Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice

by Pencheon, David; Melzer, David; Gray, Muir; Guest, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780198566557
• ISBN10: 0198566557
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The new edition of this unique and practical guide to the everyday practice of public health has been fully updated with 13 new chapters and an increased focus on quality of health care systems. It is a simple, easy to use handbook of basic public health skills which introduces learning practitioners to the early phases of approaching a public health issue. It details why an issue is important and exactly how it can be analysed and addressed. The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice is the first resort for all those in training and practice. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. xxiii
Introduction	p. xxxi
Options and decisions	p. 1
Introduction	p. 2
Scoping public health problems	p. 4
Turning public health problems into answerable questions	p. 12
Assessing health needs	p. 20
Economic evaluation-the science behind the art of making choices	p. 32
Assessing health impacts on a population	p. 42
Being explicit about values in public health	p. 56
Understanding ethics in public health	p. 64
Innovative ways to solve public health problems	p. 72
Using data and evidence	p. 77
Introduction	p. 78
Understanding data, information, and knowledge	p. 80
Using qualitative methods	p. 90
Epidemiological understanding: an overview of basic concepts and study designs	p. 100
Monitoring disease and risk factors: surveillance	p. 112
Investigating changes in occurrence	p. 120
Investigating alleged clusters	p. 130
Assessing longer-term health trends: registers	p. 140
Assessing health status	p. 146
Summarizing health status	p. 160
Measuring and monitoring health inequalities and auditing inequity	p. 170
Finding and appraising evidence	p. 184
Providing data and evidence for practitioners and policy makers	p. 194
Direct action	p. 201
Introduction	p. 202
Preventing epidemics of communicable disease	p. 206
Protecting health, sustaining the environment	p. 218
Protecting and promoting health in the workplace	p. 232
Facilitating community action	p. 240
Managing disasters and other public health crises	p. 248
Assuring screening programmes	p. 258
The public health response to 'hard to reach' populations	p. 266
Genetics in disease prevention	p. 276
The practice of public health in primary care	p. 282
Public health in poorer countries	p. 292
Making policy	p. 301
Introduction	p. 302
Influencing government policy: a framework	p. 304
Developing healthy public policy	p. 312
Law in public health practice	p. 320
Shaping your organization's policy	p. 328
Translating policy into indicators and targets	p. 334
Translating indicators and targets into public health action	p. 340
Influencing governments via media advocacy	p. 348
Public health policy at a European level	p. 354
Influencing international policy	p. 364
Developing health system strategy	p. 373
Introduction	p. 374
An introduction to health-care strategy	p. 376
Strategic approaches to planning health services	p. 382
Learning from international models of funding and delivering health care	p. 392
Getting priorities in health care	p. 404
Improving equity in health care	p. 412
Commissioning health care	p. 420
Improving quality in health care	p. 427
Introduction	p. 428
Understanding health-care quality	p. 430
Taking action to improve quality	p. 442
Quality improvement through chronic disease management	p. 452
Variations in health-care activity and quality	p. 460
Improving health and health care through informatics	p. 466
Evaluating health-care technologies	p. 472
Getting research into practice	p. 480
Using guidance and frameworks	p. 488
Evaluating health-care systems	p. 496
Evaluating patient experience and health-care process data	p. 502
Clinical quality, governance, and accountability	p. 508
Personal effectiveness	p. 517
Introduction	p. 518
Public health leadership	p. 520
Effective meetings	p. 528
Effective writing	p. 534
Working with the media	p. 540
Communicating risk	p. 548
Consultancy in a national strategy	p. 556
Being a political activist	p. 564
Improving professional practice	p. 570
Organizational development	p. 579
Introduction	p. 580
Working in teams	p. 582
Managing projects	p. 590
Operational and business planning	p. 596
Involving the public	p. 602
Criteria for assessing effective public health action	p. 610
A chronology of public health practice	p. 617
Golden rules of public health practice	p. 623
Sources of reference	p. 629
Abbreviations and glossary	p. 637
Bibliography	p. 641
Index	p. 677
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