Evidence-Free Policy Decisions: Driving an Epidemic

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity
June 25, 2012

This commentary is the fifth installment in the series, which is entitled “Ending Childhood Hunger in America.”

As pediatric healthcare providers, we are held to high standards. We strive to assure that our diagnoses and our interventions are “evidence based,” not reflections of personal prejudice or anecdotal experience. We know that striving to implement our decisions based on evidence gives our young patients the best chance of avoiding illness, disability, even death.

Given this framework, we are alarmed that so many of the proposed changes in public policies - many of which will impact the lives of our young patients as surely as any epidemic - are not evidence based.

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