Introduction to Public Health

• Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities, and individuals.

Core Functions

• Assessment systematically collects, analyzes, and makes available information on healthy communities.
• Policy Development promotes using a scientific knowledge base in policy and decision making.
• Assurance ensures essential community-oriented health services are available.

Essential Public Health Services

• Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
• Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
• Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
• Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems.
• Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
• Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
• Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
• Assure a competent public and personal health care workforce.
• Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services.
• Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems.

Levels of Prevention

• Primary prevention aims to prevent the occurrence of disease or injury.
• Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already occurred.
• Tertiary prevention aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has lasting effects.

Public Health Disciplines

• Epidemiology studies the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, applying this study to control health problems.
• Biostatistics applies statistical methods to biological and health-related data.
• Environmental Health Science deals with studying and managing environmental factors that affect human health.
• Health Policy and Management involves the study and practice of managing health services and public health systems.
• Social and Behavioral Sciences addresses the behavioral, social, and cultural factors related to individual and population health.

Public Health Approach

• Define the health problem.
• Identify the risk factors associated with the problem.
• Develop and test community-level interventions to control or prevent the cause of the problem.
• Implement interventions to improve the health of the population.
• Monitor the interventions to assess their effectiveness.

Public Health Surveillance

• Ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data is essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those who need to know.

Health Equity

• Health equity is achieved when every person can attain their full health potential without disadvantage due to social position or other socially determined circumstances.

Social Determinants of Health

• Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

Public Health Ethics

• Public health ethics involves a systematic process of deliberation about what should be done when values conflict and when not all important values can be realized.

Global Health

• Global health is the health of populations in a global context, prioritizing improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide.

Public Health Preparedness

• Public health preparedness enhances the capability of public health and health care systems, communities, and individuals to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies. Preparedness addresses events whose scale, timing, or unpredictability threatens to overwhelm routine capacity.

Health Promotion

• Health promotion enables people to increase control over and improve their health, moving beyond a focus on individual behavior toward a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

Disease Prevention

• Disease prevention involves vaccinations, screenings, and health education, as well as other measures taken to prevent diseases and health problems.

History of Public Health

• Early public health efforts focused on sanitation and controlling infectious diseases.
• The development of germ theory in the late 19th century revolutionized public health practice.
• The 20th century saw significant advancements in public health, including the eradication of smallpox and the development of vaccines for polio and measles.

Challenges in Public Health

• Addressing health disparities and promoting health equity.
• Responding to emerging infectious diseases and bioterrorism threats.
• Preventing chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
• Reducing healthcare costs while improving quality.
• Addressing the social determinants of health.

Public Health System

• Governmental public health agencies exist at the federal, state, and local levels.
• Healthcare providers are part of the public health system.
• Community organizations contribute to public health.
• Employers and businesses play a role in public health.
• Academia and research institutions are part of the public health system.
• The media contributes to public health.

Public Health Law

• Public health law concerns the legal powers and duties of the state to assure the conditions for people to be healthy, with limitations on the state's power to constrain individual autonomy, privacy, liberty, proprietary, or other legally protected interests for community health protection or promotion.

Health Education

• Health education is a component of health promotion, providing individuals and communities with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their health.

Environmental Public Health

• Environmental public health focuses on the interrelationships between people and their environment, promoting human health and well-being, and fostering a safe and healthful environment.

Occupational Health

• Occupational health deals with all aspects of health and safety in the workplace, with a strong focus on primary prevention of hazards.

Public Health Informatics

• Public health informatics systematically applies information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning.

Behavioral Health

• Behavioral health promotes mental health, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and encompasses mental health and substance use disorders, health behaviors such as diet and exercise, and stress management.

Maternal and Child Health

• Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is an interdisciplinary field focusing on the physical, mental, and social well-being of women, children, and families.

Nutrition

• Public health nutrition focuses on promoting healthy eating and preventing nutrition-related diseases through population-based interventions.

Community Health

• Community health is a major field within public health concerned with studying and improving the health characteristics of biological communities.

Aging and Public Health

• Aging and public health focuses on promoting the health and well-being of older adults through research, policy, and practice.

Explore the core functions and essential services of public health. Learn about assessment, policy development, and assurance in promoting community health. Discover how these services monitor, diagnose, and inform to solve health problems.