Epidemiology has often been defined as the study of the distribution of
disease, together with the distribution of factors that may modify that
risk of disease. As such, epidemiology has often been reduced to a
methodology only, providing a mechanism for the study of disease that is
somehow removed, separate and apart from the populations that serve as
its focus. Epidemiology, however, is much more than that. The discipline
p- vides a way of perceiving and knowing the world, and of relating to
the c- munities whose health and disease patterns we are trying to
understand. As such, its usefulness extends past the construction of
questionnaires, the detective work inherent in tracing the source of an
infection or the analysis of data. Rather, epidemiology serves as a
point of reference and a linkage between various domains of reality: in
the courtroom, between a com- nity's injuries and those alleged to be
responsible for those violations; between the community striving to
effectuate changes to improve its health and environment and the
lawmakers and policymakers whose actions may dictate or control the
likelihood of that change; and between "mainstream" populations and
those who become or remain marginalized and stigmatized due to disease
or perceived disease.
