Evidence based public health

”Evidence based” has become fashionable both in research and decision-making, and the idea claims to bridge research and decision-making. This idea has its roots and is most developed in medicine, but has obviously relevance even in public health.  However, most actions suggested in public health have a different nature than in medicine. While patients are treated individually in medicine, public health research often suggest collective interventions in living conditions such as access to food, education or decent working conditions. These features of public health interventions of course require other methods than in medicine to collect evidence. In parallel with lectures and exercises, the students read the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” written by Daniel Kahneman.  This book challenge our view on rationality in individual and collective decision-making