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Population-Based Data and Community Empowerment

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Rethinking Social Epidemiology

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the transformation of population-based data and data systems into social resources that actively contribute to social, economic and political solutions to reduce health inequities. Our first underlying premise is that current systems of population health data collection, management, analysis and use are too often disconnected from the communities being described and whose data are being collected. Our second and related premise is that, in order for data to become a tool for social empowerment and social change, the social structuring of data governance and management must change from systems that reinforce social exclusion by marginalizing communities from their data to systems in which communities are fully and centrally involved in data decision making. The first part of this chapter rationalizes these premises by providing examples of the ways in which existing data systems undermine the broader mission of social epidemiology to identify effective interventions that alleviate conditions of social marginalization and poverty. The remainder of the chapter focuses on strategies for transformation in health and social data and data systems.

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Abbreviations

RCT:

Randomized controlled trial

PHAC:

Public Health Agency of Canada

OCAP:

Ownership, Control, Access and Possession

RHS:

Regional Longitudinal Health Survey

DSM:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder

CCHN:

Community Child Health Research Network

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St. Michael’s Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, M5B 1W8, ON, Canada

    Janet Smylie, Aisha Lofters, Michelle Firestone & Patricia O’Campo

Authors
  1. Janet Smylie
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  2. Aisha Lofters
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  3. Michelle Firestone
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  4. Patricia O’Campo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet Smylie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. St. Michael’s Hospital, Bond Street 30, Toronto, M5B 1W8, Ontario, Canada

    Patricia O’Campo

  2. , McMaster University, Department of Health, Aging and Society, Main Street West 1280, Hamilton, L8S 4L8, Ontario, Canada

    James R. Dunn

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Smylie, J., Lofters, A., Firestone, M., O’Campo, P. (2012). Population-Based Data and Community Empowerment. In: O’Campo, P., Dunn, J. (eds) Rethinking Social Epidemiology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2138-8_4

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