Applied Epidemiology

The term applied epidemiology has been defined according to five core purposes: (1) the synthesis of the results of etiologic studies as input to practiceoriented policies; (2) the description of disease and risk-factor patterns as information used to set priorities; (3) the evaluation of public health programs, laws, and policies; (4) the measurement of the patterns and outcomes of public health and health care; and (5) the communication of epidemiologic findings effectively to health professionals and the public.

Many in epidemiology and public health view the linkage between etiologic research and public health intervention as implicit. However, it was observed more than two decades ago that the discipline of epidemiology has become increasingly divorced from activities in the real world that result in the improvement of public health. The concept of applied epidemiology has developed in an attempt to address concerns that epidemiology is not responding adequately to the concerns of public health practitioners. A major challenge for applied epidemiology is to improve overall health status by encouraging and measuring the effects of policy change, economic incentives, and behavioral interventions. There is also a shortage of epidemiologists in public health settings. Making epidemiology more relevant to public health practice will require training programs that provide practicing professionals with at least a basic understanding of epidemiologic methods and ways of accurately interpreting the large body of scientific literature.