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Evidence From Field Studies in Guatemala

Nevin S. Scrimshaw, PhD, MD

JAMA. 1970;212(10):1685-1692.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Knowledge of human disease is acquired in three main ways: bedside study of the sick individual, laboratory experiment, and the epidemiological approach through observation of disease as it occurs in whole populations. All three, although first applied to infectious diseases, are equally applicable to nutritional disorders.

In its simplest form the epidemiological method deals with the incidence and prevalence of a disease in various fractions of a population. The next step is to use these data to identify the multiple causative factors involved. This may be followed by the design and execution of field studies to test hypotheses of origin, and ultimately to evaluate suggested measures for prevention and control.¹

The epidemiological method requires an understanding of the ecology of a disease process as determined not only by a specific agent but also by environmental and host factors which usually play the larger role in determining occurrence and severity. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), Guatemala; and the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Footnotes
Adapted from a Goldberger lecture read before the Ninth Multidiscipline Research Forum at the 118th annual convention of the American Medical Association, New York, July 16, 1969.

Reprint requests to Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass 02139.

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