ABSTRACT
The encouragement of more research and evaluation with respect to Health for All implies that research will somehow lead to action. That research might, or even should, be related to policy rests upon assumptions about both endeavours: that most research takes a form which makes it applicable to social problems and that policy is primarily influenced by evidence of a scientific nature. The direction of most research in the public health arena is determined not so much by its social relevance as by its value to vested interests. Generally, research strategies in public health fragment problems technically by addressing only a small part of a larger issue at any one time. Research into health is a political activity by virtue of the availability of funding, the choice of topic and method and the dissemination of findings.
