National Health Survey
Comments on the publication of the 25th Anniversary of the National Health Survey U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service, Office of... ...Continue reading →
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:
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”.
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.
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).
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.
The Link to the entire paper