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MLS054 Lesson2
MLS054 Lesson2
Introduction to
Epidemiology
Lesson 2
Examples
✨ Clinical research
✨ Disease prevention
✨ Health promotion
✨ Health protection
✨ Health services research
Pioneers of Epidemiology
✨ James Lind was a physician in the early 18th century, when scurvy
was a major problem among sailors on long sea voyages. At that
time, the cause of scurvy was not known. Bad air, congenital laziness
and indigestible food were all suggested as possible causes. Lind
observed that the sailors’ diet was very poor, consisting of biscuits
and salted fish or meat.
✨ Bradford Hill is widely known for pioneering the “Bradford Hill” criteria
for determining a causal association.
✨ Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll was a British physician who became
an epidemiologist in the mid-20th century and made important
contributions to that discipline. He was a pioneer in research linking
smoking to health problems. With Ernst Wynder, Bradford Hill and
Evarts Graham, he was credited with being the first to prove that
smoking caused lung cancer and increased the risk of heart
disease. (German studies had suggested a link as early as the 1920s
but were forgotten or ignored until the 1990s. He also carried out
pioneering work on the relationship between radiation and leukemia
as well as that between asbestos and lung cancer, and alcohol and
breast cancer.
Scope of Epidemiology
1. Causation of disease
2. Natural history of disease
3. Health status of the population
4. Evaluation of interventions