WHAT IS EVIDENCE?

Basically many people will think that evidence is nothing but proof supporting a claim or belief. but for public health interventions, evidence typically refers to the effectiveness of an intervention in achieiving an outcome that will create lasting changes in the health of the population. this evidence is usually published in scientific literature such as in professional journals, books or governament reports.

As a result many public health professionals have found other ways to describe or demonstrate the effectiveness of their interventions. the terms best practise, promising practise, exemplary practise, and model intervention are also used interchangebly with evidence in publiv health settings. this recommendations may be based on evidence that the intervention has been developed, implemented and evaluted according to behavioral science theories or models that have been successfull in creating changes in health related outcomes in other communities. it may seems obvious that there must be a legal concept of evidence that is distinguishable from the ordinary concept of evidence. after all there are in law many special rules on what can or cannot be introduced as evidence in the court, on how evidence is to be presented and the uses to which it may be put, on the strength or sufficiency of evidence proof and so forth. but the law remains silent on some crucial matters. in resolving the factual disputes before the court the jury or at a bench trail the judge has to relay on extra legal principles.