Heart attack (ischaemic heart disease or coronary heart disease) as one of a group of cardiovascular diseases, is one of the main causes of death (over 30 million/year) in the developed and developing world. The dual aim of this book is to review the well-established risk factors in CHD and to look forward to disease prevention, equipped with lessons from the past. The book covers etiology to public health, including studies within a single population and international studies, important areas of methodological development, trials to test preventive strategies, and the application of epidemiological and other knowledge to the development of public health policy for the prevention of widespread disease. It is an all-encompassing work containing contributions from the world authorities in the field.
Sir Michael Gideon Marmot, FBA, FMedSci, FRCP (born 26 February 1945) is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.
Marmot was born in London on 26 February 1945. When he was a young child, his family moved to Sydney in Australia, where he attended Sydney Boys High School (1957–1961) and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from the University of Sydney in 1968.
He earned a Master of Public Health in 1972 and a PhD in 1975 from the University of California, Berkeley for research into Acculturation and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese Americans.
Currently Director of The UCL Institute of Health Equity, Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for over 35 years. He was chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, and produced "Closing the Gap in a Generation" in August 2008. He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) from 2010 to 2011, and is the new President of the British Lung Foundation.
He is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the British Academy, and an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.
Marmot is a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and a former vice-president of the Academia Europaea. Marmot served as president of the World Medical Association for 2015–16.
Marmot is a Vice-President of the Academia Europaea, a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and the chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health set up by the World Health Organization in 2005. He won the Balzan Prize for Epidemiology in 2004, gave the Harveian Oration in 2006 and won the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research in 2008. Marmot advises the WHO.