252647 Cardiovascular Disease and the Birth of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, 1920-1940

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 1:30 PM

Aaron Mauck, PhD , Center For Social Epidemiology & Population Health, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI
In this paper I explore the role that cardiovascular disease research played in altering the scope and purpose of public health during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly as it pertained to three key issues: (1) The diminishing importance of acute infectious disease as a research subject; (2) the methodological shift from mortality studies to morbidity studies; and (3) the increasing attention paid to examinations of the social and financial costs of illness. Efforts to resolve ambiguities in existing epidemiological methods for assessing CVD and related conditions played a central role in shaping later policy approaches to public health centered on non-infectious chronic disease.

Learning Areas:
Epidemiology
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Discuss changes taking place in the methods of cardiovascular disease epidemiology in the early twentieth century, and the effect that these changes had on subsequent public health approaches.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a historian of medicine and public health who has performed extensive research on the early epidemiological responses to cardiovascular disease and related diseases.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Operationalizing Heart Disease: Methods, Approaches, and Classifications in Coronary Vascular Disease Research, 1880 to 1980 Invited session: Jointly organized with Epidemiology Section
See more of: Medical Care