The Demography of Health and Healthcare

This book works both as an applied demographics book as well as an introductory book on demographic methods. This book by Pol and Thomas will teach the basic and most frequently used mathematical methods used in demography, but applied to health care. It covers what most books on demographic methods do: fertility, mortality, as well as (im)migration. The only topics it leaves out are population projections and more detailed methods: if you want to learn more comprehensive methods then a detailed book on demographic methods is needed, such as the Demography: Measuring and Modelling Population Processes and Demographic Methods. If you just need the basics this book is great. The language used used is very clear and non-technical and is aimed at practitioners: health economists, demographers, marketers, and others working in the health industry. It is a highly practical book. The mathematics is easy to understand because the book is free from most statistical and mathematical symbols and has examples for almost all calculations. Because the book is completely focused on the U.S.A, some international learners may find the context irrelevant, but personally I feel that since there are so few books on this topic and this one is so well-done I don't consider that a problem.

Louis Pol and Rick Thomas have rendered a valuable service with this book. For demographers it demonstrates how their methods, concepts and data can be applied to important health and health care issues; for health care professionals, it shows that the "demographic perspective" yields valuable insights into a wide range of health and health care issues. The book is clearly written, well-organized, and has a very useful set of references. The book can serve both as a reference tool for practicing professionals and as a textbook for upper-division and graduate courses dealing with health and population.