What is Public Health??

Summary

This video explores public health, highlighting its significant role in increasing life expectancy and improving population health. Public health is defined as the science and art of preventing disease and promoting health through societal efforts. It differs from clinical medicine by addressing the root causes of health issues and focusing on prevention and population-wide strategies. The video covers key areas of public health, including protection, promotion, and prevention, and emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts from governments, organizations, and communities to achieve healthier societies.

Takeaways

• 📈 Public health has significantly increased life expectancy, contributing 25 of the 30 extra years gained in the 20th century.
• 🧠 Health is defined by the WHO as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
• ⚕️ Public health focuses on preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized societal efforts.
• 🚑 Clinical medicine focuses on individual health, while public health addresses the broader causes and prevention of health issues.
• 🔍 Public health examines multiple factors like individual behavior, social conditions, and economic environments to understand health outcomes.
• 🌍 Social determinants of health, including education, employment, and social support, are critical to improving population health.
• 🏛️ Public health is a shared responsibility involving governments, private sectors, NGOs, and communities.
• 🛡️ The core functions of public health are protection, promotion, and prevention of health-related issues.
• 🧬 Protection involves controlling diseases, managing environmental hazards, and ensuring workplace safety.
• 📊 Enabling public health requires good governance, advocacy, a trained workforce, and accurate data to guide actions.

Q & A

What is public health?

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts of society.

How is public health different from clinical medicine?

Clinical medicine focuses on treating individuals and their immediate health problems, while public health takes a broader, holistic approach by focusing on prevention and addressing the underlying factors that influence health in a population.

How did public health interventions impact life expectancy in the U.S. between 1900 and 1999?

Public health interventions helped increase life expectancy in the U.S. by over 30 years, with 25 of those years attributed to public health efforts.

What is the World Health Organization's definition of health?

The WHO defines health as 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being rather than the mere absence of disease or infirmity.'

Why does public health focus on social determinants of health?

Public health focuses on social determinants of health because they involve the complex interactions between individual characteristics, lifestyle, and the physical, social, and economic environments that influence overall health.

What are the three core service areas of public health?

The three core service areas of public health are Protection, Promotion, and Prevention.

What are some examples of protection in public health?

Examples of protection in public health include controlling infectious diseases, managing environmental hazards, ensuring a healthy workplace, and managing health emergencies.

What does health promotion in public health involve?

Health promotion focuses on improving health by promoting healthy behaviors throughout the life course and addressing the social determinants of health.

Who is responsible for public health?

Responsibility for public health rests with all sectors of society, including health departments, other government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, international organizations, and communities.

What are the key enablers for public health services to function effectively?

The key enablers include good governance, advocacy for health-supportive actions, a well-trained public health workforce, and timely, accurate information for health actions.

Outlines

00:00

📊 Introduction to Public Health and Its Impact

The video begins by introducing public health, emphasizing its significant role in improving population health and saving lives. For example, life expectancy in the U.S. increased by over 30 years from 1900 to 1999, with 25 of those years credited to public health interventions. The video then outlines the key topics to be covered, including the definition of public health, how it differs from clinical medicine, and who is responsible for it. It starts by defining health according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Public health is then described as the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through collective societal efforts.

05:03

🔍 Public Health vs. Clinical Medicine

This section contrasts public health with clinical medicine by illustrating an example of a person with a broken leg. Clinical medicine focuses on the immediate health issue, such as treating the fracture. In contrast, public health takes a holistic approach, addressing factors that contributed to the accident, such as driving skills, substance use, or road safety. Public health aims to prevent future occurrences by addressing underlying causes, which often involve complex interactions between individual, social, and environmental factors. These are known as the social determinants of health.

🌍 The Scope of Public Health and Responsibility

Public health addresses broad, complex issues related to the various determinants of health. It requires actions across individual characteristics, behaviors, and environmental factors. This section explains that public health interventions focus on upstream factors, aiming to benefit the entire population. The responsibility for public health is shared among various sectors, including health departments, government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, and international organizations, all working together toward improving population health.

🔑 Core Areas of Public Health

The World Federation of Public Health Associations has established a framework that identifies three core service areas of public health: Protection, Promotion, and Prevention. Protection includes controlling infectious diseases, managing environmental hazards, and ensuring workplace health. Promotion focuses on improving population health through activities that address individual behaviors and social determinants of health. Prevention involves actions like vaccination and screening to avoid health issues before they arise. Each of these core areas requires enabling factors such as good governance, advocacy, adequate public health workforce capacity, and timely, accurate health information.

🎯 Conclusion: Public Health in Action

In this final section, the video provides a quick overview of how public health functions in practice. It recaps the key points discussed, including the definition and scope of public health, its differences from clinical medicine, the stakeholders responsible for it, and the essential frameworks that guide public health efforts. The emphasis is on the importance of collaboration and comprehensive strategies to improve the health of populations.

Keywords

💡Public Health

Public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized efforts of society. In the video, it is highlighted as the reason for the increase in life expectancy by 30 years in the 20th century. Unlike clinical medicine, public health focuses on the health of populations rather than individuals and emphasizes prevention and systemic health improvements.

💡Life Expectancy

Life expectancy refers to the average number of years a person can expect to live. The video mentions how life expectancy in the U.S. increased by over 30 years between 1900 and 1999, with 25 of those years attributed to public health interventions. It serves as an indicator of public health success in improving overall health outcomes.

💡World Health Organization (WHO)

The WHO is an international organization that defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than merely the absence of disease. This definition is cited in the video to emphasize the broad and holistic nature of health, guiding the focus of public health efforts on more than just physical ailments.

💡Clinical Medicine

Clinical medicine refers to the direct treatment of individual patients for specific health problems, such as treating a broken leg after an accident. The video contrasts clinical medicine with public health, explaining how clinical medicine focuses on immediate health issues of individuals, while public health aims to address the root causes of health problems to prevent them at a population level.

💡Social Determinants of Health

Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that affect health outcomes. The video explains how public health focuses on these upstream factors—such as education, economic stability, and social support—that shape overall community health. These determinants are crucial in addressing the root causes of health disparities.

💡Prevention

Prevention in public health refers to efforts to stop health problems before they occur. This includes activities like vaccination and screening programs. The video emphasizes prevention as one of the core areas of public health, which aims to reduce the need for individual clinical treatment by addressing risks at the population level.

💡Health Promotion

Health promotion involves efforts to improve the overall health of populations by encouraging healthy behaviors and addressing social determinants. In the video, it is described as a broad set of activities that not only focus on individuals but also aim to create supportive environments and policies that promote long-term well-being.

💡Health Protection

Health protection refers to actions aimed at protecting the health of the population from threats such as infectious diseases and environmental hazards. The video lists it as one of the core public health services, including measures like managing health emergencies and ensuring safe workplaces, all critical to safeguarding public well-being.

💡Governance

Governance in public health refers to the systems and policies in place to ensure that health initiatives are effectively managed and implemented. The video highlights good governance as an enabler for public health, ensuring that health policies and actions are coordinated across different sectors and levels of society to achieve health goals.

💡Advocacy

Advocacy in public health involves influencing decision-makers and gaining support for policies and actions that promote health. The video points out the importance of advocacy in securing resources, legislation, and community support to implement public health interventions that benefit the population as a whole.

Highlights

Public health has significantly increased life expectancy, with 25 of the 30 extra years in the U.S. being attributed to public health interventions.

Public health focuses on preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts of society.

The World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.

Public health is different from clinical medicine, which focuses on individual treatment, while public health addresses the root causes of health problems for entire populations.

An example of public health's holistic approach: after an accident, public health would investigate why it occurred and aim to prevent future accidents.

Public health tackles the social determinants of health, including economic, social, and environmental factors, to improve population health.

Creating a healthy community involves multiple sectors, from government agencies to international organizations, all working together.

There are three core areas of public health: protection, promotion, and prevention.

Protection involves controlling infectious diseases, managing environmental hazards, and handling health emergencies.

Promotion focuses on improving both individual behaviors and social determinants of health across the population.

Prevention aims to stop health issues before they occur, with activities like vaccination and screening.

Good governance is essential for public health to function, ensuring adequate support, organization, and policy enforcement.

Advocacy is crucial for public health, helping to influence stakeholders and secure commitment for health goals.

A well-trained public health workforce is needed to implement and maintain effective health initiatives.

Accurate, timely information through research, monitoring, and evaluation is critical for informed public health actions.

Transcripts

Hello and welcome to this video where we  are going to talk about “Public Health”! 

“Public health” has made a significant  impact on the health of populations…….making  

people healthy and saving lives. For example, in the United States,  

between 1900 to1999, people’s life  expectancy has increased by over 30 years… 

Did you know that 25 of these “extra years”  gained are due to public health interventions?! 

So in this video, we are going to  take a look at what public health is,  

how it is different to clinical medicine, who  is responsible for doing it and how it’s done! 

First of all…let’s have a  look at what “health” is. 

The World Health Organization defines  health as “a state of complete physical,  

mental and social well-being rather than  a mere absence of disease or infirmity.” 

This is a pretty bold and ambitious definition  that prompts people to look beyond diseases and  

focus not only on the physical aspect of health  but also the mental and social aspects as well. 

…..and public health?? Well…..public health is the science and art of  

preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting  health through the organized efforts of society. 

Ok….. so how is different to clinical medicine??? Let’s take a look at an example. 

Let’s say someone has an  accident and has a broken leg. 

A clinician’s main focus is the immediate  health problem……..fixing the fractured leg. 

Clinicians focus on the individual.. The public health approach would be holistic  

and would focus on figuring out how and why this  person had an accident so that actions can be  

taken to prevent it from happening again. For example: 

Why did he have the accident? Was there a problem with his vision? 

Was it a poor knowledge of driving  skills or bad attitudes towards driving? 

Was he under the influence of  alcohol or drugs when he was driving? 

Are there laws against this  and resources to enforce it? 

What are the community expectations  or attitudes towards driving? 

Does he have a good social support  network that will help in his recovery  

or prevent this from happening again? Was the road he was driving in safe? 

Was he driving a safe car  that was well maintained? 

If not, why not? Could he not afford it? 

If not, why could he not afford it? Does he have a job that doesn’t pay well? 

Why is that? Is it because  

he did not have access to good education? Was there good access to health services which  

would determine his treatment and recovery? As you can see from this example, health is  

determined by a complex interaction between many  different factors, or determinants of health. 

These include individual characteristics,  lifestyles and behaviours and also the  

physical, social and economic environments…. These are called the social determinants of health 

…In order to make a difference  in health, there is action needed  

across all the different determinants. Public health focuses on these upstream  

factors to make changes that can benefit  the health of the population as a whole. 

This seems like a very broad  and complex task doesn’t it?? 

So…who is responsible for public health? Ultimately, the responsibility of creating  

a healthy community rests  with all sectors of society. 

Health departments do have a central role in  public health…..however, improving the health  

of a population requires the coordinated  efforts of a broad range of stakeholders. 

This includes other areas of  government, the private sector,  

Non-Governmental Organizations, International  Organizations and communities to name a few... 

…all united with a shared goal of  improving the health of the public.. 

Now let’s have a look at  how public health works….. 

The World Federation of Public  Health Associations has developed  

a useful framework to understand  how public health is delivered. 

There are three core service areas of  public health and a group of enablers  

that ensure that these services can  occur effectively and efficiently. 

The three core areas of public health  are: Protection, Promotion and Prevention. 

Protection is about protecting  the health of the population. 

This includes the control of infectious diseases,  managing environmental hazards, ensuring a healthy  

workplace and managing health emergencies Promotion is about improving the  

health of the population. It covers a broad range of  

activities that not only focuses on  the individual like promoting health  

behaviours over a life course. It also focuses  on improving the social-determinants of health. 

Prevention is about preventing health issues  before they occur. It includes activities  

such as vaccination and screening. To enable these core areas to function  

there needs to be: Good Governance…. 

Advocacy……to influence and obtain support and  commitment for actions that support a health goal. 

Capacity…. having an adequate, well-trained  and supported public health workforce. 

And having accurate, timely information to  support health actions such as relevant research,  

surveillance, monitoring and evaluation. So that’s a quick introduction to the  

fascinating field of public health! We’ve had a look at what it is,  

how it is different to clinical medicine, who  is responsible for doing it and how it’s done!