The Value of Preventive Medicine, edited by David Evered and Julie Whelan (Ciba Foundation Symposium 110, London, April 1984), 258 pp, with illus, $35, London, Pitman Books Ltd, 1985.
These two volumes represent long (Behavioral Health) and short (The Value of Preventive Medicine) versions of contemporary views on the relative efficacy, effectiveness, and costs of a wide variety of measures purported to promote health or ameliorate the ravages of age and disease.
From their respective viewpoints, the collections cover about all that can plausibly be said on such subjects as cigarette smoking, diet, abuse of alcohol, safety, use of seat belts, exercise, weight control, rest and recreation, and their influence on psychological, physical, and social function. The long version has 146 contributors, largely from the behavioral sciences, in contrast to the short version's 25 contributors, largely epidemiologists and economists. Although their orientations differ, there is an overlap in the disciplines