingdom. Although the principal aim of the NHSG was to monitor nutritional status, the study was influential in assessing trends in respiratory illness, especially asthma, and in reporting on the risk factors of obesity, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and physical fitness, and other health complaints such as food intolerance, enuresis, and sleep disturbances. The NSGH was successful in maintaining a high response rate throughout its existence.

Multivariate Methods in Epidemiology

Theodore R. Holford — 2009-09-01

Author:: Theodore R. Holford
ISBN:: 9780195124408
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195124408.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Epidemiology provides the scientific basis for much of public health practice, and the revolution in health care and disease prevention indicates that the demand for valuable results from this field will continue to grow. Sound epidemiologic research requires a solid statistical basis for both study design and data analysis. As knowledge about the underlying causes of disease increases, we often see that they have multiple causes, so it is often not possible to limit conclusions to a single factor. Therefore a multivariate approach to data analysis is an essential part of epidemiologic research. The multivariate methods considered in this book involve the simultaneous analysis of the association between multiple attributes of an individual and the risk of a disease. This book aims to address the practical questions of how to approach data analysis. The book is organized in four parts. Part I introduces ways of thinking quantitatively about the disease process. Part II explores some of the computationally direct methods that have long been a part of classical epidemiological data analysis. Separate chapters deal with the analysis of proportions, rates, and semi-parametric approaches from time to failure data. Formal model fitting is considered in much more detail in Part III, which considers not only the analysis of proportions, but also parametric and semi-parametric approaches to the analysis of hazard rates. Part IV deals with special problems that arise when one incorporates aspects of the study design into the analysis, along with approaches to designing a study that will be the right size for addressing the study aims.

More than Ramps

Lisa I. Iezzoni and Bonnie L. O'Day — 2009-09-01

Author:: Lisa I. Iezzoni, Bonnie L. O'Day
ISBN:: 9780195172768
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172768.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Nearly 20% of Americans live today with some disability, and this number will grow as the “baby boomers” age. Despite this, the U.S. health care system is ill equipped to provide optimal, safe, and efficient care to this population. Significant barriers still block people with disabilities from receiving high quality health care. This book examines these barriers then proposes solutions to make health care accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities, focusing on adults who are blind, deaf, hard of hearing, or who have difficulties using their legs, arms, or hands. The book draws upon stories told by persons with these conditions and reviews of national surveys, governmental policies, and current practices. Some barriers are obvious, such as examining tables that are too high. Other problems arise from faulty communication between patients and health care professionals, including misconceptions among clinicians about the daily lives, preferences, values, and abilities of patients with disabilities. Yet others relate to restrictive health insurance policies. Finding patient-centered solutions to these many impediments will take more than simply building ramps. The first part of the book examines broad social and health insurance policies affecting people with disabilities. The second part discusses current barriers to health care, while the third proposes ways to overcome these hurdles and improve care. Using universal design principles, these solutions recognize that creating safe and accessible health care for people with disabilities will benefit virtually everyone at some point in their lives.

Monitoring the Health of Populations

Ron Brookmeyer and Donna F. Stroup — 2009-09-01

Author:: RonBrookmeyerJohns Hopkins University, USADonna F.StroupCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
ISBN:: 9780195146493
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146493.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Public health faces critical challenges ranging from outbreaks of new and old pathogens to the threat of bioterrorism, and the impact of lifestyle and environmental changes on health. Modern tools of public health surveillance and sound statistical practices are essential for meeting these challenges and providing accurate warnings about real public health threats while minimizing false alarms. Advances in statistical techniques, computing power, and the Internet have led to many new approaches to monitoring population health, analyzing the data, and rapidly sharing it. This text explores the critical issues in the statistical analysis and interpretation of public health surveillance data. It covers the statistical methods for detecting disease outbreaks and clusters, the use of survey methods, interpreting time trends and geographic patterns, exploratory statistical analysis of surveillance data, and Web-based health reporting systems for the rapid detection of public health problems, among other topics. The methodological approaches are illustrated in discussions of several current public health issues, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, anthrax, health effects of particulate air pollution, and trends in prostate cancer. The methods are broadly applicable to surveillance systems and registries for numerous health conditions, for example infectious diseases, chronic diseases, adverse drug reactions. The book provides numerous illustrations, examples, and practical information for actually implementing the methods.

Meta-Analysis, Decision Analysis, and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Diana B. Petitti — 2009-09-01

Author:: Diana B. Petitti
ISBN:: 9780195133646
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195133646.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book is an introduction to three methods of quantitative synthesis—meta-analysis, decision analysis, and cost-effectiveness analysis. These methods are used widely to summarize information in order to guide the formulation of clinical recommendations and guidelines, and in clinical decision-making and health policy. The book gives step-by-step instructions on how to conduct studies that use each of the three methods, emphasizing the need for rigor. Important controversies about the statistical and mathematical theories that underlie the methods are highlighted, and key assumptions are identified. The methods are critically appraised and practices that should be avoided are identified. Despite the time that has elapsed between the last revision in 2000, the book remains a relevant and highly accessible source of information on how to conduct studies that use the three methods.

Measuring Health

Ian McDowell — 2009-09-01

Author:: Ian McDowell
ISBN:: 9780195165678
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165678.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

One effect of rising health care costs has been to raise the profile of studies that evaluate care and create a systematic evidence base for therapies and, by extension, for health policies. All clinical trials and evaluative studies require instruments to monitor the outcomes of care in terms of quality of life, disability, pain, mental health, or general well-being. Many measurement tools have been developed, and choosing among them is difficult. This book provides comparative reviews of the quality of leading health measurement instruments and a technical and historical introduction to the field of health measurement, and discusses future directions in the field. This edition reviews over 100 scales, presented in chapters covering physical disability, psychological well-being, anxiety, depression, mental status testing, social health, pain measurement, and quality of life. An introductory chapter describes the theoretical and methodological development of health measures, while a final chapter reviews the current status of the field, indicating areas in which further development is required. Each chapter includes a tabular comparison of the quality of the instruments reviewed, followed by a detailed description of each instrument, covering its purpose and conceptual basis, its reliability and validity, alternative versions and, where possible, a copy of the scale itself. To ensure accuracy, each review has been approved by the original author of each instrument or by an acknowledged expert.

Making Sense of Data

J. H. Abramson and Z. H. Abramson — 2009-09-01

Author:: J. H. Abramson, Z. H. Abramson
ISBN:: 9780195145250
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195145250.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book on the use of epidemiologic data deals with the basic concepts and skills needed for the appraisal of published reports or one's own findings. Applications in clinical medicine, public health and community medicine, and research are taken into consideration. The book acts as an introductory manual that deals in a simple way with fundamental epidemiological approaches and procedures; its aim is to produce competence in the ABC's of data interpretation. It is a workbook of short exercises and instructional self-tests that introduces and explains fundamental approaches and procedures in data interpretation and develops competency in working with epidemiological tools. It deals with basic concepts, the step-by-step assessment of data, rates and other simple measures and the appraisal of their accuracy, associations between variables, the appraisal of cause-effect relationships, meta-analysis, and the practical application of epidemiological findings in clinical practice, community medicine and public health, or research.

Making Data Talk

David E. Nelson, Bradford W. Hesse, and Robert T. Croyle — 2009-09-01

Author:: David E. Nelson, Bradford W. Hesse, Robert T. Croyle
ISBN:: 9780195381535
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381535.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book reviews the science and art of communicating data, that is, “the numbers” to lay audiences. It reviews the vast and varied literature on this topic to provide practical advice on whether, and how, data should be communicated. This book is based on five overarching themes. Firstly, there needs to be an increased awareness of the many factors and complexities to be considered, and also of the possible choices, when selecting and presenting data. Secondly, there should be a recognition of the close and inseparable relationship between public health data selection and presentation with communication purpose, intended audience(s), and communication context. Thirdly, there should be an understanding that data should support a science-based storyline, that is, the conclusion(s) based upon the current state of scientific knowledge about a specific public health topic. Next, this needs to be used ethically and in such a manner as to maximize impact. Finally, selecting and presenting data needs to avoid unintended consequences (e.g., audiences failing to attend to messages, becoming overly fearful or “underconcerned,” or misunderstanding a storyline in some other way). After reviewing health communication basics, lay audiences' understanding of mathematics, common psychological tendencies affecting data understanding, and methods for presenting data, the book provides a simple framework (OPT-In) for selecting and presenting data. It also covers common public health situations faced by public health practitioners, such as education efforts to encourage healthier behaviors, acute public health situations, and advocacy. Bridging the gap between research and practice, the book contains many examples of successful data communication to lay audiences in real-world situations, stressing positive examples of “how to do it better”.

The Limits of Consent

2009-09-01

Author:: OonaghCorriganSenior Lecturer in Clinical Education Research, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Plymouth, UKJohnMcMillanSenior Lecturer in Medical Ethics, Philosophy Department and Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, UKKathleenLiddellUniversity Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, UKMartinRichardsEmeritus Professor of Family Research, University of Cambridge, UKCharlesWeijerProfessor, Departments of Philosophy and Medicine, University of Western Ontario, Canada
ISBN:: 9780199231461
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231461.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Since its inception as an international requirement to protect patients and healthy volunteers taking part in medical research, informed consent has become the primary consideration in research ethics. Despite the ubiquity of consent, however, scholars have begun to question its adequacy for contemporary biomedical research. This book explores this issue, reviewing the application of consent to genetic research, clinical trials, and research involving vulnerable populations. For example, in genetic research, information obtained from an autonomous research participant may have significant bearing on the interests of family members who have not consented to the study. This casts doubt on the adequacy of consent for such studies. This book also questions the assumptions that informed consent is essential and that it satisfactorily protects the principle of individual autonomy. It reviews recent empirical studies that challenge the possibility of truly informed consent and highlights the extent to which consent is governed by social norms and expectations. It also investigates how consent might be of secondary importance in some circumstances, for example when a research project appears to protect a public or community interest.

A Life Course Approach to Women's Health

Diana Kuh and Rebecca Hardy — 2009-09-01

Author:: DianaKuhSenior Research Scientist, Medical Research Council and Reader, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College LondonRebeccaHardyResearch Scientist, Medical Research Council and Lecturer, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London
ISBN:: 9780192632890
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192632890.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

How far is the health of middle-aged and older women shaped by biological, social, and psychological processes that begin in pre-natal development, childhood, adolescence, or early adult life? Do health risks gradually accumulate over the life course or do experiences as a child and young adult have interactive effects on health in midlife and beyond? Are women now reaching middle age in better health than those from previous generations? This book reviews the latest scientific evidence on biological and social factors at each stage of life that have long-term effects on reproductive outcomes, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal ageing, depression, body weight, and body dissatisfaction. There is growing evidence that the sources of risk to physical and mental health occur across the course of life, not just in adult life, and in some instances reach right back to pre-natal development, or the previous generation. Contributors in this book draw on their varied expertise in epidemiology, endocrinology, physiology, developmental psychology, sociology, and anthropology to identify the pathways that link early life experiences, reproductive events, adult lifestyle and lifetime socio-economic circumstances to later health. This book looks for connections between development and ageing, and between the childhood and adult social environment.

A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology

Diana Kuh, Yoav Ben Shlomo, and Susser Ezra — 2009-09-01

Author:: DianaKuhMedical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Royal Free and University College London Medical SchoolYoavBen ShlomoDepartment of Social Medicine, University of BristolSusserEzraSchool of Public Health, Columbia University
ISBN:: 9780198578154
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198578154.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The field of life course epidemiology has expanded rapidly since this book was first published. The purpose of this field is to study how biological and social factors during gestation, childhood, adolescence, and earlier adult life independently, cumulatively, and interactively influence later life health and disease. Contributors to this edition capture the excitement of the developing field and assess the latest evidence regarding sources of risk to health across the life course and across generations. The chapters on life course influences on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, respiratory disease, and cancer have been updated and extended. New chapters on life course influences on obesity, biological ageing, and neuropsychiatric disorders have been added. Life course explanations for disease trends and for socioeconomic differentials in disease risk are given more attention in this edition, reflecting recent developments in the field. The section on policy implications has been expanded, assessing the role of interventions to improve childhood social circumstances, as well as interventions to improve early growth. Emerging new research themes and the theoretical and methodological challenges facing life course epidemiology are highlighted.

Law in Public Health Practice

2009-09-01

Author:: Richard A.GoodmanCenters for Disease Control and PreventionRichard E.HoffmanUniversity of Colorado Health Sciences CenterWilfredoLopezNew York City Department of Health & Mental HygieneGene W.MatthewsAtlanta, GAMarkRothsteinUniversity of Louisville School of MedicineKarenFoster
ISBN:: 9780195301489
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301489.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Continually changing health threats, technologies, science, and demographics require that public health professionals have an understanding of law sufficient to address complex new problems as they come into being. This book provides a review of the legal basis and authorities for the core elements of public health practice and solid discussions of existing and emerging high-priority areas where law and public health intersect. Each chapter is authored jointly by experts in law and public health. This second edition features three new chapters, with several others revised and updated. New chapters address such topics as the statutory bases for US public health systems and practice, the judiciary role in public health, and chronic disease prevention and control. The book begins with a section on the legal basis for public health practice, including foundations and structure of the law, discussions of the judiciary, ethics and practice of public health, and criminal law and international considerations. The second section focuses on core public health applications and the law, and includes chapters on legal counsel for public health practitioners, legal authorities for interventions in public health emergencies, and considerations for special populations. The third section discusses the law in controlling and preventing diseases, injuries, and disabilities. This section includes chapters on genomics, vaccinations, foodborne illness, STDs, reproductive health, chronic disease control, tobacco use, and occupational and environmental health.

An Introduction to Health Planning for Developing Health Systems

Andrew Green — 2009-09-01

Author:: Andrew Green
ISBN:: 9780198571346
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198571346.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This text, the latest edition, explains the importance of health planning in both developing regions such as Africa, and those in transition, such as Central and Eastern Europe. It stresses the importance of understanding the national and international context in which planning occurs, and provides an up to date analysis of the major current policy issues, including health reforms. Separate chapters are dedicated to the distinct issues of finance for health care and human resource planning. The book explains the various techniques used at each stage of the planning process, looking first at the situational analysis and then looking in turn at priority-setting, option appraisal, programming, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. The book ends by examining the challenges facing planners in the 21st century, particularly in the light of growing globalization. A major theme of the book is the need to recognise and reconcile the inevitable tension that lies between value judgements and ‘rational’ decision-making. As such, in addition to introducing techniques such as costing and economic appraisal, it also outlines techniques such as stakeholder analysis for understanding the relative attitudes and power of different groups in planning decisions. Each chapter includes a comprehensive bibliography (including key websites), a summary, and exercises to help with practise of techniques and understanding the content. The book argues that all health professionals and community groups should be involved in the planning process for it to be effective.

Interpreting Epidemiologic Evidence

David A. Savitz — 2009-09-01

Author:: David A. Savitz
ISBN:: 9780195108408
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195108408.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book offers a strategy for assessing epidemiologic research findings. Specific tools for assessing the presence and impact of selection bias in both cohort and case-control studies, bias from non-response, confounding, exposure measurement error, disease measurement error, and random error are identified and evaluated in this book. It is a difficult task to assess how much confidence one can have in a given set of findings. Two elements have been lacking in empirical tools for assessing a given study's susceptibility to specific sources of error. One is a link between methodological principles and the tools themselves, which involves taking stock of why the strategy for addressing the potential bias may or may not actually be informative, and how it could be misleading. The other is a full listing of the candidates to consider in addressing a potential problem, in the hope of improving the ability to draw upon one tool or another in an appropriate situation. This book aims to link methodological principles with research practice.

International Smoking Statistics

Barbara Forey, Jan Hamling, Peter Lee, and Nicholas Wald — 2009-09-01

Author:: BarbaraForeyP.N. Lee Statistics and Computing Limited, Sutton, SurreyJanHamlingP.N. Lee Statistics and Computing Limited, Sutton, SurreyPeterLeeP.N. Lee Statistics and Computing Limited, Sutton, SurreyNicholasWaldWolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, London
ISBN:: 9780198508564
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508564.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

International Smoking Statistics presents a valuable collection of smoking data relating to thirty countries—most of Europe, and also Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, USA, and the former USSR. Annual data on the national sales of all types of tobacco products are presented for the years up to 1995, with over 100 years of data available for some countries. Both manufactured and hand-rolled cigarettes are considered, as well as pipes and cigars, and smokeless tobacco products. These data are also presented on a per-adult basis. The transition from plain to filter and to lower tar cigarettes is documented. Up to fifty years of survey-based data are presented on the sex- and age-specific prevalence of smoking and amount smoked. National data are shown when available, supplemented by relevant data from international, regional, and epidemiological studies. Surveys of adolescents and adults are included. Appropriate attention is given to the varying definitions and methodologies of the source material, while presenting data in a consistent format. Some summary statistics are derived using standardized methods which are fully described, allowing international comparisons to be made.

International Co-operation in Health

Martin McKee, Paul Garner, and Robin Stott — 2009-09-01

Author:: MartinMcKeeProfessor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical MedicinePaulGarnerProfessor of International Health, Liverpool School of Tropical MedicineRobinStottConsultant Physician, Lewisham University Hospital and Chairman MEDACT, London
ISBN:: 9780192631985
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192631985.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book explores the impact of globalization, economic policies, war and violence, trade, and reproductive ideologies on global health and health services. It offers examples, both successful and unsuccessful, of international co-operative efforts to address these multiple issues, citing international collaboration of health professional organizations such as Jubilee 2000. It questions the efficacy, ideology, and scope of several of the leading players, such as WHO, World Bank, and many NGOs that are trying to address these issues, as well as pointing out the emergence of international organisations whose activities harm health, such as arms and tobacco traders. The book focuses on those public health issues that cross national boundaries. In order to put effective policy into place, considerable international co-operation is necessary. This book is primarily about international collaboration to promote health of the world's population. This book looks at the how international collaboration can and does help to tackle current and emerging public health problems. It covers issues such as emerging and re-emerging infectious disease; health consequences of global environment change; trade, public health, and food; war: from humanitarian relief to prevention; the global tobacco epidemic; migration, equity and health, and international co-operation for reproductive health. The overall thrust is to suggest that health professionals are uniquely placed to help develop organizations and policies, which by capitalizing on their good track record on international co-operation, they would be in a relatively strong position to implement to the benefit of global health.

The Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States

Eric A. Finkelstein, Phaedra S. Corso, and Ted R. Miller — 2009-09-01

Author:: Eric A. Finkelstein, Phaedra S. Corso, Ted R. Miller
ISBN:: 9780195179484
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179484.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Injuries are one of the most serious public health problems facing the United States today. Through premature death, disability, medical cost, and lost productivity, injuries impact the health and welfare of all Americans. Deaths only begin to tell the story. Although many injuries are minor, a large proportion results in fractures, amputations, burns, or significant injuries that have far-reaching consequences. Now, for the first time in over fifteen years, there are comprehensive estimates of the impact of these injuries in economic terms. This book updates a landmark Report to Congress from 1989. Since that report, no undertaking has addressed the incidence and economic burden of injuries with more timely data, despite major changes in the fields of prevention, reporting and surveillance. Since the mid-eighties, new safety technologies have been developed to prevent injuries or to decrease the severity of injuries, and new policies and laws have been enacted to promote injury prevention. Chapter topics include incidence by detailed categorizations, lifetime medical costs, and productivity losses as a result of injuries, and a discussion of recent trends.

The HIV Pandemic

Eduard J. Beck, Nicholas Mays, Alan W. Whiteside, and José M. Zuniga — 2009-09-01

Author:: Eduard J.BeckAssociate Professor of Epidemiology, McGill University, CanadaNicholasMaysProfessor of Health Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UKAlan W.WhitesideProfessor and Director, Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South AfricaJosé M.ZunigaExecutive Officer, International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, Chicago, USA
ISBN:: 9780199237401
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199237401.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book examines how local and global responses to the HIV Pandemic are shaped by the history, culture, institutions, and health system of the countries affected. Country chapters combine health policy experts with HIV specialists, presenting a ‘top down’ health system approach and a ‘bottom up’ HIV-specific perspective. Thematic and analytical chapters provide a global overview and some suggestions for solutions. Increasingly, those involved are being forced to think differently about how services are financed, how resources are allocated, how systems are structured and organised, how services are delivered to patients, and how these services are monitored and evaluated to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and acceptability of the response. No response is perfect, but the evidence provided here allows the sharing of knowledge and an opportunity to assess the impact of, and reactions to, a pandemic that must be considered a long-term issue.

Healthy Respect

R. S. Downie, K. C. Calman, Ruth A. K. Schröck, and Malcolm Macnaughton — 2009-09-01

Author:: R. S. Downie, K. C. Calman, Ruth A. K. Schröck, Malcolm Macnaughton
ISBN:: 9780192624086
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192624086.001.0001
Published in print:: 1994
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

In recent years doctors, nurses, and all health care professionals have become increasingly aware of the complexity of the moral dilemmas that can be created by caring. The central theme of this book is that these dilemmas, whether found in consulting rooms, hospital wards, dental surgeries, social work departments, or managers' offices cannot be resolved solely by the expertise derived from the social sciences. There is no escape from a professional's own moral and value judgements. This book offers an introduction to moral concepts and values, and illustrates how they can be identified, analysed, and applied in particular situations. These issues are discussed in Part 1 in what is basically a philosophical context. Part 2 discusses specific topics, such as consent, confidentiality, the giving or withholding of information, and the economics of health care. Medical problems such as resuscitation, artificial reproduction, terminal care, and research and testing of drugs are carefully analysed. Each chapter in Part 2 offers further questions for debate, and there are references back to the philosophical underpinning in Part 1.

Healthier Societies

Jody Heymann, Clyde Hertzman, Morris L. Barer, and Robert G. Evans — 2009-09-01

Author:: JodyHeymannHarvard Medical Schoolhttp://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/faculty/heymann/ClydeHertzmanUniversity of British ColumbiaMorris L.BarerUniversity of British ColumbiaRobert G.EvansUniversity of British Columbia
ISBN:: 9780195179200
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179200.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Health Statistics

Daniel J. Friedman, Edward L. Hunter, and R. Gibson Parrish — 2009-09-01

Author:: Daniel J.FriedmanPopulation and Public Health Information Services, MassachusettsEdward L.HunterNational Center for Health Statistics, Washington DCR. GibsonParrishFormerly at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
ISBN:: 9780195149289
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149289.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Health Promotion for Pharmacists

Alison Blenkinsopp, Rhona Panton, and Claire Anderson — 2009-09-01

Author:: Alison Blenkinsopp, Rhona Panton, Claire Anderson
ISBN:: 9780192630445
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192630445.001.0001
Published in print:: 1999
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book reviews health promotion in the context of the pharmacy practice. Since the publication of the first edition, major changes have taken place in the involvement of pharmacists in health promotion. Health promotion is now a core role for community (retail) pharmacist and health promotion is now taught as a core-subject in all schools of pharmacy. The misuse of drugs is now a greater problem than ever before and pharmacists need updating in this area. Pharmacists have the monopoly on sales of nicotine replacement therapy and are now the key group involved in opportunistic advice to those who want to stop smoking. The book aims to inform about all major health issues such as the effects of smoking, nutrition, exercise, oral health, family planning, woman's health, child health, travel health, alcohol, and mental health. The book shows pharmacists what they can achieve in health promotion stressing the social and behavioural aspects. There are key chapters on the major health challenges facing the 21st century, the social inequalities of health and health care, problems in achieving behavioural change, and the importance of good communication especially about risks.

The Health of Populations

Stephen J. Kunitz — 2009-09-01

Author:: Stephen J. Kunitz
ISBN:: 9780195308075
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195308075.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Health Measurement Scales

David L. Streiner and Geoffrey R. Norman — 2009-09-01

Author:: David L. Streiner, Geoffrey R. Norman
ISBN:: 9780199231881
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231881.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Health Impact Assessment

John Kemm, Jayne Parry, and Stephen Palmer — 2009-09-01

Author:: JohnKemmHonarary Senior Lecturer, Health Impact Assessment Research Unit, University of Birmingham, UK JayneParryDirector, Health Impact Assessment Research Unit, University of Birmingham, UK StephenPalmerDepartment of Epidemiology, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK
ISBN:: 9780198526292
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198526292.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Health Care Regulation in America

Robert I. Field — 2009-09-01

Author:: Robert I. Field
ISBN:: 9780195159684
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195159684.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

The Guide to Community Preventive Services

2009-09-01

Author:: Task Force on Community Preventive ServicesStephanieZazaCenters for Disease Control and PreventionPeter A.BrissCenters for Disease Control and PreventionKate W.HarrisCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
ISBN:: 9780195151091
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151091.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

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.

Globalization and Health

Ichiro Kawachi and Sarah Wamala — 2009-09-01

Author:: IchiroKawachiHarvard Center for Society and Health, Harvard School of Public HealthSarahWamalaKarolinska Institute
ISBN:: 9780195172997
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172997.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Globalization is breaking down of economic, political, cultural, demographic, and social barriers across the world at an astonishing pace. The topic of globalization has caused passionate debate in many circles including academic journals, the popular media, and even on the streets. This new world order is marked by new actors, new rules of governance, new forms of communication, and the global movement of populations. Health is an exquisitely sensitive mirror of social conditions, and this book argues that the assessment of health is an important criterion for evaluating and monitoring the progress of globalization. This book provides an analysis of the most serious global threats to health, the tools that can be used to evaluate them, and the international agencies established to respond to them. Medical threats such as infectious diseases, obesity, tobacco use, and global climate change are discussed, but the book also expands its scope to include socio-political health impacts such as economic inequality. The complex role of organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank is also analyzed, as is the increasing interconnectedness of health and non-health actors. Is this blurring of boundaries really beneficial to the public's health, or have these actors abandoned health issues for power politics?

Global Public Health

Robert Beaglehole and Ruth Bonita — 2009-09-01

Author:: RobertBeagleholeEmeritus Professor, University of Auckland, New ZealandRuthBonitaEmeritus Professor, University of Auckland, New Zealand
ISBN:: 9780199236626
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199236626.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book provides an account of the international state of public health, including an agenda for improving the practice of the discipline across the world. It addresses three major issues, presented in distinct sections: the changing global context for public health; the state of public health theory and practice in both developed and developing countries; and strategies for strengthening the practice of public health in the 21st century. Part one surveys the complex old and new challenges facing public health practitioners, and then summarizes the state of health globally using new data based on measures of the Global Burden of Disease developed by the Word Health Organization, and other groups, to better describe population health states and trends. Part two presents the first detailed review of the global state of public health. It analyses the public health situation in all regions of the world. Six chapters cover Europe, North and Latin America, and Australia and New Zealand, including a new chapter focusing on the UK. Three chapters cover China, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons from these chapters are surprisingly similar: the challenges are great; the public health workforce and infrastructure have long been neglected; and much needs to be done to reinvigorate the practice of public health. The third section covers several cross cutting themes, including the developing field of international public health ethics and the central and neglected role of the public in strengthening the practice of public health. The final chapter summarizes the major themes of the book and explores the opportunities for building the capacity of the public health workforce to respond to the major global health needs. Despite the enormity of the challenges facing public health practitioners, especially in low and middle income countries, the tone adopted in the final section of this book is relatively optimistic.

Global Inequalities at Work

Jody Heymann — 2009-09-01

Author:: JodyHeymannHarvard Medical Schoolhttp://www.mcgill.ca/politicalscience/faculty/heymann/
ISBN:: 9780195150865
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195150865.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book is the first to fill in the gaps in the map of occupational health by creating a picture that is truly global, both geographically and in its coverage of the impact of work on the health of individuals, families, and societies. Leaders from universities, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations bring expertise from six continents to this book. Drawing from studies done around the world, this book critically examines the manifold ways in which work is affecting health. The first part covers the wide range of risks—physical, chemical, biological, and social—to the health of individual employees in agricultural, industrial, and post-industrial workplaces. Part II provides a detailed analysis of how working conditions can dramatically influence the health and welfare of workers' family members including children, elderly parents, and the disabled in both the developing and industrial world. Part III examines the relationships between work and health at the societal level by focusing on two examples: the ways in which working conditions affect income inequalities and health, and the ways in which they influence gender inequalities and health. Part IV investigates the new challenges to and opportunities for improving the relationships between work and health that are presented by a rapidly globalizing economy.

Getting Health Reform Right

Marc Roberts, William Hsiao, Peter Berman, and Michael Reich — 2009-09-01

Author:: Marc Roberts, William Hsiao, Peter Berman, Michael Reich
ISBN:: 9780195371505
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371505.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book provides a framework for developing and analyzing health sector reforms, based on international experience. It offers practical guidance and stresses the need to take account of each country's economic, administrative, and political circumstances. The book explains how to design effective government interventions in five areas—financing, payment, organization, regulation, and behavior—to improve the performance and equity of health systems around the world. There are a number of critical features in the book's approach to health-sector reform. The first is to see the health sector as a means to an end. Reformers should judge their systems by the consequences, to define problems in terms of performance deficiencies, and to assess proposed solutions by whether they promise to remedy those deficiencies. This approach leads to an analytically rigorous method for problem definition, causal diagnosis, and policy development. This kind of method has often been lacking in health reforms efforts, and its lack is partially responsible for the disappointing results. A second major feature of the book's approach is a commitment to combining international experience with deep sensitivity to local circumstances. A third feature of this study is that the book puts forward a multidisciplinary approach to the problems of health-sector reform. Finally, the book argues that health-sector policy inevitably involves ethical choices.

Geographical and Environmental Epidemiology

P. Elliott, J. Cuzick, D. English, and R. Stern — 2009-09-01

Author:: P.ElliottJ.CuzickImperial Cancer Research Fund, LondonD.EnglishUniversity of Western Australia, NedlandsR.SternEuropean Centre for Environment and Health, Bilthoven
ISBN:: 9780192622358
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192622358.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book addresses both the theoretical and practical issues which arise when describing the geographical distribution of disease and investigating apparent disease clusters. Requirements in terms of population data, disease incidence, and mortality are considered and related to the scale at which a study is being carried out. Statistical methods are reviewed for large scale correlation studies, intermediate scale map smoothing exercises, and small scale clustering investigations. Problems of measuring environmental exposures at different scales are also reviewed. These issues are then related to current practice via a comprehensive set of case studies which include a large correlation study in China, clustering of asthma attacks, the Sellafield-leukaemia cluster, environmental clusters of mesothelioma in Turkey, and a multi-source study of cancer incidence around an incinerator.

Genetics and Public Health in the 21st Century

Muin J. Khoury, Wylie Burke, and Elizabeth Thomson — 2009-09-01

Author:: Muin J.KhouryCenters for Disease ControlWylieBurkeUniversity of Washington, School of MedicineElizabethThomsonNational Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
ISBN:: 9780195128307
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195128307.001.0001
Published in print:: 2000
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

With the accelerating discovery of human genes, public health professionals are increasingly confronted with a large body of scientific information that will guide public health action. Because the broad mission of public health is to fulfill society's interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy, the integration of new genetic information in public health research, policy, and program development is unavoidable. Public health leadership is urgently needed to aid in the use of genetic information to improve health and prevent disease, and to address ethical, legal, and social issues resulting from inappropriate use of such information. In the not too-distant future, disease prevention and health promotion programs will routinely consider whether or not to use genetic information to help target behavioral, medical, or environmental intervention activities in order to maximize benefit and minimize costs and harm to individuals. In anticipation of the expected growth at the interface of genetics and public health, this book delineates a framework for the integration of advances in human genetics into public health practice. The book reviews public health genetics, and includes chapters on important general issues such as newborn and other genetic screening, the delivery of genetic services, and the ethical, legal, and social implications of the use of genetics within public health. It also reviews relevant clinical topics, the historical background, cross-cultural aspects, and communication issues. Contributors come from a wide range of fields including epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy and management, health services research, behavioral and social sciences, ethics, law, health economics, and laboratory sciences.

Food Policy

Tim Lang, David Barling, and Martin Caraher — 2009-09-01

Author:: Tim Lang, David Barling, Martin Caraher
ISBN:: 9780198567882
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198567882.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

For over half a century, food policy has mapped a path for progress based upon a belief that the right mix of investment, scientific input, and human skills could unleash a surge in productive capacity which would resolve humanity's food-related health and welfare problems. It assumed that more food would yield greater health and happiness by driving down prices, increasing availability, and feeding more mouths. In the 21st century, this policy mix is quietly becoming unstuck. In a world marred by obesity alongside malnutrition, climate change alongside fuel and energy crises, water stress alongside more mouths to feed, and social inequalities alongside unprecedented accumulation of wealth, the old rubric of food policy needs re-evaluation. This book explores the enormity of what the new policy mix must address, taking the approach that food policy must be inextricably linked with public health, environmental damage, and social inequalities to be effective. This book reflects the myriad of perspectives essential to a comprehensive view of modern food policy. It attempts to make sense of what is meant by food policy; explores whether the term has any currency in current policy discourse; assesses whether current policies help or hinder what happens; judges whether consensus can triumph in the face of competing bids for understanding; looks at all levels of governance, across the range of actors in the food system, from companies and the state to civil society and science; considers what direction food policies are taking, not just in the UK but internationally; assesses who (and what) gains or loses in the making of these food policies; and identifies a modern framework for judging how good or limited processes of policy-making are.

Field Epidemiology

Michael Gregg — 2009-09-01

Author:: Michael Gregg
ISBN:: 9780195313802
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313802.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

This book has a mission of describing the application of basic epidemiologic principles in real time, place, and person to solve problems of an urgent or emergency nature. Based on decades of experience in both infectious and non-infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this book describes the distinct approach, tasks, and actions needed for successful field investigations. Guidance is given on such issues as how to perform surveillance, manage, and execute field investigations, collect and analyze data, perform surveys, adapt a personal computer for field use, and communicate the findings. Specific advice is also given on such subjects as dealing with the media; investigations in health care, day care, and international settings; and the legal aspects of field studies. An entire chapter covers the proper collection, handling, and testing of infectious and non-infectious agents in the field. This text is a new edition of the book and the book contains new chapters on environmental investigations and immunization practices for the field epidemiologist. The book is based both on science and experience. It deals with real problems, real places, and real people: nature's experiment rather than carefully designed studies in a laboratory or clinical setting.

Family matters

Deborah A. Lawlor and Gita D. Mishra — 2009-09-01

Author:: Deborah A.LawlorProfessor of Epidemiology, MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology, University of Bristol, UKGita D.MishraSenior Research Scientist, MRC Unit for Lifelong Ageing and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Royal Free and University College London Medical School, UK
ISBN:: 9780199231034
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231034.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

Family based studies, including intergenerational, sibling and twin studies, are increasingly used to explore life course epidemiology. However, understanding the underlying assumptions of these studies and hence the inferences that can be drawn from them is complex. Further, there are issues relating to study design and the statistical analysis of family-based studies that are not well understood. This book provides in one volume the knowledge and skills required to design, analyse, and correctly interpret family based studies. The book is divided into four sections that cover the theoretical underpinning of using family based studies in life course epidemiology; practical issues of data collection, storage, and collaborative use (including a chapters on conducting such studies in low and middle income countries and the use of information provided by other family members); statistical analysis and correct interpretation of results from family based studies and a section that illustrates the use of these studies in life course epidemiology, with examples from three areas — cardiovascular disease, mental health and wellbeing, and reproductive health.

Exposure Assessment in Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology

Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen — 2009-09-01

Author:: Mark J.NieuwenhuijsenSenior Lecturer in Environmental Epidemiology, Imperial College, London
ISBN:: 9780198528616
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528616.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The recent and rapid expansion of occupational and environmental epidemiology and health risk assessment looks set to continue in line with growing public, government, and media concern about occupational and environmental health issues, and a scientific need to better understand and explain the effects of occupational and environmental pollutants on human health. Risks associated with occupational and environmental exposure are generally small, but the exposed population, and hence the population attributable risk, may be large. To detect small risks, the exposure assessment needs to be very refined. Exposure assessment is the study of the distribution and determinants of potentially hazardous agents, and includes the estimation of intensity, duration, and frequency of exposure, the variation in these indices and their determinants. Epidemiological studies can utilize information on variation and determinants of exposure to optimize the exposure-response relations. Many methodological and practical problems arise when conducting an exposure assessment for epidemiological studies and these are addressed in the book, as is the issue of measurement error and exposure misclassification and its effect on exposure response relationships. The book outlines the basic principles of exposure assessment, in both occupational and environmental epidemiology, since there are many similarities but also some interesting differences. It examines the current status and research questions in the exposure assessment of occupational and environmental epidemiological studies of allergens, particulate matter, chlorination disinfection by-products, agricultural pesticides, and radiofrequencies.