Italian Social Marketing Association - Newsletter 220

In this book, Katherine Smith offers an insightful analysis of evidence-based policy, providing an interesting typology with which to deepen our exploration of the relationship between research and policy. Lee Gregory finds it a rare book which captures the reader, inviting self-reflection upon how one can engage with research either as an academic, an advocate, or policymaker, and their own research. 

Beyond Evidence-Based Policy in Public Health: The Interplay of Ideas. Katherine Smith. Palgrave Macmillan. October 2013.

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The advocacy of evidence-based policy (EBP) has grown in prominence for more than a decade, whilst attention to health inequalities in the UK has intensified somewhat since the publication of The Spirit Level. In this book Katherine Smith explores the relationship between the two, not only providing an interesting exploration of the role of EBP within public health, but also insight in the plight of the contemporary academic in a world of research impact.

Si chiama Lives on the line ed è una mappa delle linee della metropolitana che racconta Londra con due statistiche fondamentali:l’aspettativa di vita e la povertà infantile (l’indice IDACI – Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index). Confrontando i due indici si ha un quadro di come, senza i margini per una aspirazione all’ascesa sociale, le sorti dei bambini che vivono nelle zone più povere di Londra potrebbero essere già segnate.

Survey shows one in five teenagers in north west England have bought or tried e-cigarettes and found a strong link to to binge drinking

I continue to hear doubts echoing from my fellow medical students, residents, and attendings, particularly about the use of Twitter.

Many of them ask how using Twitter has benefited me, and my answer almost always makes them stop and think.

My life has been enriched by the network of intelligent and forward-thinking people I have connected with on Twitter–many of them medical students, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, or other professionals who have made the leap into social media.

Distortion of the evidence based brandThe first problem is that the evidence based “quality mark” has been misappropriated and distorted by vested interests. In particular, the drug and medical devices industries increasingly set the research agenda. They define what counts as disease (for example, female sexual arousal disorder, treatable with sildenafil16 and male baldness, treatable with finasteride17) and predisease “risk states” (such as low bone density, treatable with alendronate).18 They also decide which tests and treatments will be compared in empirical studies and choose (often surrogate) outcome measures for establishing “efficacy.”19Furthermore, by overpowering trials to ensure that small differences will be statistically significant, setting inclusion criteria to select those most likely to respond to treatment, manipulating the dose of both intervention and control drugs, using surrogate endpoints, and selectively publishing positive studies, industry may manage to publish its outputs as “unbiased” studies in leading peer reviewed journals.20