Introduction

Abstract

The term ‘epidemiological research’ tends to be used, at present, in reference to any research that addresses the rate of occurrence of a phenomenon of ‘health’ in a human population. There is little or no concern to distinguish between clinical research (ultimately on rate-based probabilities, in reference to individuals) and genuinely epidemiological research (on rates per se, concerning populations). No-one seems to ask, for example, whether research in ‘pharmaco-epidemiology’ actually is epidemiological or, instead, clinical. And the term also is applied to inquiries that are not research at all. At issue may be mere fact-finding (about rates), especially fact-finding that is part of epidemiological practice (of community medicine); and the phenomena being addressed may be ones of healthcare rather than of health.