Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-rnpqb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T20:24:19.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Producing evidence to inform health decisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

Anne Andermann
Anne Andermann
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Get access

Summary

Since the purpose of this book is to help people make better-informed decisions about improving health and reducing health inequities, an important question is what counts as evidence in supporting these decisions? Often, if a person has a health problem, they might ask a family member or a friend for advice. If they are sufficiently concerned that this health problem could be serious, they may make an appointment to go see their family doctor or a local lay health worker and ask them what to do. In this technological age, many people learn about health issues from the media or go on the Internet and use Google to find guidance. In government, high-level officials – who may not have any health training even though they are responsible for important decisions that affect the health of thousands or even millions of people – often turn to their scientific and technical advisors for assistance. Friends, family, newspapers, television, blogs and so on, are all sources of health information. But, will this information lead to better-informed decisions? Doctors and technical advisors may have greater knowledge about what makes individuals and populations healthy, but what evidence do they use as a basis when they provide advice? When a friend recommends chicken soup for a cold because that is what he learned from his grandmother, does this count as evidence? What if the friend says that the chicken soup helped someone else to feel better when they had a cold – now is this evidence? What if the friend says that they read in the newspaper that a randomised controlled trial of chicken soup versus placebo reduced the average length of a cold from seven to five days – now is this evidence? What about when it comes to social policies – what would be the optimal length of parental leave to promote health? Is 3 months enough? What about 12 months? How could one investigate this? The purpose of this chapter is to explore further what counts as evidence, how evidence is produced and how it can be used to make better-informed decisions to improve health.

Type
Chapter
Information
Evidence for Health
From Patient Choice to Global Policy
 , pp. 74 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Oxford Dictionaries Online project team. Evidence. Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press, 2012. Available at: .Google Scholar
Lind, J. A Treatise of the Scurvy. In Three Parts. Containing an Inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Cure, of that Disease. Together with a Critical and Chronological View of What Has Been Published on the Subject. Edinburgh: Printed by Sands, Murray and Cochran for A Kincaid and A Donaldson, 1753.Google Scholar
Cartier, J. Bref Récit et Succincte Narration de la Navigation Faite en 1535 et 1536 par le Capitaine Jacques Cartier aux Iles de Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay et Autres. Réimpression Figurée de l’Edition Originale Rarissime de 1545 avec les Variantes des ms de la Bibliothèque Impériale, Précédée d’une Brève et Succincte Introduction Historique par M. d’Avezac. Paris: Librairie Tross, 1863.Google Scholar
Lind, J. An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen, in the Royal Navy. London: D Wilson, 1762.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. The God Delusion. London: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.Google Scholar
Desmond, A. The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine and Reform in Radical London. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Fraenkel, C. God’s existence and attributes. In: Nadler, S, Rudavsky, T (eds.). The Cambridge History of Medieval Jewish Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 561–98.Google Scholar
Plato, . Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold, N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921. Available at: .Google Scholar
Oxford Dictionaries Online project team. Epistemology. Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press, 2012. Available at: .Google Scholar
Von Staden, H. Experiment and experience in Hellenistic medicine. Bull Inst Class Stud 1975; 22: 178–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford Dictionaries Online project team. Scientific method. Oxford English Dictionary Online, Oxford University Press, 2012. Available at: .Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. The Copernican Revolution. Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1957.Google Scholar
Newton, I. Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. London: S Pepys, 1867.Google Scholar
Huxley, T. On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences (an address given in St Martin’s Hall to the students in the Faculty of Medicine of University College). London, 1854.Google Scholar
Mill, J. A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1850.Google Scholar
Woolgar, S, Latour, B. Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Fleck, L. The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact (edited by Trenn, T. J. and Merton, R. K., foreword by Kuhn, Thomas). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Straus, S, McAlister, F. Evidence-based medicine: a commentary on common criticisms. CMAJ 2000; 163: 837–41.Google ScholarPubMed
Sackett, D, Richardson, W, Rosenberg, W, Haynes, R. Evidence-Based Medicine: How to Practice and Teach EBM. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1996.Google Scholar
Gray, J. Evidence based policy making. BMJ 2004; 329: 988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saarni, S, Gylling, H. Evidence based medicine guidelines: a solution to rationing or politics disguised as science?J Med Ethics 2004; 30(2): 171–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodwin, M. The politics of evidence-based medicine. J Health Polit Policy Law 2001; 26(2): 439–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sackett, DL, Rosenberg, W, Gray, J, Haynes, R, Richardson, W. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. BMJ 1996; 312(7023): 71–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cochrane, A. Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services. London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1972.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, T. Book review: Effectiveness and Efficiency: Random Reflections on Health Services. BMJ 2004; 328: 529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bombardier, C, McClaran, J, Sackett, D. Periodic health examinations and multi-phasic screening. CMAJ 1973; 109(11): 1123–27.Google Scholar
The Cochrone Collaboration. A Chronology of the Cochrane Collaboration. Oxford: The Cochrane Collaboration, 2011. Available at: .Google Scholar
Spitzer, W, Sackett, D, Sibley, J et al. 1965–1990: 25th anniversary of nurse practitioners. A classic manuscript reprinted in celebration of 25 years of progress. The Burlington randomized trial of the nurse practitioner, 1971–2. J Am Acad Nurse Pract 1990; 2(3): 93–9.CrossRef
Sackett, D, Haynes, R, Gibson, E et al. Randomised clinical trial of strategies for improving medication compliance in primary hypertension. Lancet 1975; 1(7918): 1205–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hull, R, Hirsh, J, Sackett, D et al. Replacement of venography in suspected venous thrombosis by impedance plethysmography and 125I-fibrinogen leg scanning: a less invasive approach. Ann Intern Med 1981; 94(1): 12–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sauvé, J, Thorpe, K, Sackett, D et al. Can bruits distinguish high-grade from moderate symptomatic carotid stenosis? The North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial. Ann Intern Med 1994; 120(8): 633–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gent, M, Barnett, H, Sackett, D, Taylor, D. A randomized trial of aspirin and sulfinpyrazone in patients with threatened stroke. Results and methodologic issues. Circulation 1980; 62: V97–105.Google ScholarPubMed
Sackett, D. Rational therapy in the neurosciences: the role of the randomized trial. Stroke 1986; 17(6): 1323–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oxman, A, Sackett, D, Guyatt, G. Users’ guides to the medical literature. I. How to get started. The Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA 1993; 270(17): 2093–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haynes, R, McKibbon, K, Fitzgerald, D et al. How to keep up with the medical literature: V. Access by personal computer to the medical literature. Ann Intern Med 1986; 105(5): 810–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chalmers, I. Unbiased, relevant, and reliable assessments in health care: important progress during the past century, but plenty of scope for doing better. BMJ 1998; 317(7167): 1167–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenhalgh, T. How to read a paper: getting your bearings. BMJ 1997; 315: 243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyatt, G, Sackett, D, Sinclair, J et al. Users’ guides to the medical literature. IX. A method for grading health care recommendations. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA 1995; 274(22): 1800–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakley, A. Experimentation and social interventions: a forgotten but important history. BMJ 1998; 317(7167): 1239–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Concato, J, Shah, N, Horwitz, R. Randomized, controlled trials, observational studies, and the hierarchy of research designs. N Engl J Med 2000; 342(25): 1887–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Killoran, A, Kelly, M (eds.). Evidence-Based Public Health: Effectiveness and Efficiency. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Bell, E. Research for Health Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Bogenschneider, K, Corbett, T, Corbett, T. Evidence-Based Policymaking: Insights from Policy-Minded Researchers and Research-Minded Policymakers. London: Routledge, 2010.Google Scholar
Wyckoff, P. Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The Great Disconnect. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Testa, M, Poertner, J (eds.). Fostering Accountability: Using Evidence to Guide and Improve Child Welfare Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.CrossRef
Beaglehole, R, Bonita, R, Horton, R et al. on behalf of the NCD Action Group and the NCD Alliance. Priority actions for the non-communicable disease crisis. Lancet 2011; 377(9775): 1438–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fausto, N. Atherosclerosis in young people: the value of the autopsy for studies of the epidemiology and pathobiology of disease. Am J Pathol 1998; 153(4): 1021–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knudson, A. Two genetic hits (more or less) to cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer 2001; 1(2): 157–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, S, Wang, W, Zhang, J et al. Prevalence of diabetes and impaired fasting glucose in Chinese adults, China National Nutrition and Health Survey, 2002. Prev Chronic Dis 2011; 8(1): A13.Google ScholarPubMed
Abbas, S, Alam, A, Majid, A. To determine the probable causes of death in an urban slum community of Pakistan among adults 18 years and above by verbal autopsy. J Pak Med Assoc 2011; 61(3): 235–8.Google Scholar
Cecil, R, Mc Caughan, E, Parahoo, K. ‘It’s hard to take because I am a man’s man’: an ethnographic exploration of cancer and masculinity. Eur J Cancer Care 2010; 19(4): 501–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, L, Kreuter, M. Health Program Planning: An Educational and Ecological Approach, 4th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.Google Scholar
Theodorou, M, Samara, K, Pavlakis, A et al. The public’s and doctors’ perceived role in participation in setting health care priorities in Greece. Hellenic J Cardiol 2010; 51(3): 200–8.Google Scholar
Gruskin, S, Daniels, N. Process is the point: justice and human rights: priority setting and fair deliberative process. Am J Public Health 2008; 98(9): 1573–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, A, Adams, R, Bushell, F. Qualitative health needs assessment of a former mining community. Community Pract 2010; 83(2): 27–30.Google ScholarPubMed
IARC Working Group on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans. Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking. IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, Vol. 83. Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2002. Available at .Google Scholar
Catassi, A, Servent, D, Paleari, L, Cesario, A, Russo, P. Multiple roles of nicotine on cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis: implications on lung carcinogenesis. Mutat Res 2008; 659(3): 221–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
King James I. A Counterblaste to Tobacco. London: R.B., 1604.Google Scholar
Doll, R, Hill, A. Smoking and carcinoma of the lung. Preliminary report. BMJ 1950; ii: 739–48. Available at .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doll, R, Peto, R, Boreham, J, Sutherland, I. Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on male British doctors. BMJ 2004; 328: 1519–28. Available at .CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, A. The environment and disease: association or causation?Proc R Soc Med 1965, 58: 295–300.Google ScholarPubMed
Sterne, J, Davey, Smith G. Sifting the evidence – what’s wrong with significance tests. BMJ 2001; 322: 226–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Last, J (ed.). A Dictionary of Epidemiology, 4th edn. Oxford: OUP, 2001.
Stampfer, M, Colditz, G. Estrogen replacement therapy and coronary heart disease: a quantitative assessment of the epidemiologic evidence. Int J Epidemiol 2004; 33: 445–53 (reprint 1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossouw, J, Anderson, G, Prentice, R et al.; Writing Group for the Women’s Health Initiative Investigators: Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results from the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002; 288(3): 321–33.Google Scholar
Taubes, G. Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy?The New York Times Magazine September 16, 2007. Available at: .Google Scholar
Lawlor, D, Davey, Smith G, Ebrahim, S. Commentary: The hormone replacement–coronary heart disease conundrum: is this the death of observational epidemiology?Int J Epidemiol 2004; 33: 464–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sackett, D. Uncertainty about clinical equipoise. There is another exchange on equipoise and uncertainty. BMJ 2001; 322(7289): 795–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Rose, G, Colwell, L. Randomised controlled trial of anti-smoking advice: final (20 year) results. J Epidemiol Community Health 1992; 46(1): 75–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sasco, A, Secretan, M, Straif, K. Tobacco smoking and cancer: a brief review of recent epidemiological evidence. Lung Cancer 2004; 45(Suppl 2): S3–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, L, Paszkiewicz, G, Hutson, A, Pauly, J. Inflammatory response of lung macrophages and epithelial cells to tobacco smoke: a literature review of ex vivo investigations. Immunol Res 2010; 46(1–3): 94–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solberg, L, Strong, J. Risk factors and atherosclerotic lesions. A review of autopsy studies. Arteriosclerosis 1983; 3(3): 187–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petitti, D. Commentary: Hormone replacement therapy and coronary heart disease: four lessons. Int J Epidemiol 2004; 33: 461–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopkins, D, Briss, P, Ricard, C et al.; Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Reviews of evidence regarding interventions to reduce tobacco use and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Am J Prev Med 2001; 20(2 Suppl): 16–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawe, P, Samis, S, Di Ruggiero, E, Shoveller, J. Population Health Intervention Research Initiative for Canada: progress and prospects. N S W Public Health Bull 2011; 22(1–2): 27–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawe, P, Potvin, L. What is population health intervention research?Can J Public Health 2009; 100(1 Suppl): I8–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Moher, D, Hopewell, S, Schulz, K et al., for the CONSORT Group. CONSORT 2010 Explanation and Elaboration: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. BMJ 2010; 340: c869. Available at: .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vol. 2. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1949, pp. 181–2. Available at: .
World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Geneva: World Medical Association, 2008. Available at: .Google Scholar
Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics. Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. Ottawa: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2010. Available at: .Google Scholar
Angell, M. Investigators’ responsibilities for human subjects in developing countries. N Engl J Med 2000; 342: 967–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Austoker, J. Gaining informed consent for screening: is difficult; but many misconceptions need to be undone. BMJ 1999; 319: 722–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Issel, M. Health Program Planning and Evaluation: A Practical, Systematic Approach for Community Health, 2nd edn. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishing, 2008.Google Scholar
Chen, H. Practical Program Evaluation: Assessing and Improving Planning, Implementation and Effectiveness. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Framework for program evaluation in public health. MMWR 1999; 48(No. RR-11): 1–40. Available at: .Google Scholar
Bhattacharyya, O, Reeves, S, Zwarenstein, M. What is implementation research? Rationale, concepts, and practices. Res Social Work Prac 2009; 19: 491–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Health Systems Research and Implementation Research. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2011. Available at: .Google Scholar
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. Implementation Research Platform. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2011. Available at: .Google Scholar
Rutman, L. Evaluation Research Methods: A Basic Guide. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE, 1984.Google Scholar
Blalock, A. Evaluation research and the performance management movement: from estrangement to useful integration?Evaluation 1999; 5(2): 117–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogenschneider, K, Corbett, T, Corbett, T. Evidence-Based Policymaking: Insights from Policy-Minded Researchers and Research-Minded Policymakers. London: Routledge, 2010.Google Scholar
Parry, D, Salsberg, J, Macaulay, A. A Guide to Researcher and Knowledge-User Collaboration in Health Research [online course]. Ottawa: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 2009.Google Scholar
Pratt, B, Loff, B. Health research systems: promoting health equity or economic competitiveness?Bull World Health Organ 2012; 90: 55–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, P, Meslin, E, Marteau, T, Caufield, T. Deflating the genomic bubble. Science 2011; 331(6019): 861–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Commission on Health Research for Development. Health Research: Essential Link to Equity in Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×