参加型疫学とは？

概要

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Epidemiology is the study of diseases in populations and factors associated with them, and quantitative analysis dominates it; however, such conventional methods have several limitations. It is too expensive in resource poor countries and qualitative (eg. anthropologic and sociologic) information necessary for effective and sustainable disease control cannot be obtained.Participatory epidemiology (PE) was developed to overcome above mentioned problems mainly in developing countries and has been used in the surveillance for important diseases such as rinderpest and avian influenza. The philosophy stands on the fact that traditional communities do have veterinary knowledge accumulated in thousands of years and the principles and methods are based on Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). Participatory methods are used to collect epidemiological information and/or to seek sustainable control options. The techniques used in PE are briefly introduced in this paper. Even in developed countries, considering current economic crisis, such low cost methods may be appreciated, and participatory methods can be applied for risk communication with consumers, formulating sustainable disease control options and improvement of veterinary communication at the farm level.