ABSTRACT

Health promotion practice involves the use of the best available scientific evidence and the knowledge and experiences of the practitioner, professional partners and the community. An evidence-based practice should go beyond research and use the skills and experience of the professional alongside values that inform decision-making and programme design in the local population. Quantitative approaches collect data that is in numerical form such as statistics focusing on the rates of morbidity and mortality in a population by using, for example, closed-ended questionnaires and epidemiological sources. Epidemiological data consist of the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations including statistics, government surveillance data, health surveys and disease registries. Qualitative methods include one-to-one and focus group interviews that draw upon the knowledge and experiences of people affected by the disease outbreak. Observational methods have two key components: descriptive and analytical.