Description
Book SynopsisEpidemiology is often referred to as the science of public health. However, unlike other major sciences, its theoretical foundations are rarely articulated. While the idea of epidemiologic theory may seem dry and arcane, it is at its core about explaining the people''s health. It is about life and death. It is about biology and society. It is about ecology and the economy. It is about how myriad aspects of people''s lives - involving work, dignity, desire, love, play, conflict, discrimination, and injustice - become literally incorporated into our bodies and manifest in our health status, individually and collectively. And it is about essential knowledge critical for improving the people''s health and minimizing inequitable burdens of disease, disability, and death.Woven from a vast array of schools of thought, including those in the natural, social, and biomedical sciences, epidemiologic theory is a rich tapestry whose time for analysis is long overdue. By tracing its history and cont
Trade ReviewUltimately, * American Journal of Epidemiology *
Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Does Epidemiologic Theory Exist? - on science, data, and explaining disease distribution Chapter 2: Health in the Balance: early theories about patterns of disease occurrence Chapter 3: Epidemiology Emerges: early theories and debating determinants of disease distribution - poison, filth, class & race (1600-1900) Chapter 4: Epidemiology Expands: germs, genes, and the (social) environment (1900-1950) Chapter 5: Contemporary Mainstream Epidemiologic Theory: biomedical & lifestyle Chapter 6: Social Epidemiologic Alternatives: sociopolitical and psychosocial frameworks Chapter 7: Ecosocial Theory of Disease Distribution: embodying societal & ecologic context Chapter 8: Epidemiologic Theory Counts: harm, knowledge, action and the people's health
