Population Health Concepts and Methods

by Young, T. Kue

• ISBN13: 9780195158540
• ISBN10: 0195158547
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-09-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Population health encompasses traditional public health and preventive medicine but emphasizes the full range of health determinants affecting the entire population rather than only ill or high-risk individuals. The population health approach integrates the social and biological, thequantitative and qualitative, recognizing the importance of social and cultural factors in practice and research. This text is organized around the logical sequence of studying and attempting to improve the health of populations; measuring health status and disease burden, identifying and modeling health determinants, assessing health risks and inferring causation, designing research studies, planninginterventions, and evaluating health programs. The second edition incorporates many new topics that reflect changes in contemporary public health concerns and our response to them; as well as shifts in research directions. These include lifecourse approaches to health, gene-environment interactions,emergent infections, and bioterrorism. Among the specific changes are new or expanded discussions of confidence intervals for commonly used rates, the impact of population aging on mortality trends, health survey questionnaires, summary measures of population health, the new InternationalClassification of Functioning, Disability and Health, migrant studies, race and ethinicity, psychoneuroendocrine pathways, social epidemiology, risk perception, communicating the SARS epidemic, ecologic studies, the odds radio, paticipatory research, suicide, evidence-based community interventions,evaluation methods and health economics, the Cochrane Collaboration, and systemic reviews. The many positive features of the first edition have been retained, such as the extensive use of boxes, case studies, and exercises; the selection of examples representing a variety of health problems, geographic regions, and historical periods; and a multidisciplinary orientation bridging thequantitative and qualitative, the social and biomedical sciences. The book aims to spark a new kind of broad-based training for researchers and practitioners of population health.

Author Biography

T. Kue Young is Professor and Chair, Department of Public Health Sciences, in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Defining Health, Population, and Population Health	p. 1
Objectives and Uses of Population Health Studies	p. 6
The Arts and Sciences in Population Health	p. 7
Historical Antecedents and Future Prospects	p. 10
Summary	p. 12
James Lind and Scurvy among Sailors	p. 14
John Snow, Cholera, and the Broad Street Pump	p. 15
Ignaz Semmelweis and Puerperal Fever	p. 17
Joseph Goldberger on Diet and Pellagra	p. 18
Guide to Resources	p. 19
Notes	p. 21
Measuring Health and Disease in Populations (I)	p. 25
Measures of Disease Occurrence	p. 25
Population Structure and Dynamics	p. 31
Comparing Health Events in Populations	p. 44
Demographic and Health Transition	p. 49
Summary	p. 54
Cancer Incidence in Five Continents	p. 54
Contribution of Population Aging to Changes in Cancer Mortality	p. 56
Notes	p. 59
Exercises	p. 62
Measuring Health and Disease in Populations (II)	p. 67
Health Indicators and Indices	p. 67
Sources and Quality of Health Data	p. 71
Summary Measures of Population Health	p. 81
Diagnosis and Classification of Diseases	p. 82
Accuracy of Screening and Diagnostic Tests	p. 90
Surveillance and Epidemic Investigations	p. 96
Cultural Concepts of Health and Disease	p. 99
Summary	p. 102
Are Death Certificates Accurate?	p. 103
Diphtheria in Russia--Return of a Vanquished Foe?	p. 104
Is Schizophrenia Universal?	p. 106
Notes	p. 107
Exercises	p. 111
Modeling Determinants of Population Health	p. 115
Models and Pathways of Health	p. 115
Genetic Susceptibility	p. 117
Physical Environment	p. 126
Personal Lifestyles and Behaviors	p. 135
Social, Cultural, and Economic Factors	p. 148
A Life Course Approach to Health	p. 156
A Biopsychosocial Model of Health	p. 157
Contributions to Global Disease Burden	p. 158
Summary	p. 161
The Sickle Cell Trait and Protection from Malaria	p. 162
Chernobyl: Aftermath of an Environmental Catastrophe	p. 163
Social Medicine in Pre-World War I Germany	p. 166
Notes	p. 168
Exercises	p. 173
Assessing Health Risks in Populations	p. 177
Risks in Population Health	p. 177
Concepts of Causation	p. 181
Measures of Association and Effect	p. 188
Competing Risks	p. 194
Risk Perception and Communication	p. 196
Summary	p. 200
Is British Beef Safe?	p. 201
Do Heart Attacks Prevent Cancer Deaths?	p. 204
Communicating SARS Risk with Numbers	p. 205
Notes	p. 207
Exercises	p. 210
Designing Population Health Studies	p. 215
A Matter of Measurement	p. 215
Types of Research Design	p. 219
Validity and Reliability	p. 230
Error and Bias	p. 232
Confounding and Confounders	p. 233
Interaction or Effect Modification	p. 236
Qualitative Methods	p. 238
Ethical Concerns	p. 241
Summary	p. 245
Age-Period-Cohort Analysis of Traffic Accident Mortality	p. 247
Durkheim's Studies on Suicide	p. 250
The Causal Trail: Cigarette Smoking and Lung Cancer	p. 252
Tracking Heart Disease among World War II Airmen	p. 256
Notes	p. 257
Exercises	p. 261
Planning Population Health Interventions	p. 264
Promoting Health, Preventing Disease	p. 264
Population Health and the Health Care System	p. 266
Types and Levels of Interventions	p. 267
Criteria for Screening	p. 272
Behavioral Models for Health Promotion	p. 277
Cross-Cultural Considerations	p. 280
A Broader View of Prevention	p. 281
Summary	p. 284
The Global Eradication of Smallpox	p. 284
Is Mammography Good for Women?	p. 288
Community-Based Heart Disease Prevention in North Karelia	p. 290
Notes	p. 293
Exercise	p. 295
Evaluating Health Programs for Populations	p. 296
A Framework for Evaluation	p. 296
Technology Assessment, Diffusion, and Transfer	p. 299
Evaluation Methods	p. 302
Economic Appraisal	p. 306
Decision-Making in Health Care	p. 310
Summary	p. 312
Nurse-Practitioners in Primary Care	p. 312
Fluoridation of Community Water Supply to Prevent Dental Caries	p. 314
Economic Evaluation of Neonatal Intensive Care	p. 317
A Meta-Analysis of Adolescent Smoking Programs	p. 319
Notes	p. 320
Exercise	p. 321
Improving the Health of Populations	p. 324
Guide to Resources	p. 327
Bibliography	p. 331
Answers to Exercises	p. 365
Index	p. 381
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.