How Well Do You Know Public Health?

Public Health: Promoting Health Through Organized Efforts and Informed Choices

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

• Public health is an interdisciplinary field that includes epidemiology, biostatistics, social sciences, and management of health services, among other relevant sub-fields.

• Common public health initiatives include promoting healthy behaviors, delivering vaccinations, suicide prevention, smoking cessation, obesity education, and increasing healthcare accessibility.

• Public health requires multidisciplinary teams of public health workers and professionals, including epidemiologists, biostatisticians, physicians, public health nurses, midwives, and many others.

• Public health aims are achieved through surveillance of cases and promotion of healthy behaviors, communities, and environments.

• Public health campaigns can be criticized as a form of "healthism" or moralistic in nature rather than being focused on health.

• Priority areas in public health include maternal and child health, chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and antibiotic resistance.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health.

• Most countries have their own governmental public health agency, often called the ministry of health, with responsibility for domestic health issues.

• Public health programs are crucial in reducing the incidence of disease, disability, and death.

• Poor maternal and child health is a major public health concern in developing countries, exacerbated by malnutrition and poverty.

• Lifestyle medicine, social medicine, population health, and preventive medicine are all related terms in public health.Overview of Public Health: Core Functions, Behavior Change, Applications in Healthcare, Conflicting Aims, Global Perspectives, History, and Sustainable Development Goals for 2030

• Public health programs receive less government funding compared to medicine.

• Public health surveillance programs identify and assess population needs for healthcare services.

• Maladaptive personal behaviors contribute to many health problems.

• Public health measures address population-level issues such as inequality, poverty, and education.

• Developing countries face significant disparities in access to healthcare and public health initiatives.

• Health aid to developing countries has increased since World War II, and wealthy countries donate billions of dollars every year to improve population health.

• International health aid has been questioned for disrupting developing countries' development and causing dependence on aid.

• Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 address health disparities, primarily in developing countries.

• Preventive health interventions have been present in historical communities worldwide, including Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Western European, Byzantine, and Islamicate civilizations.

• In cities, residents, rulers, and organizations developed preventive measures to benefit the general population.

• Religious institutions, individuals, and charitable organizations promoted moral and physical wellbeing by endowing urban amenities.

• Urban residents and other groups developed preventive measures in response to calamities such as war, famine.A Brief History of Public Health

• Public health measures have existed for thousands of years, including quarantine facilities and health boards.

• The Industrial Revolution worsened living conditions and led to the establishment of public health institutions in the 19th century.

• The Public Health Act of 1848 aimed to improve sanitary conditions in England and Wales.

• The practice of vaccination began in the 1800s, following the pioneering work of Edward Jenner.

• Epidemiology was founded by John Snow's identification of a polluted water well as the source of a cholera outbreak in London in 1854.

• With the pioneering work in bacteriology, methods for isolating bacteria and vaccines for remedy were developed at the turn of the 20th century.

• Schools of public health were established in the US in the early 20th century, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.

• Public health degrees include the Master of Public Health, Doctor of Public Health, and Doctor of Philosophy.

• Public health agencies exist in many countries, including the Public Health Agency of Canada and Cuba's national universal healthcare system.

• Public health has been important in consolidating state power and integrating marginalized populations into the nation-state in Latin America.

• Malaria remains a major public health issue in many countries, and public health methods are the main strategy for reducing its prevalence and severity.

• Public health education and training is available throughout the world, with competency frameworks requiring modulation according to local, national, and global realities.Public Health Funding in the United States

• The United States does not have a coherent system for the governmental funding of public health.

• Public health spending in the United States grew between 1960 and 2001, with state and local government making up 80-90% of total public health spending.

• Public health spending in the United States peaked in 2002 and declined in the following decade.

• State cuts to public health funding during the Great Recession of 2007-2008 were not restored in subsequent years.

• As of 2012, the United States spends disproportionately more on clinical care than public health, leading to "chronic underfunding" of public health.

• As of 2018, only 3% of government health spending in the United States was directed to public health and prevention.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted problems in the public health system in the United States and a lack of understanding of public health as a common good.

• Public health in the United States is funded by a variety of agencies and programs at the federal, state, and local levels.

• The United States has been criticized for its "uneven patchwork" approach to public health funding.

• Public health funding in the United States has been described as a "political football" subject to changes in political priorities.

• The United States has been urged to increase investment in public health, including infrastructure, workforce, and research.

• The lack of investment in public health has been seen as a threat to national security and economic stability.