University Of
Michigan Psychiatric Epidemiologist Now Blogging For Psychology Today
Magazine
Briana Mezuk,
an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan
School of Public Health is adding another dimension to her public
health career. Starting in July, Mezuk initiated a feature in
Psychology Today entitled “Ask an Epidemiologist”. Her column is aimed
at helping readers of the magazine better assess the quality of the
research findings they read about.
Recognized
Problem
The problem Mezuk addresses is a familiar one to epidemiologists
concerned about maintaining public confidence in research findings,
especially epidemiologic studies. Such studies can and do report
findings that appear to contradict one another, and they confuse the
public. According to Mezuk, contradictory findings can cause some
in society to dismiss the entire scientific enterprise. She
compares research findings to cars which have different reputations
for reliability. “Rather than concluding that some scientific
evidence is more reliable than others, some people dismiss the
entire scientific enterprise. But I still drive to work, and if you
are like three-fourths of Americans, you do too, even though some
cars do have transmission problems.”
Writing Style
Mazuk's first article
is devoted to explaining selection bias for a lay audience. She
writes in a very clear, colloquial language and uses multiple examples
and metaphors that can be easily understood by lay readers.
She says about
selection bias, “appreciating who is in a study and how they were
recruited is an important first step to becoming a knowledgeable
consumer of health research. “ She adds, “Hopefully this will give you
some tools to ‘look under the hood’ of studies the next time a flashy
headline comes across your newsfeed.” Her goal is to help readers
“better calibrate the amount of belief” they should impart to study
findings.
Motivations
Given her
credentials—a doctoral degree in mental health from the Johns Hopkins
School of Public Health, it is perhaps not surprising that she was
recruited by Psychology Today to write for that audience. And it was
the existing publishing infrastructure at Psychology Today and the
existing audience base that convinced her to take on the role for at
least 12 months to see how successful she could be as a communicator.
She plans to write a series of 3 or 4 articles on the topic of helping
readers to assess the quality of health research findings before
moving on to write about other topics she is interested in and
knowledgeable about such as suicide.
Guest
Epidemiologists Invited
The arrangement with
Psychology Today gives Mezuk the option to invite other guest
scientists to contribute to her Ask An Epidemiologist feature. She
told the Monitor she welcomes inquiries from colleagues who may have
an interest in contributing and she welcomes suggestions for topics
that could be included in her future columns.
Other
Motives
Mezuk told The Epi
Monitor she was also motivated to accept the invitation from
Psychology Today because she is a tenured faculty member now and has
the freedom to explore topics which may or may not have the same
likelihood of payoff as some of her other academic activities have
had. She also noted that faculty are increasingly expected to be
engaged with the public and being evaluated for promotions in this way
and this is one means she is using to pursue that goal. Mezuk learned
from her debating experiences that public argumentation is the best
way to learn about the world and she looks forward to engaging in
evidence based policy debates through her writings.
To read Mezuk’s first
column for Psychology Today, visit :
https://bit.ly/2Y4d2yI ■
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