Evidence-Based Public Health

by Ross C. Brownson, Elizabeth A. Baker, Terry L. Leet

There are at least three ways in which a public health program or policy may not reach stated goals for
1) Choosing an intervention approach whose effectiveness is not established in the scientific literature;
2) Selecting a potentially effective program or policy yet achieving only weak, incomplete implementation or "reach," thereby failing to attain objectives;
3) Conducting an inadequate or incorrect evaluation that results in a lack of generalizable knowledge on the effectiveness of a program or policy; and
4) Paying inadequate attention to adapting an intervention to the population and context of interest

To enhance evidence-based practice, this book addresses all four possibilities and attempts to provide practical guidance on how to choose, carry out, and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies in public health settings. It also begins to address a fifth, overarching need for a highly trained
public health workforce. This book deals not only with finding and using scientific evidence, but also with implementation and evaluation of interventions that generate new evidence on effectiveness. Because all these topics are broad and require multi-disciplinary skills and perspectives, each
chapter covers the basic issues and provides multiple examples to illustrate important concepts. In addition, each chapter provides links to the diverse literature and selected websites for readers wanting more detailed information. An indispensable volume for professionals, students, and
researchers in the public health sciences and preventative medicine, this new and updated edition of Evidence-Based Public Health aims to bridge research and evidence with policies and the practice of public health.

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book to read.  I do not mean to say that I approved of its approach or perspective, because I did not.  But if I did not agree with the author's perspective on public health or his obvious political biases, I did find the book very revealing in those biases and the characteristic nature of the approach of many of those who have infiltrated the field of public health and seek to use it as a way of supporting a political agenda that would not have the support of the people if it was openly supported but which can be put into place through scare tactics and overreach of government power in times of crisis such as our own era.  The author is clearly of the mindset that no crisis should go to waste and is also of the mindset that public health includes the authority and warrant to seek to corrupt institutions and divert funding to pursue leftist ideals of social justice.  To the extent that one finds this problematic, the author is unable to recognize the lack of genuine evidence at the basis of a great deal of the creativity and innovation that the author supports and endorses.  

As far as its contents are concerned, this book is about 200 pages long or so and is divided into nine chapters.  The author opens the book with  defense of the need for evidence-based public health, seeking to frame public health as an objectively-based and objectively beneficial field (1) and stating that the reader should be easily convinced of this by the book's reasoning.  After that the author seeks to assess scientific evidence for public health actions, seeking to ground the interventions that have been claimed as being founded on consensus-based science and therefore beyond the reach of criticism and skepticism (2).  The author then discusses how to understand and apply analytic tools to the field of public health (3) as well as develop an initial statement of various issues (4) and quantifying the issue (5).  The author discusses how one searches the existing scientific literature and organizes information (6), how one develops and prioritizes program options (7).  Finally, the author discusses how one develops an action plan and implements interventions (8) and evaluates the program or policy (9) in a suitably left-wing fashion before the book ends with a glossary and index.

This is a fascinating book in large part because the author seeks to conflate a high degree of pretended respect for science and rational order with ulterior and non-scientific agendas relating to the author's political worldview, which the author views as being matters of objective truth rather than very subjective error.  The inability to distinguish between subjective opinion and error when it comes to the author's view of justice and the inability to concede the dubious legitimacy of seeking to manipulate public opinion about matters of health (and politics) through a control of the media and the author's lack of recognition that consensus biased science is a profoundly conservative process that depends on a sound grasp of evidence and a great deal of testing to make sure that what is thought actually is so, with a high degree of skepticism about new and untried ways that may in fact be found to be harmful (as many health interventions turn out to be in retrospect).  The fact that the author engages in self-serving and massively self-contradictory approaches indicates that although public health as a field is relatively young, the late age of public health is deeply troubled and highly politically motivated at present, which has serious and negative consequences for the health and well-being of people, to say nothing of our republican virtue.

[Lenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is written to be a reference-type textbook, but it's not particularly reference-able. It has lots of long paragraphs that need to be read, rather than easy-to-identify sections. The content is very basic. I guess it's fine for a very brief introduction to public health, but most of it should be obvious to most people, and certainly anyone who's done an appreciable amount of literature searches (i.e. hopefully any upper class undergraduate student).

If you're looking for a reference guide, I recommend using the University of Kansas's Community Toolbox (http://ctb.ku.edu/en) instead, as it's much more comprehensive and it's searchable.

[Tim Mcleod · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, it's best used as a teaching tool; it collects a lot of useful knowledge that often falls through the cracks when public health is siloed into disciplines. Also a good consideration of public health as a practice (as opposed to an academic subject).