Intro and History of Public Health Flashcards
Health
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO definition, 1948)
Public Health
Activities a society undertakes to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy, including organized community efforts to prevent, identify, and counter threats to the health of the public
Prof Charles Edward Amory Winslow (1920) definition of public Health
“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.”
Global Health
- improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide.
- transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions
- involves many disciplines
- synthesis of population-based prevention with individual-level clinical care
Health inequity
- A difference or disparity in health outcomes that is systematic, avoidable, and unjust;
- Systemic, preventable, unfair, and “often intentionally placed”
Health Equity
When all people have “the opportunity to ‘attain their full health potential’ and no one is ‘disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of their social position or other socially determined circumstance; this is social justice in public health
Public Health vs Medicine
Public Health
- population
- public service
- disease prevention and health promotion
- broad base involving environment, lifestyle and medical care
Medicine
- individual
- individual service
- disease diagnosis & treatment
- emphasis on medical care
Public Health Topical Focus Areas
- Infectious Disease
- Maternal and Child Health
- Water and Sanitation
- Nutrition
- Injuries
- Environmental health hazards
- Quality of Health Services
- Climate Change
- Migration and Immigration
- Racism
- Social Media
- Gun Control
Public Health is interdisciplinary and boundary breaking!
-Politics, ethics, human rights, social values
-Resources, structural issues, economics
-Solutions require broad societal efforts!
Health outcomes
- the effects, results, or consequences of healthcare practices and interventions on the health status of individuals or populations
- positive (good health)
- negative (indicating illness or disease)
- Ex. Mortality, morbidity, disability, quality of life, health-related behaviors (patterns of behaviors that influence health… smoking, diet, etc.)
Health determinants
the factors, characteristics, and conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.
- can include: social, behavioral, environmental, & genetic
