Introduction: Challenges in Reducing Disparities in Reproductive and Perinatal Outcomes Through Evidence-Based Public Health

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been an increased focus on the use of “evidence” to enhance practice in the delivery of health and human service. While there are multiple reasons for the advent of evidence-based public health (EBPH), the pressure for increased accountability in public health has arisen in part because of the increasing focus on the generation and use of evidence in the field of clinical medicine (Evidence-Based Medicine), public health’s major partner in improving health status. As a book about the potential of public health approaches to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in reproductive and parinatal health outcomes, the reviews of the variety of interventions discussed within are subject to some of the unique challenges of evidence-based public health in cantrast to those presented by evidence-based medicine (EBM). The focus of this chapter is to briefly discuss the difference between EBPH and EBM and to delineate some of the global and specific challenges that researchers and practitioners face when engaging in EBPH.