Definitions
of Evidence-Based Practice & Evidence-Based Public Health

Oxford Dictionary, 2001

“…the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid."

Brownson, Ross C., Elizabeth A. Baker, Terry L. Leet and Kathleen N Gillespie. Evidenced-Based Public Health, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003. This book provides fundamentals of evidence, what it is and how it is developed, as it is applied to public health. Authors (1) distinguish between evidence-based medicine and evidence-based public health; (2) provide an analytical framework for the development of evidence and (3) provide additional web-based resources and references for learning more about evidence-based public health.

“…the development, implementation and evaluation of effective programs and policies in public health through the application of principles of scientific reasoning, including systematic uses of data and information systems and appropriate use of behavioral science theory and program planning models. With such an approach, activities in public health practice are explicitly linked with the underlying scientific evidence that

demonstrates effectiveness.” (page 4)

University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library: Evidence Based Practice for Public Health. http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph/

"…the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research" (in Sackett DL, Rosenberg WMC, Gray JAM, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what is isn't. BMJ 1996; 312: 71-2).

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