North American Workshop: New Directions for Epidemiology: The Role of Journals
(OPEN TO ALL)
• Moyses Szklo, AJE
Professor
Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United Statess

New Directions in Epidemiology: A Return to Old Directions?

I propose that our knowledge of risk factors for conditions responsible for a large proportion of the population burden of ill health is sufficient to warrant our shifting our emphasis from etiologic studies to the next stage, evaluation of preventive strategies likely to decrease this burden. To this end, epidemiologists should again turn their attention to the classical epidemiologic triad of agent, host and environment, on which all primary prevention strategies are based. Consideration of determinants at both the individual and the ecologic/group levels provides a useful model for research on the interface of epidemiology and public health. Editors of major epidemiology journals should encourage and strongly consider the publication of reports of findings with a strong potential for application to public health.

Kuller L. Circular epidemiology. Am J Epidemiol 1999;150:897-903

Sutton AJ, Duval SJ, Tweedie RL, et al. Empirical assessment of publication bias on meta-analyses. Brit Med J 2000;320:1574-1577

Szklo M. The evaluation of epidemiologic evidence for policy-making. Am J Epidemiol 2001;154:S13-S17

Moyses Szklo was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He received his medical degree from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and both his MPH and DrPH degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is professor of epidemiology and medicine (cardiology) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Schools of Public Health and Medicine. He is also the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Epidemiology. His main research interest is cardiovascular epidemiology and, until recently, he was principal investigator of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a multi-center cohort study of both subclinical and clinical atherosclerosis.