Applied Public Health Statistics

Applied Public Health Statistics

The Statistics Section of APHA, organized in 1908, provides a focus for people involved and/or interested in public health statistics. It serves as the APHA focal point that identifies issues, develops strategies and promotes activities in the area of statistics. The Section also provides a common forum to exchange experiences and knowledge in statistics, which contributes to the activities of APHA and shares in the general responsibilities of the public health movement.

We are building a better APHA. Check back often to see how we’re expanding and improving our Section’s Web pages.

CONTACT US
Chair
Melody S. Goodman, PhD

Chair-Elect
Trent Lalonde, PhD

Membership Committee Liaison
James (Jim) Leeper, PhD

Who Are We

Mission:

The mission of the Statistics Section of APHA is to promote sound statistical practice in public health. The application of appropriate statistical methods by public health professionals and policymakers optimizes the allocation of limited public health resources. The Section accomplishes this mission through:

  1. Advocating sound statistical reasoning in the science and practice of public health
  2. Supporting the use of statistics to guide public health policy.
  3. Working to advance the role and influence of statistical professionals at the local, state and national levels.
  4. Educating public health professionals and the general public about the critical role of statistics in public health.
  5. Training public health professionals in new and existing statistical methods; and encouraging the development of new statistical methods appropriate for public health research and practice.
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Specifically, the Statistics Section:

  1. Provides a multi-disciplinary forum for scientific and public exchanges of views on statistical issues.
  2. Works closely with other sections and affiliates in APHA interested in statistics.
  3. Develops and promotes within the Association policy statements on key issues in statistics.
  4. Serves as advocate for the development and recognition of sound approaches in statistics.
  5. Mobilizes interest and encourages debate on public health statistics problems.

Description and Timeline

Background Documents

cover The first History of the Statistics Section was prepared for the 100th Anniversary of APHA in 1972 by Helen P. Chase, D.P.H. then Chair of the Statistics Section.

The Section was formed as the Vital Statistics Section in 1908 as the second APHA section.

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The Statistics Section of the American Public Health Association, 1908–1972 Helen C. Chase DrPH Chairman, Statistics Section, 1972

Preface

Background

Health Statistics as a “Prime Directive” for APHA

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The History of the APHS, as its original name, Vital Statistic Section, connotes, had as a “prime directive” building a national quality system of registration of births , deaths and associated vital events in the United States . The APHS was the second Section of APHA, and indicative of the importance APHA’s first President, Dr. Stephen Smith MD, and other Founders in 1872 placed on the need for accurate and pertinent data as a building block for spreading public health knowledge and providing science based public health service to our communities. For a more complete general History of Vital Statistics see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/usvss.pdf

In his paper of 1879 “Historic Sketch of the American Public Health Association” presented at the at the Seventh Annual Meeting of APHA in 1879, Dr Smith quotes the objective of APHA in the founding Constitution of the Association as “the advancement of sanitary science and the promotion of organizations and measures for the practical application of public hygiene”.

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Special Committees were established to bring the Association’s mandate to life and specifically “to promote full and free exchange of opinions” was a Committee “On a Uniform System of Registration of Diseases and Causes of Death”. The evolution of the need for more detailed, quality, diverse health data and statistical methods have evolved in the ensuring 14 decades of APHA commensurate with the expanding knowledge base of the health and social sciences, and our own public and professional expectations. Future additions to the APHS page will trace the crucial role that applied health statistics plays both in supporting and furthering research in public health ,applications of vital statistics as a component of global human rights. and the critical importance of quantitative literacy as a base for achieving the goals of APHA in health policy and equity.

SEE APPENDIX II – the reprint of the first publication of the origins and Vital Statistics Systems through 1950.

WORKS in PROGRESS – Explore further Sources

LINKS

AJPH Search “Vital Statistics”

AJPH Search “Statistics Section”

The Vital Statistics Section was formed before the current Journal, AJPH series began. But a few articles may illustrate that as often attributed to Harry S Truman while… “There is nothing new under the sun except the history you have not read yet”, this bromide equally applies to public health themes and challenges. Relevant to Applied Health Statistics history is the 1919 Paper by C. St. Clair Drake – assuredly rings a bell as clearly today as in 1919, the lead heading tells it all… and if anything more compelling in this age of graphic interfaces, skimming, and tweets.

The Link to the entire paper

Media Gallery

FROM the APHA Resource Center | & ARCHIVES

At the 35th Annual Meeting of APHA in Atlantic City (1907) the Association formally moved to create APHA’s second Section named Vital Statistics (now named Applied Pubic Health Statistics).

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1907CoverPage Figure One – The flyleaf pictorially illustrates that in and around this period of time, 1907, APHA aimed to be truly an Association of the Americas and the Caribbean. The then President of APHA was Dr. Domingo Orvananos of Mexico and the First and Second Vice President from the US and Canada, respectively . 1907 Figure Two – The official action of creating the Section, as stated in its purpose illustrates the dual domestic and global participation envisioned for the Vital Statistics Section, and further visually reflects in its header seals of the respective prime member countries that the Section would also have both domestic and international roles. Purpose1907-detail Figure Three – is an enlargement of the Vital Statistics Section’s purpose. The wording of the Vital Statistics Section’s original purpose explicitly illustrates the priority the then Association placed on heath information as an essential base to advance public health, in the words of the day, the public’s hygiene and sanitation. This overall mandate serves to comparatively connect us over the ensuing decades to the work of the current Applied Public Health Statistics Section. The phrasing and style of writing have surely changed as has scope, quantity and quality of information grown, but the essential major themes of the critical importance of reliable personal community health information, tracking trends of specific health events comparable over time and across communities and nations meeting comparable international standards is an enduring continuing goal and aim. A closing note on the imperatives to preserve and record our history: the images of the page of the fold out action forming the Vital Statistics Section was provided by the APHA Resource Center and Archives and is both brittle and fragile having been pieced together from five different fragments. The poor condition of these latter illustrations adds another subtext message that reflect the urgency of the need to preserve our history. Published on the paper of the time, the printed documents of the earlier years of APHA are subject to ever more rapid deterioration.

Commentary

Popularizing Vital Statistics

“Fitting dry-as-dust vital statistics to the psychology of the people is one of the most important problems in modern popular health education. For the benefit of brother health officers Dr. Drake gives a few leaves out of his own experience in impressing fundamental statistical truths on a public that demands interesting presentation together with pictures and variety and novelty.”

~ excerpt an article which was read before the Section on Vital Statistics, American Public Health Association at New Orleans, LA, October 29, 1919

 

The Vital Statistics Section was formed before the current Journal, AJPH series began. But a few articles may illustrate that as often attributed to Harry S Truman while… “There is nothing new under the sun except the history you have not read yet”, this bromide equally applies to public health themes and challenges. Relevant to Applied Health Statistics history is the 1919 Paper by C. St. Clair Drake – assuredly rings a bell as clearly today as in 1919, the lead heading tells it all… and if anything more compelling in this age of graphic interfaces, skimming, and tweets.

… Continue Reading→

The Link to the entire paper

commentary