The role of epidemiology in understanding health conditions in populations is an undeniably important one. The field of epidemiology receives considerable attention in the media, yet there is often uncertainty around the accuracy of their findings and the implications of their research on public health. In order to shed light on this issue, an article was chosen that examines the impact of media attention on epidemiological research and analyzes the role of epidemiologic studies in reports of health outcomes. Through exploring how epidemiology influences the understanding of…

Research examining the impact of media attention on epidemiological research has shown that there is a positive correlation between media attention and epidemiological research. This has been seen in a variety of different studies and contexts, including one conducted by SM Noar, KM Ribisl, BM Althouse and colleagues (2013). This study specifically looked at the impact of media attention on a population-level intervention designed to reduce adolescent smoking. The results of this research found that when media attention was present, the population-level intervention that was created to reduce adolescent smoking was more effective than when media attention was not present. This suggests that media attention can be used to increase the effectiveness of public health initiatives, particularly those focused on reducing adolescent smoking. This is an important finding as it can help inform public health practitioners on the potential efficacy of media attention when designing and implementing public…..

This article serves to illustrate the powerful tool epidemiologic research can be in understanding the population-level causes of health conditions. By combining the statistical tools of epidemiology with the qualitative power of media coverage, the population’s understanding of diseases can be greatly improved. As this article demonstrates, epidemiology has both the rigor and precision to generate meaningful data that can be used to create preventative public health measures in order to combat the further spread of disease throughout populations. Epidemiology has allowed us to gain a clearer understanding of the determinants of health, while media coverage has allowed us to bring the importance of those findings to the general public in a way that is engaging and informative.