Promoting integrity, equity, and evidence in policies affecting public health.

Firearm Violence Prevention
INEP published a call for the World Health Organization, governments, and health policy decision-makers worldwide to recognize the global epidemic of privately-owned firearm violence. They are called upon to take meaningful action to support and engage epidemiologists and other researchers to address firearm violence prevention as an urgent and preventable public health issue.

We argue that mixed methods designs are critical to the design and evaluation of public health interventions and reference two illustrative case studies. We call for increased collaboration between qualitative and quantitative research teams to improve the evaluation of public health interventions in multiple contexts.

Despite grave warnings, put forward by a variety of cancer, public health, and regulatory agencies, regarding the health hazards of all types of asbestos, controversy continues to be fomented by powerful moneyed interests. This has permitted some countries to promote continued use of asbestos. INEP therefore undertook the development of a Position Statement that, for the first time, puts forward, from an epidemiologic perspective, the clear evidence confirming that all forms of asbestos should be banned.

Grave concern arose after 2011 when governments, at least in Canada, the United States and Great Britain began to make changes or were working toward changes that would serve to dismantle and/or erode the census. As part of the epidemiologist's toolkit, the implications were of serious concern owing to the damage that could arise and thereby undermine the role of epidemiology in fulfilling its mission. INEP elected to bring attention to this concern.

Climate Change is one of the most pressing public health concerns today, given the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events resulting from global warming. The linkages between such events and human health are both direct and indirect and are occurring on a grand scale globally.

INEP, being the international policy voice for epidemiological societies, recognizes that vexing issues of conflicting interests and disclosure exist in the daily work of epidemiologists and other related public health researchers and practitioners. As public health professionals, we see this as a significant challenge that we need to address.

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarettes, also known as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems or ENDS) use has grown rapidly within a few years and this rapid expansion of their use took public health professionals in tobacco control by surprise. The products are regulated to different extents in different jurisdictions and new products and forms are being manufactured constantly and added to the markets. Unlike other new tobacco-derived products that had limited sustained interest in them, e-cigarettes have become a major product used globally. E-cigarette use and acceptability vary by country making it a global health issue in terms of assessing the evidence and reaching consensus about harms versus benefits.

An Ethics Working Group was formed (2020) to explore ethics, epidemiology, public health, and policy. Ethics is the inquiry into right and wrong behavior and when responsibility attaches. The group will review ethical issues of the profession and practice.

We call on academic institutions, professional societies and associations, and editorial boards relevant to epidemiology (as well as other academic disciplines more broadly) to take meaningful action to address gender inequities in research, teaching, policy and practice. Career development and mentoring programs, institutional support, and programs to address bias are some of the necessary steps required to achieve gender equity.

The Health Inequities Working Group was originally part of the Ethics Working Group (2020), and due to the amount of work in the project branched off to create its own body of work. They are currently working on a scoping review on the Role of Epidemiology in Addressing Health Inequities through Policy: the example of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2022).

Epidemiologists play an important role in communicate COVID-19 risk and public helath strategies, including evidence regarding vaccine effectness and safety. INEP calls for the adoptions of standards for such communication.

The recordings for this 2 day event are now available to view!

A summary of the INEP workshop at the APHA 2021 meeting is now available.