[EQ] Action towards healthy living-for all

Action towards healthy living—for all

JN Morris, Christopher Deeming, Paul Wilkinson^* and Alan D Dangour
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
International Journal of Epidemiology 2010 39(1):266-273; doi:10.1093/ije/dyp403
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/1/266

“….Worldwide biomedical and social research has been establishing knowledge on key essentials of health and well-being.^1,2 In general, this knowledge is inadequately applied in public policies, resulting in avoidable health deficits, waste of human potential and costs to society. Remedial measures plainly are required to improve living and working conditions and create social protection policy supportive of all…..”

KEY MESSAGES

·         Modern research provides consensual evidence for defining the major personal requirements for health and well-being in nutrition, physical activity, housing, psychosocial relations and social inclusion.

·         Minimal costs of these can be assessed to produce a Minimum personal income adequate for healthy living MIHL for specific population groups in different countries and regions.

·         Numbers living below Minimum personal income adequate for healthy living MIHL can be estimated using national survey data and official government statistics.

·         Public Health, as social medicine, has to engage in such application of knowledge to improve living and working conditions and create social protection policy supportive of all.

The end of the beginning for chronic disease epidemiology
George Davey Smith
University of Bristol
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/1/1#B

Ann Oakley
Appreciation: Jerry [Jeremiah Noah] Morris, 1910–2009
Int. J. Epidemiol. 2010 39: 274-276; doi:10.1093/ije/dyp390
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/1/274

 

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
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[EQ] Designing Competencies for Chronic Disease Practice

Designing Competencies for Chronic Disease Practice

 

Slonim A, Wheeler FC, Quinlan KM, Smith SM.

Prev Chronic Dis 2010:7(2).  CDC Gov.
Accessed [March 5,2010].

            Available online at: http://cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/mar/08_0114.htm

Competencies are the cornerstone of effective public health practice, and practice specialties require competencies specific to their work. Although more than 30 specialty competency sets have been developed, a particular need remained to define competencies required of professionals who practice chronic disease prevention and control. To that end, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) engaged a group of stakeholders in developing competencies for chronic disease practice.

Methods
Concept mapping was blended with document analysis of existing competencies in public health to develop a unique framework. Public health experts reviewed the results, providing extensive and richer understanding of the issues.

Results
The final product presents an integrated picture that highlights interrelationships among the specific skills and knowledge required for leading and managing state chronic disease programs. Those competencies fall into 7 clusters:
1) lead strategically,
2) manage people,
3) manage programs and resources,
4) design and evaluate programs,
5) use public health science,
6) influence policies and systems change, and
7) build support.

Conclusion
The project yielded a framework with a categorization scheme and language that reflects how chronic disease practitioners view their work, including integrating communications and cultural competency skills into relevant job functions. Influencing policies and systems change has distinct relevance to chronic disease practice……”.

 

 

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
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Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMC Area]

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[EQ] Causal thinking and complex system approaches in epidemiology

Causal thinking and complex system approaches in epidemiology

Sandro Galea^*, Matthew Riddle and George A Kaplan
Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health, Department of Epidemiology
 School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
International Journal of Epidemiology 2010 39(1):97-106; doi:10.1093/ije/dyp296

Available online at: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/39/1/97

 

“…….Identifying biological and behavioural causes of diseases has been one of the central concerns of epidemiology for the past half century. This has led to the development of increasingly sophisticated conceptual and analytical approaches focused on the isolation of single causes of disease states.

However, the growing recognition that (i) factors at multiple levels, including biological, behavioural and group levels may influence health and disease, and (ii) that the interrelation among these factors often includes dynamic feedback and changes over time challenges this dominant epidemiological paradigm.

Using obesity as an example, we discuss how the adoption of complex systems dynamic models allows us to take into account the causes of disease at multiple levels, reciprocal relations and interrelation between causes that characterize the causation of obesity. We also discuss some of the key difficulties that the discipline faces in incorporating these methods into non-infectious disease epidemiology. We conclude with a discussion of a potential way forward….”

 

“……..There is precedent for the use of complex systems dynamic models for the purpose of understanding system behaviour and outcomes, for parameterizing these relations using real data and for deriving from these models insight that has practicable and immediate implications for populations. We intend this article to serve as both a challenge and as an encouragement.

 

We suggest here that complex systems modelling approaches have the potential to integrate our growing knowledge about multilevel causes of health and their patterns of feedback and interaction, and to inform our knowledge about how specific policy interventions influence the health of populations. It is important to note that we do not think that these approaches will necessarily be a panacea or that they will necessarily offer a solution to all the challenges epidemiology faces as we grapple with causal thinking.

 

As in all statistical and computational models, the utility of models depends strongly on the quality of the data that are input into the models and the assumptions that inform the modelling effort…………..”

 

 

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
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and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
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