Understanding Public Health: Key Concepts & Divisions

• Public Health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency
• It achieves this through organized community efforts and informed societal choices
• It also addresses private and public communities, plus individuals with environmental sanitation
• Other aspects include control of community infections, personal hygiene education, and the organization of medical/nursing services
• Public Health assures a standard of living adequate for health maitenance

Key Concepts

• It focuses on threats to a community's overall health via population health data.
• It is ecological in perspective, multi-sectoral in scope and collaborative in strategy
• The goals of public health are achieved through community effort

Public Health Divisions:

• Epidemiology.
• Biostatistics.
• Health Services/Health Policy and Management/Health Administration.
• Environmental Health.
• Occupational Health.
• Social and Behavioral Health.
• Nutrition.

Characteristics of Public Health:

• Focus on preventive aspects versus curative approaches.
• Deals with health at the population level, not individual issues

3 Core Functions of Public Health

• Assessment: Monitoring health status to identify problems and diagnosing health hazards in the community
• Policy Development: Informing, educating, empowering people on health issues, mobilizing partnerships, and developing policies/plans
• Assurance: Enforcing laws/regulations, linking people to services, ensuring a competent workforce, and evaluating the effectiveness/accessibility of health services

Steps to Address Health Problems

• Define the health problem
• Identify risk factors
• Develop/test community-level interventions
• Implement intervention
• Monitor for effectiveness

Prevention Levels:

• Primary Prevention: Prevents illness/injury by preventing exposure to risk factors.
• Secondary Prevention: Minimizes the severity of illness/damage after an event.
• Tertiary Prevention: Minimizes disability through medical care and rehabilitation

Aspects of Health:

• Health can be defined as person's physical/psychological ability to maintain balance
• Physical health relates to maintaining a strong and healthy body.
• Mental health relates to how an individual feels, thinks and adjusts to their environment
• Social health focuses on feelings, thoughts, and actions toward others.
• Disease is the failure of the body's defense mechanisms

Health Determinants:

• Income and Social Status.
• Education.
• Physical environment.
• Employment and working conditions.
• Social support networks.
• Culture.
• Genetics.
• Personal behavior and coping skills.
• Health services.
• Gender.

Disease Stages:

• Pre-disease stage.
• Latent stage (asymptomatic).
• Symptomatic stage.

Disease Risk Factors:

• Biologic and Behavioral Factors.
• Environmental Factors.
• Immunologic Factors.
• Nutritional Factors.
• Genetic Factors.
• Available Services, Social Factors and Spiritual Factors

History of Public Health in the Philippines timeline:

• Pre-American Occupation (up to 1898)
• American Military Government (1898-1907)
• Philippine assembly (1907-1916)
• The Jones law (1916-1936)
• The Commonwealth (1936-1941)
• Japanese occupation (1941-1945)
• Post World War II (1945-1972)
• Post EDSA revolution (1986 to present)

Changes in the Health Scenario:

• Rapid decline in mortality and morbidity slowed in the late 1970s-mid 1980s due to economic issues and infant mortalities
• Control of infectious diseases made steady progress through chemotherapy for leprosy (MDT), TB short-course chemotherapy, Praziquantel for Schistosomiasis and rehydration for diarrhea
• Service delivery insufficient, as preventive/promotive programs did not cover the population sufficiently
• 60% of people didn't have access to care
• The 1980 PHC strategy was focused on children/mother services, disease control, and family planning

Factors Influencing Public Health Development

• International organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, US-AID etc provide technical and finance assistance
• Advances in bio-medical and bio-engineering research
• Public health's recognition as not just bio-medically focused but also psycho-socially
• Increasing scientific approach to program management

Future Challenges

• Urbanization might occur with 65-75% of the population in cities by the year 2020
• Urbanization risks economic, social problems, slums, criminality, disease and unemployment
• Rapid Industrialization and more women joining the work force can impact the family
• Includes occupational hazards plus air, soil and water pollution
• Environmental degradation caused by deforestation/industrial waste leads to ecological imbalance and potential new microorganisms
• Antibiotic consumption has resulted in drug-resistant bacteria, viruses and parasites and switching from inexpensive penicillin to other drugs increased treatment costs

An overview of public health including its definition as the science of preventing disease and promoting health through organized community efforts. It addresses community and individual health, covering infection control, hygiene, and medical services. The field is divided into Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Health Services, Environmental Health, and more.