Towards an epidemiology of health: a basis for planning community health programs.

Raising the quality of life of a community is the ultimate goal of most health promotion programs. Yet such programs are commonly restricted to reducing known risks to health. It is suggested that this linkage of health promotion to disease prevention is self-defeating, and that health promotion needs community recognition and a suitable methodology of its own. To this end the traditional epidemiology of disease is extended to a potential epidemiology of health. A five-part analysis of health issues is then suggested as a basis for planning and evaluating community health programs.