AJPH
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Purchase Article
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rockhill, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rockhill, B.
Related Collections
Right arrow Cancer
Right arrow Epidemiology
Right arrow Prevention

American Journal of Public Health, Vol 91, Issue 3 365-368, Copyright © 2001 by American Public Health Association

JOURNAL ARTICLE

The privatization of risk

B Rockhill
Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Mass., USA. beverly.rockhill@channing.harvard.edu

The privatization, or individualization, of risk factor knowledge has been largely responsible for a rising tide of criticism of epidemiology. The current debate seems polarized into 2 sides, those who support and those who attack "risk factor" epidemiology. This commentary aims to reinvigorate some of Geoffrey Rose's central arguments and show that this debate may miss a key point: a risk factor is a probabilistic concept that applies to an aggregate of individuals, not to a specific individual. Risk factor knowledge compels those in public health to seek actions that shift population distributions of these factors and, to do so, to understand their social, economic, and political determinants. The author links Rose's qualitative distinction between the causes of cases and the causes of incidence to an examination of the conceptual and quantitative limits of "individual risk" estimation. The attempt to predict individuals' futures on the basis of risk factor profile is especially prominent now with breast cancer. The author suggests reasons why a policy promoting private decision making about risk, while likely ineffective from a population standpoint, is viewed as the only feasible primary prevention option against this disease.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Epidemiol. Community HealthHome page
J. L Halliday, V. R Collins, M. A. Aitken, M. P M Richards, and C. A Olsson
Genetics and public health--evolution, or revolution?
J. Epidemiol. Community Health, November 1, 2004; 58(11): 894 - 899.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Epidemiol. Community HealthHome page
C C Tam and B A Lopman
Determinism versus stochasticism: in support of long coffee breaks
J. Epidemiol. Community Health, July 1, 2003; 57(7): 477 - 478.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Epidemiol. Community HealthHome page
M L Barreto
The ideal minister of health
J. Epidemiol. Community Health, December 1, 2002; 56(12): 890 - 891.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 J. Epidemiol. Community HealthHome page
M. Porta
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, persistent organic pollutants, and the achievable utopias
J. Epidemiol. Community Health, November 1, 2002; 56(11): 806 - 807.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Sex. Transm. Infect.Home page
S O Aral
Determinants of STD epidemics: implications for phase appropriate intervention strategies
Sex. Transm. Inf., April 1, 2002; 78(90001): i3 - 13.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Am. J. Public HealthHome page
G. B. Gori
INDIVIDUALIZED OR POPULATION RISKS: WHAT IS THE ARGUMENT?
Am J Public Health, December 1, 2001; 91(12): 1919 - 1919.
[Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2001 by the American Public Health Association