Scientific challenges for precision public health

Kee, Frank and Taylor-Robinson, David (2020) Scientific challenges for precision public health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

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Abstract

<jats:p>The notion of ‘precision’ public health has been the subject of much debate, with recent articles coming to its defence following the publication of several papers questioning its value.</jats:p><jats:p>Critics of precision public health raise the following problems and questionable assumptions: the inherent limits of prediction for individuals; the limits of approaches to prevention that rely on individual agency, in particular the potential for these approaches to widen inequalities; the undue emphasis on the supposed new information contained in individuals’ molecules and their ‘big data’ at the expense of their own preferences for a particular intervention strategy and the diversion of resources and attention from the social determinants of health.</jats:p><jats:p>In order to refocus some of these criticisms of precision public health as scientific questions, this article outlines some of the challenges when defining risk for individuals; the limitations of current theory and study design for precision public health; and the potential for unintended harms.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	27 Jan 2020 09:38
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 00:08
DOI:	10.1136/jech-2019-213311
Open Access URL:	https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2020/01/23/jech...
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3072081