New edition of leading textbook on public health practice published

A new edition of the leading textbook on public health practice, “Evidence-Based Public Health,” has been released. Co-authored by two faculty members at the School of Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis — Ross Brownson, PhD, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor, and Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan, PhD, an assistant professor — along with colleagues at Saint Louis University and the University of Iowa, the fourth edition has been revised and updated for a post-COVID-19 world. 

“In between the last edition and this one, COVID happened, and the way that people think about and do public health work shifted drastically,” Mazzucca-Ragan said. “We are working in an environment now in which there’s much more distrust in public health institutions, distrust in the federal government, increasing disinvestment in public health. Even the people who are doing the work have changed; there’s been a lot of turnover in the public health workforce in the last few years. We felt that we needed a new edition better suited to the current times.”

The book provides practical guidance on how to assess scientific evidence for public health actions; design and implement an intervention; and evaluate its impact. The first edition of the book was published in 2003 by Brownson and colleagues as a supplement to a professional development course of the same name led by Brownson. Since then, the book has become widely used, both as a part of formal public health trainings and as a resource for public health professionals aiming to enhance their skills independently. It has been translated into Chinese and Japanese. 

“Practitioners want to do things that are effective and avoid doing things that are ineffective or unfeasible in their circumstances,” Brownson said. “Most people — more than 80% — working in public health don’t have formal training in public health. This book fills that gap and provides a strong foundation for people who are working in the field but don’t have academic training.”

The fourth edition includes a new chapter on communicating and disseminating public health information, a broader variety of case studies including more examples from outside the U.S., more information on open-access data sources, tools and other resources for practitioners, and an increased focus on health equity woven throughout.

Along with Brownson and Mazzucca-Ragan, the book was co-authored by Anjali D. Deshpande, PhD, MPH, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health in Iowa City, Iowa, and Kathleen N. Gillespie, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University. 

Brownson RC, Deshpande AD, Gillespie KN, Mazzucca-Ragan S. Evidence-Based Public Health. 4^th ed. Oxford University Press, 2025.