Women and health in Europe: the scope and limits of epidemiology

Epidemiology is one tool for assessing women's health, at least in terms of the main diseases which cause morbidity and mortality. When employed for international comparisons across Europe, its value, even at this level, is diminished by the shortage of reliable data. Examples are chosen from the fields of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The latter part of the article draws attention to the inadequacies and limits of clinical epidemiology when applied to women's broader experience in respect to health.