clinical research usually involves patients with a certain disease or a condition. the generalizability of clinical research findings is based on multiple factors related to the internal and external validity of the research methods. the main methodological issue that influences the generalizability of clinical research findings is the sampling method. in this educational article, we are explai...

BACKGROUND The present time reflects a period of intense effort to get the most out of public health interventions, with an emphasis on health systems reform and implementation research. Population health approaches to determine which combinations are better at achieving the goals of improved health and well-being are needed to provide a ready response to the need for timely and real-world pilo...

Increasingly, researchers use simulation to generate realistic population health data to evaluate surveillance and disease control methods. This evaluation approach is attractive because real data are often not available to describe the full range of population health trajectories that may occur. Simulation models, especially agent-based models, tend to have many parameters and it is often diff...

BACKGROUND The assessment of physical activity is an essential part of understanding patterns and influences of behaviour, designing interventions, and undertaking population surveillance and monitoring, but it is particularly problematic when using self-report instruments with young people. This study reviewed available self-report physical activity instruments developed for use with children ...

Emerging infectious diseases have challenged existing public health infrastructure and validated its necessity on the front lines of defense. The 2014-15 epidemic of Ebola virus in west Africa occurred in countries with limited capacity of healthcare facilities and providers and almost no population based health surveillance systems. The Zika virus outbreaks have also previously occurred mainly...

The goals of this study were to validate a number of available collective social capital measures at the U.S. state and county levels, and to examine the relative extent to which these social capital measures are associated with population health outcomes. Measures of social capital at the U.S. state level included aggregate indices based on the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey (A...

One measure of social welfare in a society is the economic health of dependent populations, such as the elderly and children. The well-being of these two groups relative to the working-aged population indicates a distribution of income that promotes security at all stages of life. But what of a society that protects its aged much better than it protects its children? This anomalous situation oc...