Practical Epidemiology

Practical Epidemiology: Using Epidemiology to Support Primary Health Care builds on the successful Manual of Epidemiology for District Health Management, that was published by the WHO Geneva in 1989.

This title focuses on the importance of using epidemiological concepts and skills by health workers in Lower and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), in particular to investigate, plan and deliver primary health care services and to strengthen district level public health programmes. It also includes illustrations and examples relevant to a hypothetical district population of 200,000 people.

The book outlines the importance of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Health Organisation's principles for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and then focuses on the role of district health systems in supporting national primary health care and the use of epidemiological and demographic information in the planning of local and national health services and programmes. Chapters include the collection of health information, outbreaks due to communicable diseases, use of investigations and health surveys, data analysis and statistics, and importance of communicating health findings and policies.

Using a systems approach together with epidemiological methods it demonstrates how district health planning and primary health care can be strengthened and how progress can be monitored and evaluated, including for improvements in access, quality and coverage of health services and public health programmes. Ethical principles and tackling inequalities are considered throughout the book. A full chapter on the A B C of epidemiological definitions and terms is also included.

This book will be particularly relevant for undergraduate and postgraduate university training courses for health professionals and for in-service short and revision courses for a wide range of health workers.

J Patrick Vaughan, Professor Emeritus in Epidemiology and Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom,Cesar Victora, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil,A Mushtaque R Chowdhury, Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University, New York, USA

Professor J Patrick Vaughan has had an extensive career in international health and in health systems planning, evaluation and research, mainly in low and middle income countries. He has worked with the World Health Organisation in Geneva, the World Bank in Washington, and as consultant in public health to the UK National Health Service (NHS) in London. He has lived in Papua New Guinea where he worked in government health services, in Tanzania where he helped start the new medical school in Dar es Salaam, and in Bangladesh as research director in public health at the ICDDRB (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research), Dhaka. He has published many scientific papers and 10 books. He graduated in medicine from Guy's Hospital Medical School, London.


Professor Cesar Victora leads the International Center for Equity in Health. Since obtaining his PhD at the University of London in 1983 and he has conducted research in maternal and child health and nutrition, birth cohort studies, inequalities in health, and on the evaluation of major health programs in many countries. He was President of the International Epidemiological Association (2011-14), and won the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award in 2017. He is a highly-cited researcher according to the Web of Science 2018, 2019 and 2020.


Professor Mushtaque Chowdhury was the founding Dean of the James P Grant BRAC School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and formerly Executive Director and Vice Chair of BRAC, the world's largest NGO. He was a MacArthur Fellow at Harvard University and spent four years as Senior Adviser to the Rockefeller Foundation, based out of Bangkok, Thailand. He has published nearly 200 articles in national and international peer reviewed journals, including a recent article in Oxford Research Encyclopedia. In 2017 he received the Medical Excellence Award from the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the USA. He is the immediate past President of the Asia-Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH).