Appropriating Risk Factors: The Reception of an American Approach to Chronic Disease in the two German States, c. 1950-1990

Summary Risk factors have become a dominant approach to the aetiology of chronic disease worldwide. The concept emerged in the new field of chronic disease epidemiology in the United States in the 1950s, around near-iconic projects such as the Framingham Heart Study. In this article I examine how ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social history of medicine : the journal of the Society for the Social History of Medicine 2012-02, Vol.25 (1), p.157-174
Main Author: Timmermann, Carsten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Diseases
East and West
Epidemiology
Federal Republic of Germany
History of science and technology
Life sciences
Medicine
Microbiology
parasitology
Original
Traditions
United States of America
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Summary:Summary Risk factors have become a dominant approach to the aetiology of chronic disease worldwide. The concept emerged in the new field of chronic disease epidemiology in the United States in the 1950s, around near-iconic projects such as the Framingham Heart Study. In this article I examine how chronic disease epidemiology and the risk factor concept were adopted and adapted in the two German states. I draw on case studies that illuminate the characteristics of the different contexts and different take on traditions in social hygiene, social medicine and epidemiology. I also look at critics of the risk factor approach in East and West Germany, who viewed risk factors as intellectually dishonest and a new surveillance tool.
ISSN:0951-631X
1477-4666
DOI:10.1093/shm/hkr051