Child Public Health

Child Public Health 2e will be of interest to public health practitioners, paediatricians, general practitioners with a child health and commissioning interest and GP trainees. Whilst pediatricians are given a unique population perspective on their clinical specialty, public health professionals will gain a specialist insight into a specific population group and primary care doctors, nurses and managers will find support for their commissioning and clinical governance agendas.

This is the first book of its kind which focuses on a public health approach to the health and sickness of children and young people who make up about a quarter of the population. The authors use their extensive clinical and academic experience to explore the current state of health of our children, the historical roots of the specialty and the relationship between early infant and child health on later adult health. A chapter on key concepts in the field will help to orientate the reader and a number of practical examples are given for those who are faced with the challenges of dealing with growing levels of mental ill health, obesity and health inequalities in their localities or practices. Child Public Health will be of interest to public health practitioners, pediatricians, general practitioners with a child health and commissioning interest and GP trainees.

Whilst pediatricians are given a unique population perspective on their clinical specialty, public health professionals will gain a specialist insight into a specific population group and primary care doctors, nurses and managers will find support for their commissioning and clinical governance agendas. Child public health is a rapidly developing field and is increasingly recognised throughout the world as a major area of focus for population health.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Naomi Morris, MD, MPH(University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health)
Description:This is a delightful, thoughtful, fascinating addition to the U.S. maternal and child health literature. It is British and provides a more global perspective, as well as a deeper historical background, making it a desirable component for required student readings in this area.
Purpose:The purpose appears to be the illustration of the broad factors affecting child health and how these factors relate to the development of healthy populations through multiple generations. The book supports this idea beautifully.
Audience:This book was written for all professionals interested in the health of children, which includes many health professions, but especially those working for the public's health. One can picture students, physicians, especially in pediatrics and general and preventive medicine, nurses, social workers, and even politicians benefitting from this book. The information is not so specialized that it excludes those without specific medical knowledge. The editor seems especially concerned about the education of medical students, thinking back to his own experiences. The book has many authors, bringing a variety of expertise and knowledge to the task of preparing the book.
Features:The book touches on all that is basic to child health, including maternal health, family structure and resources, physical environment, social environment, neighborhood, healthcare, nutrition, peace, and war as well as other external influences that affect populations. Especially strong and unique are the relationships shown to world position and history. There are numerous diagrams and illustrations, but some are so small that the details are difficult to see. The book does not go into much detail about specific schedules for immunization or examinations, but does list in general what needs to be done at different periods of a child's life. This is actually an advantage, since specific changes occur frequently.
Assessment:I have taught maternal child health in a school of public health for 46 years, and all the textbooks I have used were maybe three times larger and more medically detailed than this one. They did not devote much space to history, possibly in part because American history does not go back that far! The newest U.S. book I own was put together by a former student of mine, Dr. Jonathan Kotch, and is a fine example, Maternal and Child Health: Practice, Problems, and Policy in Public Health 5th edition (Jones & Bartlett, 2005). Because this book is shorter with a rich combination of history and concepts of child health determinants, I believe it has a potentially larger audience and is more apt to be read cover to cover.

Mitch Blair qualified in Medicine MBBS from UCH, London in 1983 with a BSc in Sociology and Philosophy of Medicine and went on to paediatric training posts at Stoke Mandeville and Charing Cross Hospital, amongst others. After obtaining an MSc in Community Paediatrics from the Institute of Child Health in London, he moved to Nottingham as Lecturer and then Consultant Senior Lecturer in Community Paediatrics which he held between 1990 and 1998. He worked in inner city community practice in health centres, schools, day nurseries and specialist out-reach to single handed and group practices. He carried out teaching and research into the national child health screening programme and community paediatric out reach to primary care. He is currently Consultant and Reader in Paediatrics and Child Public Health at Imperial College London, and established the River Island Academic Centre for Paediatrics and Child Public Health Teaching and Research at Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow. Sarah Stewart-Brown joined Warwick Medical School in April 2003 as Professor of Public Health. She became Director of the Health Sciences Research Institute in April 2006. Sarah studied medicine at the University of Oxford and at the Westminster Hospital in London. She worked in the National Health Service from 1975 onwards first as a paediatrician and subsequently as a public health doctor in London Bristol and Worcester. She has also held academic appointments at the Department of Surgery St Mary's Hospital Paddington, and at the Departments of Child Health and of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Bristol. Before joining Warwick Medical School she was Reader in the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford where she directed the Health Services Research Unit. She has had a long standing interest in the child health aspects of public health working at the interface with colleagues in paediatrics. Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician and clinical senior lecturer working mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne. His chief interests are in child mental health and child public health. He also takes part in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training and has edited a student textbook on paediatrics and a postgraduate text on child public health. Tony leads a research programme on Baby Express, a parenting newsletter designed to help parents understand their child's emotional needs. He is an editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is project manager for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Palestine programme, which trains primary health care workers within the occupied Palestinian territories. Currently he chairs the RCPCH Advocacy Committee.