The International Epidemiological Association (IEA) is a worldwide association with more than 2000 members in over 100 different countries, who follow the aims of the association to facilitate communication amongst those engaged in research and teaching of epidemiology throughout the world, and to encourage its use in all fields of health including social, community and preventative medicine.IEA. "International Epidemiological Association Council Handbook". 6th ed2006. These aims are achieved by holding scientific meetings and seminars, by publication of journals, reports, translations of books, by contact amongst members and by other activities consistent with these aims. Members are accepted without regard to race, religion, sex, political affiliation or country of origin.
The association publishes its own Journal, the International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE), which is published bi-monthly, a complimentary copy of which is included in the membership dues. It also sponsors a number of publications such as A Dictionary of Epidemiology,Miquel Porta, editor. Greenland S, Hernán M, dos Santos Silva I, Last JM, associate editors (2014). "A dictionary of epidemiology", 6th. edition. New York: Oxford University Press. and The Development of Modern Epidemiology. In addition, the association organizes The World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE), which is held triennially in different parts of the world. The 19th WCE was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 2011,IEA. "XIX IEA World Congress of Epidemiology". 2011 [cited 2012 09/13]; Available from: while the 20th WCE will be held in Anchorage, Alaska, August 2014.IEA. "20th IEA World Congress of Epidemiology". 2012 [cited 2012 09/13]; Available from: http://www.epidemiology2014.com/. Regional Scientific Meetings are also held in the IEA regions during three-year periods between WCEs.
The IEA is in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) and is run by a council including executive and regional councilors for its seven regions in addition to the ex-officio members.
Aims
The objectives of the IEA are to: Promote the use of epidemiology and its application to the solution of health problems. Encourage the development of epidemiological methods and improvement in these methods. Promote the communication of epidemiological methods and findings amongst epidemiologists throughout the world as well as amongst all others concerned with health. Co-operate with both national and international organisations which are concerned with the promotion of health in the application of epidemiological methods in the solution of problems. Improve the dissemination of epidemiological findings nationally and internationally. Improve the recruitment, education and training of epidemiologists.
These objectives are achieved through networking professionals working in the field of epidemiology through different means, including its website: www.IEAweb.org Home; holding national, regional and international scientific meetings and congresses, as well as individual contacts between professional members. These have guided IEA's activities over the years.
A determined effort was made in this decade to develop regional activities and to strengthen IEA links and co-operation with the WHO.
Founding
The International Corresponding Club, as the IEA was first called, was started in 1954 by John Pemberton of Great Britain and Harold N Willard of the United States with the advice and help of Robert Cruickshank. They had found, as traveling Research Fellows each in the other's country, that they were handicapped by not being sufficiently well informed about the research and teaching in the field of social and preventive medicine in the various medical schools and research institutes. Initially it was to try and remedy this defect, that the Club was established on a small and informal basis. At first it was just a corresponding club whose object was "to facilitate the communication between physicians working for the most part in university departments of preventive and social medicine, or in research institutes devoted to these aspects of medicine, throughout the world". This was to be achieved by the publication of a Bulletin twice a year and by members endeavouring to "ensure a friendly and hospitable welcome for visitors" from other countries. The first issue of the Bulletin appeared in January 1955 and contained contributions from 26 correspondents from nine countries.Breslow L. Origins and development of the International Epidemiological Association. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2005;34:725-9.Anon. The first twenty years of the International Epidemiological Association 1954-74. International Journal of Epidemiology. 1974;3(4).Anon. The History of the International Epidemiological Association Brought Up to Date. International Epidemiological Association. 1984.
Correspondents soon felt the need to meet to discuss research and teaching and the first formal meeting took place at the Ciba Foundation in London at the end of June 1956. By this time there were 49 correspondents from 18 countries, and one of them, A. Querido of Amsterdam invited the Club to hold its First International Scientific Meeting in the Netherlands. As a consequence a Study Group on Current Epidemiological Research, supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, took place at Noordwijk in September 1957. There were 58 participants representing 44 university departments from 20 countries at this meeting. A constitution was formulated and the first executive committee was elected. The Noordwijk meeting was the first of the nineteenth international scientific meetings which have been held to date. The second was held in the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, in 1959 when the present title of the association was adopted.
The World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE)
With few exceptions, the scientific meetings of the association have been held every three years since 1957 in different locations around the world. At the first Council Meeting held in Montreal 17–18 August 2002, it was agreed that all meetings formerly entitled International Scientific Meeting would henceforth be called World Congress of Epidemiology (WCE), with a continued sequence of numbering. Here is a list of the WCE held since 1957: I Noordwijk, Netherlands, September 1957 II Cali, Colombia, August 1959 III Korčula, Yugoslavia, August 1961 IV Princeton, US, August 1964 V Primosten, Yugoslavia, August 1968 VI Primosten, Yugoslavia, August 1971 VII Brighton, England, August 1974 VIII San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 1977 IX Edinburgh, Scotland, August 1981 X Vancouver, Canada, August 1984 XI Helsinki, Finland, August 1987 XII Los Angeles, US, August 1990 XIII Sydney, Australia, September 1993 XIV Nagoya, Japan, August 1996 XV Florence, Italy, August 1999 XVI Montreal, Canada, August 2002 XVII Bangkok, Thailand, August 2005 XVIII Porto Alegre, Brazil, September 2008 XIX Edinburgh, Scotland, August 2011 XX Anchorage, US, August 2014 XXI Saitama, Japan, August 2017 XXII Melbourne, Australia, September 2021 [online] XXIII Cape Town, South Africa, September 2024
Educational work
The IEA has always attached great importance to the educational aspects of its work and its first Chairman, Robert Cruikshank, often used the phrase "spreading the gospel" to describe these aims.
The meeting in Cali in 1959 stimulated great interest in epidemiology in Colombia and as a result three seminars on epidemiology were later organized by the IEA in that country. This marked the beginning of a series of seminars in the South American continent and the Caribbean area.
The Milbank Memorial Fund helped to make this extensive series of seminars possible and the WHO, through the Pan American Health Organization, also cooperated in these seminars. By 1977 the IEA had organized, or played a prominent part in, 23 Seminars or Workshops on epidemiology in 19 different countries. These were often conducted in association with the WHO. The association only undertakes to organize or participate in seminars at the invitation of the national or local educational or governmental bodies concerned.
In 1969 a decision was taken to produce a guide on the teaching of epidemiology which would be suitable for use throughout the world. The WHO agreed to cooperate in this project and Dr Ronald Lowe and Jan Kostrzewski were asked to edit the guide. It was published first in English as Epidemiology: A guide to Teaching Methods Teaching Epidemiology: A guide for teachers in epidemiology, public health and clinical medicine and also published in French, German, Polish, Serbo-Croat Slovak, and Spanish editions; and editions in Russian and Slovakare in preparation.
Other of the classic texts sponsored by the IEA in collaboration with Oxford University Press is A Dictionary of Epidemiology Oxford University Press: A Dictionary of Epidemiology: Miquel Porta which remains the definitive dictionary in epidemiology worldwide. In fact, with contributions from over 220 epidemiologists and other users of epidemiology from around the globe, it is more than a dictionary: it includes explanations and comments on both core epidemiologic terms and on other scientific terms relevant to all professionals in clinical medicine and public health, as well as to professionals in the other health, life, and social sciences. The aim of the IEA in cosponsoring this dictionary in its more than 20-year history has been to facilitate communication among epidemiologist to develop a "common language" to the extent that this is possible. The first fourth editions of the dictionary were edited by John Last, while the fifth, sixth, and seventh editions were edited by Miquel Porta. The seventh edition will be published in April, 2026. In addition, the IEA has produced a publication to commemorate its 50th anniversary called "History of Modern Epidemiology" in addition to supporting three editions of the publication Teaching Epidemiology Teaching Epidemiology: A guide for teachers in epidemiology, public health and clinical medicine. The IEA offers a free copy of one of the first two publications as an incentive for life-time (10-years) or 3-year membership.
The IEA also comments on current topical issues in epidemiology through a series of online "rapid response" commentaries EpiBlog « IEA.IEA. International Epidemiological Association: EpiBlog. 2012 [cited 2012 09/14]; Available from: .
The International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE)
A decision was taken at the Sixth International Meeting in 1971 to found an international quarterly journal of epidemiology. The council believed that the journal could replace the old Bulletin in providing a link between members in intervals between international meetings by publishing association news, and serve a valuable purpose by publishing original articles in the field of epidemiology. Walter W. Holland was appointed the first editor in 1972. Between 2001 and 2016 under the editorship of George Davey Smith and Shah Ebrahim, the journal expanded.International Journal of Epidemiology 2012 [cited 2012 09/14]; Available from: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/ije/about.html. They introduced a number of new features and the positive effects of these changes are reflected in its improved impact factor (7.2 in 2015), which places it first among the international epidemiology journals. Six issues of the journal are published every year. Stephen Leeder took over as editor in 2017.
Affiliations with international organizations
The association has a long tradition of collaboration with other organizations, particularly with the WHO and the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) and International Clinical Epidemiologic Network (INCLEN) Inclen.Holland W, Detels R, Mosbech J. History of the IEA: 1984-1995. International Epidemiological Association. 1997;26(1):228-39.