Critically evaluate and appraise that underpins public health practice Essay

Critically evaluate and appraise that underpins public health practice and policy - Essay Example We cannot afford to sit back and watch as health matters go astray (Steel 1987, p68). All medical practitioners from the management to the assistants have taken up seriously the matter of evidence research. There are many kinds of research, namely the randomized control trial, qualitative research, the survey and action research (Gomm & Davies 2000, p18). Evidence research is the form of research where the researcher builds his study around or based on an evidence or fact proven by an earlier conducted research. This is the form of research that is taking a toll in the current world. Nations are rooting for its development. It is relatively cheaper and faster. It encourages a chain of continuous discoveries and inventions. Strong promotion of the use of research evidence to underpin public health policy is currently ongoing. It is slowly but surely taking over from the evidence based medicine policy. In the UK, the body charged with the development of this new system of research is the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Evidence shows that the response to a similar public health intervention is very different between separate populations. Likewise, an intervention which generally improves a population’s health has the capability of increasing inequalities in health. In this regard, a government should not focus only on intervention’s average effects for it is likely to miss important differences. It is in fact argued that the approach of public health through evidence based research actually increases inequality bias. This is for instance the case when based on the fact that most people over the age of sixty die of cancer, the government responds by offering free chemotherapy sessions for this population only in its facilities. This creates an inequality bias on the other populations (Orme 2007, p28). It may even intensify the severely of the situation in the other