Mary-Jane SchneiderJones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc Introduction To Public Health

Great book, but unfortunately very Americanized.

アメリカにおける公衆衛生に関する，わかりやすい入門書。カバーする内容は，公衆衛生がなぜ政策論争を巻き起こしやすいのか（政治的背景・憲法的背景など），アメリカの政治機構から，疫学・感染症・慢性病・健康の社会経済的要因・交通事故・精神病・環境要因・医療保険を含む社会保障など，幅広い分野にわたる。分かりやすい英語で，具体的な事例を参照しながら（なので，ときにメディア記事やネット情報の引用も多くなっており，「学術的でない」とも言われそうだ）説明が進んでいくので，非常に読みやすい。感染症のパートなどは，2020年現在世界的に問題になっている新型コロナへの対応についても，基本的な考え方を知る手がかりになるだろう。もちろん，公衆衛生という分野は，必然的に政治的対立の強い分野だ。特に米国政治においては，医療保険を初めとする社会保障（オバマケアなど）をどこまで実施するのかについて，共和党系右派と民主党系左派との間の対立が激しい。どちらかというと「科学的証拠」と社会保障の重視という立場をとる本書は，前者のような立場の人たちからは嫌われるかもしれない。けれども，外国人として読む限りにおいては，アメリカが，公衆衛生という問題にどのように取り組んできて，現在の課題は何なのかを知る手がかりとして，優れた入門書になっている。

Good writing, intelligent discussion of public health issues. All resources listed at the end of each chapter. You can follow up on any of these resources if you wish. Sections of book include seven parts and 31 chapters. The sections are:I. What is public health?II. Analytical Methods of Public HealthIII. Biomedical Basis of Public HealthIV. Social and Behavioral Factors in HealthV. Environmental Issues in Public HealthVI. Medical Care and Public HealthVII. The Future of Public HealthI bought this book for a class I'm taking called Introduction to Public Health, but if you are interested in public health and not taking a class, it is very informative and interesting just for your own knowledge or if you work in the public health sector.

This was a required book for a course. It does cover basic concepts, but reads more like a manifesto from the author. Overly politicized and not an accurate neutral representation that should be used in a course. The citations were not well sourced for an academic book. Most being that from non scientific newspaper articles and lack of statistical backing.

Course Required text. It was a good introductory textbook that covers the comprehensive field of Public Health. There were times when the book felt as though it veered in to the political. Or, that the citations were a little less than scientific (citing major newspapers does not feel grounded in science). I felt that the highlighted words were fairly random. I am used to words being placed in bold font or highlighted in some other way when they were important terms or concepts. It didn't always feel that the author was intentional about their choice in which words to highlight. Overall, for an introductory text, it was a good and easy read.