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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 17, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(10):1109-1115; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm258
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American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2007. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Is Phenomenology the Best Approach to Health Research?

Lewis Kuller

From the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Correspondence to Dr. Lewis Kuller, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, A-527 Crabtree Hall, 130 DeSoto Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 (e-mail: KullerL{at}edc.pitt.edu).

Received for publication July 27, 2007. Accepted for publication August 13, 2007.

Much research at the National Institutes of Health—for example, the NIH Roadmap (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/)—has focused on aspects of systems biology and the application of new technologies, which might best be considered descriptive or phenomenological. Unfortunately, etiologic research and social, behavioral, and environmental population studies are at risk of becoming second-class research. In particular, the Roadmap does not address the need for studies of unique populations, determinants of the large variations in disease among populations and over time, and the long incubation period for many diseases. Success in reducing disease in the population will depend on linking the enormous potential of phenomenological methods to excellent etiologic and social/behavioral studies. The phenomenological approach alone will improve our descriptions of disease but may not result in reducing disease burden in human populations.

behavioral research; biological phenomena; delivery of health care; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); research; systems biology; technology

Abbreviations: CHD, coronary heart disease; NIH, National Institutes of Health


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