Evidence-Based Public Health

Public health policies have made a decisive contribution to the unprecedented increase in life expectancy in the 20th century. Today, however, public health is facing new challenges, including ageing populations, migration, social inequality and climate change. Evidence-based public health provides decision-makers with the latest scientific evidence to help them meet these challenges. This applies in particular to the identification of relevant health problems and the selection, implementation and effectiveness testing of appropriate interventions. A particular challenge here is that public health measures should have a positive influence on human activities in everyday life. Accordingly, scientific findings must be obtained in such a context, which makes it more difficult to establish causal relationships. This chapter shows some of the approaches that are suitable for generating evidence in public health. Furthermore, it discusses the possibilities and potentials for the increased use of scientific evidence in public health.