Epidemiological Improvement Of Public Health
What are the most common practical applications of epidemiology?
The common practical applications of epidemiology include investigation of infectious diseases. These are done on a routine basis and are conducted by health departments to investigate common infectious diseases, particularly food borne illness, and food borne disease. Epidemiology comes into practice in the health care system, and in hospitals where nurse epidemiologists and other epidemiologists explore the causes and outbreaks of hospital borne infections. Then a third kind of trend is to do with the use of epidemiology to evaluate policies that are adopted and that our government set up; policies that relate to health, curtailment of smoking, to changes in our diet, to elimination of trans-fats and fatty foods from our diet, and the elimination of sugary snacks from schools, and so forth.
How is epidemiology used to create or change public health laws?
There are several ways in which epidemiology is used to inform public policy and to assist legislators and other officials in developing new policies that affect the health of a population. One of these is in the area of basic research in which the findings are applied to reduce morbidity and mortality from diseases. In other cases epidemiologists may act as expert witnesses and testify before government groups in order to provide their expertise, sometimes they may sit on government panels as a partner in the development of specific policies. An example would be in the development of laws to prevent medication errors. Sometimes epidemiologists are involved with the development of laws of that type and they have a specific perspective in terms of evaluating the evidence and decides which types of study might have been more relevant to the situation and bringing new factual information to verify the problem.
How do epidemiologists discover the causes of disease?
There are generally five criteria's accepted for the causality of any disease, and these five criteria were articulated in a famous surgeon general's report regarding whether or not smoking is a cause of lung cancer. For example, the five criteria include the strength of association, and let's look specifically at the association between smoking and lung cancer. The data suggested that the more people that smoked or the greater the number of cigarette smoke, then the greater the likelihood of developing lung cancer. This was an example of strength of association. Another criterion was time sequence: whether or not the occurrence of the exposure factor occurs before the development of the outcome, and in the case of smoking and lung cancer, this was demonstrated in the surgeon general's report. Consistency and repetition is a third criterion and this refers to the ability to demonstrate the association in a number of different settings and in a number of different ways. Specificity, perhaps, is one of the weakest criteria. Of course, smoking and lung cancer, means that smoking causes lung cancer and only lung cancer. However, when we examine the evidence, we find that smoking is associated with other forms of cancer and other diseases as well as lung cancer, so the association tends to be less specific than would be ideal. And then, finally, the fifth criterion of association is called coherence of explanation, and really, this criterion means: does the association observed make scientific sense? I believe that the surgeon general's report argued that it did make sense; that if one is exposed to irritating substances found in cigarette smoking, that it is plausible that lung disease and other health effects could occur as a result of cigarette smoking.
What are the most common professions for epidemiologists?
There are many professions in which epidemiologists have an involvement. Of course, university professors are one of the most well known professions and in the job of a professor one does teaching, and is involved with basic research, and applied research. However, epidemiologists are employed in a broad cross section of organizations, for example, government organizations, research organizations that are devoted to research on public health problems. They work in what I would call the voluntary sector, such as voluntary health organizations. So they have many, many different occupational opportunities, and play a central role whenever we're talking about the health of the population.
What is a 'public health officer'?
A public health officer is usually a physician who is designated by the government authority to intervene and control the public health in a jurisdiction. In California, we have a county level public health officer. In some cities in California we also have a health officer. At the state level, there is also a public health officer, and then at the federal government level, there is the Surgeon General who is like a public health officer.
