Book contents
- Essential Public Health
- Essential Public Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Public Health Toolkit
- 1 Health Needs Assessment
- 2 Health Information
- 3 Epidemiology
- 4 Evidence-Based Health-Care
- 5 Decision-Making and Priority Setting
- 6 Improving Quality of Care
- 7 Management, Leadership and Change
- 8 Improving Population Health
- 9 Screening
- 10 Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control
- Part 2 Contexts for Public Health Practice
- Glossary
- Index
- References
3 - Epidemiology
from Part 1 - The Public Health Toolkit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2023
Book contents
- Essential Public Health
- Essential Public Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Public Health Toolkit
- 1 Health Needs Assessment
- 2 Health Information
- 3 Epidemiology
- 4 Evidence-Based Health-Care
- 5 Decision-Making and Priority Setting
- 6 Improving Quality of Care
- 7 Management, Leadership and Change
- 8 Improving Population Health
- 9 Screening
- 10 Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control
- Part 2 Contexts for Public Health Practice
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
At the core of epidemiology is the use of quantitative methods to study health, and how it may be improved, in populations. It is important to note that epidemiology concerns not only the study of diseases but also of all health-related events. Rational health-promoting public policies require a sound understanding of causation. The epidemiological analysis of a disease or activity from a population perspective is vital in order to be able to organize and monitor effective preventive, curative and rehabilitative services. All health professionals and health-service managers need an awareness of the principles of epidemiology. They need to go beyond questions relating to individuals to challenging fundamentals such as ‘Why did this person get this disease at this time?’, ‘Is the occurrence of the disease increasing and, if so, why?’ and ‘What are the causes or risk factors for this disease?’
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Essential Public HealthTheory and Practice, pp. 47 - 81Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Further Reading
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Last, J. M., A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 4th ed., New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Motulsky, H., Intuitive Biostatistics: A Nonmathematical Guide to Statistical Thinking, 4th ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Spiegelhalter, D., The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data, London, Pelican Books, 2019.Google Scholar
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