Public Health and Risk Factor, 1580461271, £70.00/$95.00, 480pp, 2003

Public Health and the Risk Factor
A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution
William G. Rothstein

Public Health and the Risk Factor is a terrific book. JAMA The greatest revolutions in twentieth century public health and preventive medicine have been the concepts of risk factors and healthy lifestyles as methods of preventing disease. A risk factor is anything that increases the risk of disease in an individual. Lifestyle refers to the individual's personal behaviors with regard to risk factors. Identifying risk factors and modifying them by changing lifestyles in order to prevent disease has become ubiquitous as a strategy in public health. The book examines the history and evolution of the concepts of risk factors and healthy lifestyles and their application to coronary heart disease, the major chronic disease of the twentieth century. The first part contains a history of the use of statistics in public health and medicine, and the ways in which various industries developed the concept of the risk factor. The second part describes the concept of healthy lifestyles, which was devised by municipal public health departments and life insurance companies in the early part of the century. The third and fourth parts examine how the concepts of risk factors and lifestyles were applied to the primary chronic disease of the twentieth century - coronary heart disease. The focus of the book overall is on coronary heart disease as a public health, rather than a medical, issue, and the various concepts that have been used in preventing it.

William G. Rothstein is professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

DETAILS
8 line illustrations
480 pages
Size: 9 x 6 in
10 digit ISBN: 1580461271
13 digit ISBN: 9781580461276
Binding: Hardback
First published: 01/May/2003
Last printed: 01/May/2003
Price: 95.00 USD / 70.00 GBP
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Series: Rochester Studies in Medical History
Subject:

BIC class: AVH

STATUS: Available
Details updated on 12/08/2008

Reviews
Public Health and the Risk Factor is a terrific book. It describes the evolution of a concept that has become central to public health and medical thought: the risk factor. The author uses nontechnical language to guide readers through a wide array of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century technical developments that are the basis of our current understanding of the risk factor concept. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION Volume 290, No 17

[The New England Journal of Medicine] strongly recommend[s] this book to everyone interested in the interface of public health and clinical medicine and in the epidemiology of CHD.NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE 350;6 February 5, 2004

[A] well written book...whether you read the entire book, or only selected chapters, you will walk away with a wealth of knowledge. NEW JERSEY MEDICINE

A rich and useful study. JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE

This . . . is a sophisticated analysis of the way health policy was and is created, amended, and circumvented. While maintaining good sociological skepticism about motives, it is open-minded about the role of industry and technology in helping to advance a healthier society. . . . The individual and collective power of Rothstein's facts and linkages is overwhelming and, at the same time, delightful. . . . [H]e has written one of the best books in the sociology of medicine in recent memory. CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

In clear, nontechnical language Rothstein introduces readers to the history of vital statistics and their precursors, from sixteenth-century bills of mortality to censuses and on to the increasingly complex life tables of the insurance industry. PROJECT MUSE

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