SPHEN-O-GRAM 1: core resources in public health
Lynn Easton
Welcome to this column brought to you by the Scottish Public Health Evidence Network (SPHEN). We have been a sub-group of SHINE since 2002, composed of public health and health promotion library and information staff working hard in all corners of Scotland to promote co-operation and the exchange of ideas and information in public health and health promotion.
In this our first column we shall introduce you to some of the core resources in public health.
To start with a definition from the Oxford Textbook of Public Health "Public health is the process of mobilizing and engaging local, state, national, and international resources to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy" 1. This textbook is a critical resource (currently available electronically on the NHSScotland elibrary) and has just been published in a paperback version and, at a mere 1995 pages long, it covers the basics.
Right at the other end of the scale the Oxford Textbook of Public Health Practice2 is very practically minded and pocket-sized. Readers have been known to weep when forced to return this one to the library.
There are plenty of journals; you could try the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health3, Journal of Public Health Medicine4 or Social Science & Medicine5 for starters. For a nice juicy main course the ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts) and HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium) databases frequently fill you up when searching for public health information in a way MEDLINE can't quite.
To round off this list of core resources we include a couple of useful websites. The Faculty of Public Health's website6 has recently been revamped. And finally a wee gem of a website, the Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related Services in Britain: 1066 - 1999 by Michael Warren7 details the development and legislation of public health since the eleventh century.
Next issue: core health promotion resources
1 Detels R, McEwen J, Beaglehole R and Tanaka H, eds Oxford Textbook of Public Health. 4th ed Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
2 Pencheon D, Guest C, Melzer D and Muir Gray J A, eds Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001
3 http://jech.bmjjournals.com/
4 http://jpubhealth.oupjournals.org/
5 http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description
6 http://www.fph.org.uk/
7 http://www.chronology.ndo.co.uk/
Lynn Easton
Chair of Scottish Public Health Evidence Network (SPHEN)
c/o NHS Argyll and Clyde
Ross House
Hawkhead Road
Paisley
PA2 7BN
0141 842 7223
lynn.easton@achb.scot.nhs.uk