Essay review: Epidemiology and the people's health. Theory and context. (review by Anthony J. McMichael of Nancy Krieger's book of that title)

摘要

As McMichael points out in his thought-provoking review of Nancy Krieger's important new book, making the theory of epidemiology explicit has not been a high priority for our discipline. In this respect, epidemiology seems to be similar to other sciences, where the fundamental paradigms (including theory) are taken for granted, and where the principles relating to the science are largely to be found in textbooks.3'4 McMichael and Nancy Krieger both conclude that a single epidemiological theory of disease causation is unlikely to be achievable, but several theories may be needed-in McMichael's words