Population Health Intervention Research

Health geographers are well situated for undertaking population health intervention research (PHIR), and have an opportunity to be at the forefront of this emerging area of inquiry. However, in order to advance PHIR, the scientific community needs to be innovative with its methodologies, theories, and ability to think critically about population health issues. For example, using alternatives (e.g. community-based participatory research) to traditional study designs such as the randomised control trial, health geographers can contribute in important ways to understanding the complex relationships between population health (both intended and unintended consequences), interventions and place. Representing a diverse array of health concerns ranging across chronic and infectious diseases, and research employing varied qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the contributions to this book illustrate how geographic concepts and approaches have informed the design and planning of intervention(s) and/or the evaluation of health impacts. For example, the authors argue that geographically targeting interventions to places of high-need and tailoring interventions to local place contexts are critically important for intervention success. Including an afterword by Professor Louise Potvin, this book will appeal to researchers interested in population and public/community health and epidemiology as well as health geography.

Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People amplifies the voices of marginalized or powerless individuals. Following previous work done by physical anthropologists on the biology of poverty, this volume focuses on the voices of past actors who would normally be subsumed within a cohort or whose stories represent those of the minority. The physical effects of marginalization – manifest as skeletal markers of stress and disease – are read in their historical contexts to better understand vulnerability and the social determinants of health in the past. Bioarchaeological, archaeological, and historical datasets are integrated to explore the varied ways in which individuals may be marginalized both during and after their lifespan. By focusing on previously excluded voices this volume enriches our understanding of the lived experience of individuals in the past. This volume queries the diverse meanings of marginalization, from physical or social peripheralization, to identity loss within a majority population, to a collective forgetting that excludes specific groups. Contributors to the volume highlight the histories of individuals who did not record their own stories, including two disparate Ancient Egyptian women and individuals from a high-status Indigenous cemetery in British Columbia. Additional chapters examine the marginalized individuals whose bodies comprise the Robert J. Terry anatomical collection and investigate inequalities in health status in individuals from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Modern clinical population health research is examined through a historical lens, bringing a new perspective to the critical public health interventions occurring today. Together, these papers highlight the role that biological anthropologists play both in contributing to and challenging the marginalization of past populations. Highlights the histories and stories of individuals whose voices were silenced, such as workhouse inmates, migrants, those of low socioeconomic status, the chronically ill, and those living in communities without a written language Provides a holistic and more complete understanding of the lived experiences of the past, as well as changes in populations through time Offers an interdisciplinary discussion with contributions from a wide variety of international authors

In health research, approaches based on biomedical and epidemiological studies fail to capture the complexity of population health interventions. Yet it is essential to study them using approaches adapted to their complexity, the plurality of their mechanisms, and the diversity of local actors and contexts. This is the purpose of population health intervention research (PHIR), as summarized in this book. Through conceptual and methodological explanations, and illustrations of numerous examples from around the world, the authors aim to address a need for training in this scientific approach among researchers and, more broadly, healthcare professionals, by examining essential issues of effectiveness, equity, relevance, implementation, and scaling-up.

"IEA, International Epidemiological Association, Welcome Trust."

Drawing on the latest research and statistics, Population Health in Canada presents critical analyses of the most pressing population health equity issues in Canada. Comprising research papers and briefs written by some of the top scholars in the field, this edited collection illustrates fundamental concepts of population health, including social inclusion and exclusion, health as a public good, and the social determinants of health. The editors’ careful selection of the framework and contents has been designed to encourage a social justice lens to address health inequities that are systemic, socially produced, and unfair. Sections on methodological tools, population health equity, community action, and current issues introduce students to the components needed to understand population health in Canada. With an emphasis on theory, methods, interventions, policy, and knowledge translation, this timely volume is well suited to a variety of courses on population health in social science and health studies programs.

Health and human services currently face a series of challenges – such as aging populations, chronic diseases and new endemics – that require highly complex responses, and take place in multiple care environments including acute medicine, chronic care facilities and the community. Accordingly, most modern health care interventions are now seen as ‘complex interventions’ – activities that contain a number of component parts with the potential for interactions between them which, when applied to the intended target population, produce a range of possible and variable outcomes. This in turn requires methodological developments that also take into account changing values and attitudes related to the situation of patients’ receiving health care. The first book to place complex interventions within a coherent system of research enquiry, this work is designed to help researchers understand the research processes involved at each stage of developing, testing, evaluating and implementing complex interventions, and assist them to integrate methodological activities to produce secure, evidence-based health care interventions. It begins with conceptual chapters which set out the complex interventions framework, discuss the interrelation between knowledge development and evidence, and explore how mixed methods research contributes to improved health. Structured around the influential UK Medical Research Council guidance for use of complex interventions, four sections, each comprised of bite-sized chapters written by multidisciplinary experts in the area, focus on: - Developing complex interventions - Assessing the feasibility of complex interventions and piloting them - Evaluating complex interventions - Implementing complex interventions. Accessible to students and researchers grappling with complex interventions, each substantive chapter includes an introduction, bulleted learning objectives, clinical examples, a summary and further reading. The perspectives of various stakeholders, including patients, families and professionals, are discussed throughout as are the economic and ethical implications of methods. A vital companion for health research, this book is suitable for readers from multidisciplinary disciplines such as medical, nursing, public health, health services research, human services and allied healthcare backgrounds.

At a time when evidence-based practice is the standard bearer for understanding health behaviour, problems and interventions, ensuring that researchers know the appropriate designs and methods for their research is more paramount than ever. Health Intervention Research will equip those doing research in these communities with the knowledge and tools they need to inform their methodological decisions when planning and conducting studies. This book describes both commonly used (e.g., randomized clinical trials) and advanced (e.g. preference trials, pragmatic trials) designs and methods for health intervention research. It outlines the theoretical reasoning underlying these different approaches, and synthesizes the evidence which supports or disputes different designs and methods. To achieve its aims, the book is divided into three main sections. The first section points to the need to base methodological decisions on evidence and highlights the importance of carefully selecting research designs and methods to maintain validity. The second section focuses on designs to determine the effects of intervention on outcomes, outlining their features and discussing how these can be used to evaluate interventions. The last section covers methods used in conducting intervention evaluation research. For each design and method, the following is covered: what it is, what the logic underlying it is, what the evidence supporting its effectiveness is, and also includes its advantages, its limitations, and how can it be implemented. This will be key reading for postgraduates and novice researchers in health and clinical psychology, health sciences and nursing.