Oxford Textbook of Public Health Online

This fifth edition of the ever-popular Oxford Textbook of Public Health has been thoroughly updated, and remains the ultimate resource on the subject of public health and epidemiology. Two new editors, Mary Ann Lansang and Martin Gulliford, join the established editor team of Roger Detels andRobert Beaglehole, representing a truly global outlook from four continents. The contributors are drawn from across the world, offering perspectives from vastly different health systems, with ranging public health needs and priorities. With contributors including Dr Margaret Chan, Director of theWorld Health Organization, this book offers a globally comprehensive picture of modern health.The book retains its approach of dividing the complex, dynamic subject of public health into three topics. First, the scope of public health is covered, looking at the development of the discipline, determinants of health and disease, public health policies, and law and ethics. The second volumefocuses on the methods of public health, including the main science behind the discipline - epidemiology. Environmental factors, information systems, and social science techniques are also considered. Finally, the third volume puts the theory into practice, examining specific public health problemsand options for prevention and control. As well as identifying these issues by system or disease, there is also an awareness of the unique needs of particular population groups. The book concludes with an analysis of the functions of public health, and a look at the future of public health in the21st century.The picture of world health has moved on dramatically since the publication of the fourth edition in 2002. This new edition includes substantial new material on the impact of private support of public health; globalization; water and sanitation; leadership; community-intervention trials; disease andinfection; gene environment interactions; obesity and physical inactivity; urbanization; minorities and indigenous populations; health needs assessment; clinical epidemiology; and the practice of public health. This ensures that the Oxford Textbook of Public Health remains the most comprehensive,accessible text for both students and practitioners in public health and epidemiology.

Roger Detels M.D., M.S., Professor of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases, received his training at Harvard College, New York University, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Washington. In 1971, he moved to the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, his current affiliation. During his tenure at UCLA, he has served as Chair of Epidemiology and as Dean of the School of Public Health. Professor Detels was one of the three editors for the first and second editions of the Oxford Textbook of Public Health and senior editor for the third, fourth and forthcoming fifth editions of the Textbook, which he expanded to include public health issues in developing countries. He has published more than 350 research papers on various aspects of public health. Professor Detels continues to be very active in HIV/AIDS and public health research in both the United States and Asia.


Robert Beaglehole was Professor of Community Health at the University of Auckland, New Zealand before taking up a position as a public health adviser in the Department of Health Service Provision at WHO, Geneva, on a project directed towards strengthening the public health workforce in developing countries. Between 2004 and 2007 he was the director of the Department of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion, responsible for WHO's technical work in these areas. He developed an integrated and stepwise approach to the prevention and control of chronic diseases and led the development of the Bangkok Charter on Health Promotion in a Globalized World. He is now co-director of International Public Health Consultants, based in Auckland, New Zealand.


Mary Ann Lansang is Professor of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine - Philippine General Hospital, where she has been based since 1984. Dr Lansang's work spans many aspects of disease control and public health, most notably on malaria control, vaccine-preventable diseases, tuberculosis, and other tropical and infectious diseases, including health policy and systems development. For the past 15 years, she has served and continues to serve on the boards and advisory groups of various local and international health bodies on a broad range of public health issues. She served as Executive Director of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN Trust) in 2000 - 2004.


Martin Gulliford is Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health Sciences at King's College London. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Cambridge and University College Hospital, London, and trained in public health at Guy's and St Thomas' Medical Schools London. For several years, he was based in Trinidad, organizing a programme of health services research and training. His research is in epidemiology as applied to health services and public health.

Section 1: The development of the discipline of public health
1.1. The scope and concerns of public health, Roger Detels
1.2. The history and development of public health in high-income countries, Christopher Hamlin
1.3. The history and development of public health in low- and middle-income countries, Than Sein
1.4. The development of the discipline of public health in countries in economic transition: India, Brazil, China, Puja Thakker & K. Srinath Reddy
Section 2: Determinants of health and disease
2.1. A framework for understanding determinants of health, Orielle Solar, Alec Irwin & Jeanette Vega
2.2. Globalization, Kelley Lee
2.3. Behavioural determinants of health and disease, Lawrence Green & Robert A. Hiatt
2.4. Genomics and public health, Alison Stewart, Wylie Burke, Muin Khoury & Ron Zimmern
2.5. Water and sanitation, Thomas Clasen & Steven Sugden
2.6. Food and nutrition, Prakash S. Shetty
2.7. Infectious diseases, Davidson Hamer, Zulfiqar Bhutta & Sherwood L. Gorbach
2.8. The global environment, A. J. McMichael & H. J. Bambrick
2.9. Health services as determinants of population health, Martin Gulliford
2.10. Assessing health needs: the Global Burden of Disease approach, C.J.L. Murray, A.D. Lopez & C.D.Mathers
Section 3: Public health policies
3.1. Overview of policies and strategies, Walter Holland
3.2. Public health policy in high-income countries, John Powles
3.3. Health policy in low- and middle-income countries, Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Block, Adetokunbo Lucas, Octavio Gomez-Dantes & Julio Frenk
3.4. Leadership in public health, Manuel Dayrit & Maia Ambegaokar
Section 4: Public health law and ethics
4.1. The right to the highest attainable standard of health, Paul Hunt, Gunilla Backman, Judith Bueno de Mesquita, Louise Finer, Rajat Khosla, Dragana Korljan & Lisa Oldring
4.2. Comparative national public health legislation, Robyn Martin & Alexandra Lo Dak Wai
4.3. International public health instruments, Douglas Bettcher, Katherine DeLand, Jorgen Schlundt, Fernando Gonzalez-Martin, Jennifer Bishop, Summer Hammide & Annette Lin
4.4. Ethical principles and ethical issues in public health, Nancy Kass
Section 5: Information systems and sources of intelligence
5.1. Information systems in support of public health in high-income countries, Denis J. Protti, Jeff Luck & Paul Fu, Jr.
5.2. Information systems and community diagnosis in low- and middle-income countries, Vipat Kuruchittham, Fred Binka & Chitr Sitthi-Amorn
5.3. Web-based public health information dissemination and evaluation, Elliot R. Siegel, Fred B. Wood, John C. Scott & Julia Royall
Section 6: Epidemiological and biostatistical approaches
6.1. Epidemiology: the foundation of public health, Roger Detels
6.2. Ecologic variables, ecologic studies, and multi-level studies in public health research, Ana V. Diez Roux
6.3. Cross-sectional studies, Manolis Kogevinas & Leda Chatzi
6.4. Principles of outbreak investigation, Kumnuan Ungchusak & Sopon Iamsirithaworn
6.5. Case-control studies, Noel S. Weiss
6.6. Cohort studies, Alvaro Munoz & F. Javier Nieto
6.7. Methodology of intervention trials in individuals, Lawrence M. Friedman & Eleanor B. Schron
6.8. Methodological issues in the design and analysis of community intervention trials, Allan Donner
6.9. Community-based intervention studies in high-income countries, Pekka Puska & Erkki Vartiainen
6.10. Community-based intervention trials in low- and middle-income countries, Zunyou Wu & Sheena Sullivan
6.11. Clinical epidemiology, Jason W. Busse, Edward Mills, Rodolfo Dennis, Vivian Robinson & Peter Tugwell
6.12. Validity and bias in epidemiological research, Sander Greenland
6.13. Causation and causal inference, Katherine Hoggatt & Sander Greenland
6.14. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis, Matthias Egger, George Davey-Smith & Jonathan Sterne
6.15. Statistical methods, Gail Williams
6.16. Mathematical models of transmission and control, Roy M. Anderson, T. Deirdre Hollingsworth & D. James Nokes
6.17. Public health surveillance, Ruth L. Berkelman, Patrick S. Sullivan & James W. Buehler
Section 7: Social science techniques
7.1. Sociology and psychology in public health, Myfanwy Morgan, Margaret Reid & Jane Ogden
7.2. Demography and public health, Emily Grundy
7.3. Health promotion, health education, and the public health, Marcia Hills & Simon Carroll
7.4. Cost-effectiveness analysis: concepts and applications, Dean T. Jamison
7.5. Governance and management of public health programmes, Diana Bonta & Meredith Cagle
7.6. Public health sciences and policy in high-income countries, Tim Tenbensel & Peter Davis
7.7. Public health sciences and policy in low- and middle-income countries, Lindiwe Makubalo, Mary Ann Lansang & Peter Figueroa
Section 8: Environmental and occupational health sciences
8.1. Environmental health issues in public health, Chien-Jen Chen
8.2. Radiation and public health, Leeka Kheifets, Myles Cockburn & Manjit Dosanjh
8.3. Control of microbial threats: population surveillance, vaccine studies, and the microbiological laboratory, Frank Sorvillo & Shira Shafir
8.4. The science of human exposures to contaminants in the environment, Paul Lioy
8.5. Occupational health, David Koh & Dean Baker
8.6. Ergonomics and public health, Laura Punnett
8.7. Toxicology and risk assessment in the analysis and management of environmental risk, Bernard D. Goldstein
8.8. Risk perception and communication, Baruch Fischhoff
Section 9: Major health problems
9.1. Gene-environment interactions and public health, Paolo Vineis & Rodolfo Saracci
9.2. Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, Russell V. Luepker & Kamakshi Lakshminarayan
9.3. Neoplasms, Paulo Boffetta & Carlo La Vecchia
9.4. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, Jeroen Douwes, Marike Boezen & Neil Pearce
9.5. Obesity, W. P. T. James
9.6. The epidemiology and prevention of diabetes mellitus, Nigel Unwin & Paul Zimmet
9.7. Public mental health, Benedetto Saraceno, Melvyn Freeman & Michelle Funk
9.8. Dental public health, Zoe Marshman & Peter G. Robinson
9.9. Musculoskeletal diseases, Jennifer L. Kelsey & Marian T. Hannan
9.10. Neurological diseases, epidemiology and public health, Walter Kukull & James Bowen
9.11. The transmissable spongiform encephalopathies, Richard Knight & Hester Ward
9.12. Sexually transmitted infections, Mary M. Kamb & John L. Douglas
9.13. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Salim S. Abdool Karim, Quarraisha Abdool Karim & Roger Detels
9.14. Tuberculosis, Dermot Maher, Marcos Espinal & Mario Raviglione
9.15. Malaria, Richard Morrow & William Moss
9.16. Chronic hepatitis and other liver disease, Pierre van Damme, Koen van Herck, Peter Michielsen, Sven Francque & Daniel Shouval
9.17. Emerging and re-emerging infections, David Heymann
Section 10: Prevention and control of public health hazards
10.1. Tobacco, Samira Asma, Douglas W. Bettcher, Jonathan Samet, Krishna M. Palipudi, Gary Giovino, Stella Bialous, Katherine DeLand, June Leung, Daniel Ferrante, Gemma Vestal & Gonghuan Yang
10.2. Drug abuse, Don C. Des Jarlais & Robert L. Hubbard
10.3. Alcohol, Robin Room
10.4. Injury prevention and control: the public health approach, Corinne Peek-Asa & Adnan A. Hyder
10.5. Interpersonal violence prevention: a recent public health mandate, Deborah Prothrow-Stith
10.6. Collective violence: war, Victor Sidel & Barry Levy
10.7. Urban health in low- and middle-income countries, Mark R. Montgomery
10.8. Public health aspects of bioterrorism, Manfred Green
Section 11: Public health needs of population groups
11.1. The changing family, Julien O. Teitler
11.2. Women, men and health, Sarah Payne & Lesley Doyal
11.3. Child health, Elizabeth Mason, Oliver Fontaine, Bernadette Daelmans, Rajiv Bahl, Cynthia Boschi-Pinto & Jose Martines
11.4. Adolescent health, Pierre-Andre Michaud, Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli & Georges C. Patton
11.5. Ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, Myfanwy Morgan, Martin Gulliford & Ian Anderson
11.6. People with disabilities, Donald Lollar
11.7. Health of older people, Shah Ebrahim & Julie E. Byles
11.8. Forced migrants and other displaced populations, Catherine R. Bateman & Anthony B. Zwi
Section 12: Public health functions
12.1. Need: what is it and how do we measure it?, Di McIntyre, Gavin Mooney & Stephen Jan
12.2. Needs assessment: a practical approach, Aileen Clarke, John Powell & Mary Ann Lansang
12.3. Socio-economic inequalities in health in high-income countries: the facts and the options, Johan P. Mackenbach
12.4. Reducing health inequalities in low- and middle-income countries, Davidson R. Gwatkin
12.5. Prevention and control of chronic, non-communicable diseases, Jorn Olsen, Virasakdi Chongsuvivatwong & Robert Beaglehole
12.6. Principles of infectious disease control, Robert J. Kim-Farley
12.7. Population screening and public health, Allison Streetly & Walter Holland
12.8. Environmental health practice, Lynn R. Goldman & Elma Torres
12.9. Structures and strategies for public health intervention, Don Nutbeam & Marilyn Wise
12.10. Strategies for health services, Martin McKee, Ellen Nolte & Josep Figueras
12.11. Public health workers, Suwit Wibulpolprasert & Piya Hanvoravongchai
12.12. Planning for and responding to public health needs in emergencies and disasters, Khanchit Limpakarnjanarat & Roderico H. Ofrin
Section 13: The future of public health
13.1. Private support of public health, Roger Detels & Sheena Sullivan
13.2. Global health agenda for the 21st century, Adrian Ong, Mary Kindhauser, Ian Smith & Margaret Chan