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Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Many scientific disciplines, including epidemiology and biostatistics, are used in the field of public health. These quantitative sciences are fundamental tools necessary for the practice of future professionals. What then should be the minimum quantitative sciences training, common to all future public health professionals? By comparing the teaching models developed in Columbia University and those in the National School of Public Health in France, the authors recognize the need to adapt teaching to the specific competencies required for each profession. They insist that all public health professionals, whatever their future career, should be familiar with quantitative methods in order to ensure that decision-making is based on a reflective and critical use of quantitative analysis.

In order to comment on the situation in France, a panel of six experts originating from the academic, the governmental and the service providing worlds responded to two questions, in a format that left room for significant interaction with the participants. The first question was: According to your own experience, please identify one health promotion or health education initiative that you consider effective. The second: If there was one priority to address in relation to the issue of health promotion effectiveness in France, what would that be? This paper summarises the key elements of the experts' answers to each question.

Inspired by the WHO document, "Health for All in the Year 2000", and by the WHO European office's definition of 38 health objectives, several European countries have begun defining their health priorities. An analysis of the definition of these priorities shows that there exist common points among them. However, each country constructed its own process for decision making that was unique to its situation and implemented different strategies for engaging its citizens in their processes.

Many clinical studies have shown a causal link between exposure to pollens and clinical symptoms of atopy. However knowledge regarding the dose-response relationship between airborne pollen counts and the occurrence of clinical symptoms of seasonal pollinosis in the population, are not well known. The review of epidemiological studies published in this field for the last 15 years indicates that most epidemiological studies were carried out using a panel study design of well documented pollinosis subjects. These studies aim at estimating the correlation between daily airborne pollen counts measured by an aeropollinic surveillance network and clinical indicators characterising the health condition of the studied population. Nevertheless, because of many methodological weaknesses, especially regarding the methods of statistical analysis, the results of these studies do not allow to conclude that there is a short term association between airborne pollen counts and the incidence of symptoms of seasonal pollinosis. This field of research is a priority in order to assess the public health impact of pollens, and to use with efficacy the data collected by monitoring networks.

This survey is a preliminary step in a cooperative health-care programme, run by the association Le Pélican. It was conducted in July 1993 among the sampan dwellers in the district of Vi Da (Hué), Vietnam. The People's Committee of the town of Hué hopes to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of the district. The work of the association is part of a wider project of integrated cooperation (Cités unies développement) for the community of sampan dwellers. The survey describes the demography, the state of children's health, the attitudes and behaviour of women and heads of the household towards maternity, contraception, disease and the health-care system. The Vi Da community is young: 40.5% of the inhabitants are under 15 years of age. The main health problems involve mothers and children: 56% of children aged between 5 and 59 months suffer from malnutrition; 71% of those between 0 and 15 years of age have never been vaccinated. The use of contraceptives is inadequate. Health-care services, however, are numerous and are mainly in the private sector. Any health-care project undertaken in this district to improve the state of children's health will have to reinforce the immunisation coverage and set up health education programmes dealing with nutrition and family planning. This will require a better knowledge of the mentality of the sampan dwellers, of their socio-cultural environment and their attitudes to illness and health-care.