Kim’s public health blog

In a study to explore the link between early education programs and adult health, and how early educational interventions affect health outcomes, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that early education reduces health behavioral risk factors by enhancing educational attainment, health insurance coverage, income, and family environments. Comment. This study shows one of the problems of long term cohort studies. There were only 123 individuals studied so that over 40 years there have been so many intervening variables that the cohort was not large enough from which to draw conclusions. It is very difficult to develop long term behavioral studies because so much of life intervenes and one cannot keep the exposures of the test group different from the random exposures of the comparison group. There can be no assurance that the early education exposure trumped the long term school exposures.

The IOM has just published a monograph on “Comparative Effectiveness Research”. There are many competing treatments for the major conditions that affect us. There are few studies showing which if any are more effective, other than personal opinions, which doctors and patients can use to choose between them. This monograph speaks to the need to evaluate the various options to improve the rate of recovery and control for various disease. It is worth reading by everyone in public health.