EPIDEMIOLOGY AS AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR ESTABLISHING PREVENTION PROGRAMS AND EVALUATING THEIR IMPACT AND OUTCOME

Emerging trends in health care place speech-language pathologists and audiologists on the threshold of role expansion. To include prevention efforts within this new role, clinicians need to ask about the determ inants of communication disorders that are preventable within the gene ral population or within sub-populations. In this article, epidemiolog y is presented as a tool for the primary prevention of a broad range o f factors associated with increased rates of communication disorders. ''Old'' epidemiologic theory, based on populations, blends with the '' new'' epidemiologic approach emphasizing the contribution of individua l behaviors to adverse health outcomes, to provide the working clinici an with a framework from which to determine the direction prevention e fforts must take. The PRECEDE-PROCEED model of program planning and ev aluation (Green and Kreuter, 1991) is utilized in public health and ho lds potential for use by clinicians in preventing communication disord ers. Application of communication disorders to the PRECEDE-PROCEED mod el is offered as an example of prevention planning. (C) 1997 by Elsevi er Science Inc.