Starter Paper: Methodological Problems in Constructing the Evidence Base in Public Health

Mike Kelly, Catherine Swann, Amanda Killoran, Bhash Naidoo, Elaine Barnett-Paige, Antony Morgan: August 2002

As part of its core function, the Health Development Agency is required to map and synthesize the evidence base for the effectiveness of public health interventions to improve health and reduce health inequalities. This activity has a number of challenges associated with the assessment of evidence, concepts of public health, and modes of transfer of evidence into practice. This paper outlines some of these challenges, and presents the brief for the Methodologies Reference group to collaborate with the HDA in developing new and innovative means of overcoming these challenges.