CPHMLS - Lesson 1

• Public Health is the science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting human health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities, and individuals
• Charles-Edward A. Winslow (1920) organized community efforts for:

  • The sanitation of the environment
  • Control of community infections
  • Education of the individual in the principles of personal hygiene
  • The organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of diseases
  • Development of social machinery for adequate maintenance of health
• Public Health helps improve the health and wellbeing of people in local communities and across the nation
• Public Health works to prevent health problems before they occur
• Public Health vs Medicine:

  Medicine:

  • Deals with health from the perspective of individuals. Patient is an individual person.
  • Emphasizes disease treatment and care for individuals who have already developed a disease.

  Public Health:

  • Deals with health from a perspective of the population. Patient is the entire community.
  • Emphasizes prevention and health promotion
• Core Functions of Public Health:

  • Assessment: Collects, assembles, analyzes, and makes available information on the health of the population.
  • Policy Development: Uses scientific knowledge to develop a strategic approach to improving the community's health.
  • Assurance: Ensures that the services needed for the protection of public health in the community are available and accessible to everyone
• Strategies Employed by Public Health:

  1. Identify and define health problems

  2. Identify the determinants

  3. Develop and test interventions to control or prevent problems

  4. Assess the effectiveness of interventions
• Public Health in Medical Care involves:

  • Assessing current services and evaluating whether they are meeting the objectives of the health care system
  • Identifying the most appropriate interventions
  • Considering the effect on resources for proposed interventions and assessing their cost-effectiveness
  • Informing, educating, and empowering people about health issues
• Two important indicators to measure population health are:

  • Disease Prevalence: Individuals in the population with the disease
  • Disease Incidence: Refers to new cases in the community
• Fundamentals of Public Health:

  • Public Health Surveillance: Involves the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice
  • Public Health Programs: Organized public health actions such as direct services, community mobilization, research, evaluation, surveillance, policy development, laboratory diagnostics, and communication campaigns
• Community health involves the maintenance, protection, and improvement of the health status of population groups and communities, focusing on collective health within a geographically defined area
• Community health practice is a major field of study within medical and clinical science, emphasizing the environmental, social, and economic resources to sustain emotional and physical well-being among people
• Community health categories:

  1. Primary healthcare: prevention-focused care provided by health professionals

  2. Secondary healthcare: acute care administered in a hospital setting to prevent health status from worsening

  3. Tertiary healthcare: specialized medical treatment provided by specialists
• Health promotion aims to move individuals closer to optimal well-being through efforts such as health education, wellness programs, and preventive health care services
• Health promotion programs include various forms of health education, demonstrating healthful practices, and providing health-promoting options to raise levels of wellness for individuals, families, populations, and communities
• Community health prevention involves anticipating, averting, or detecting health problems to minimize disability and impairment
• Three levels of community health prevention:

  1. Primary prevention: measures taken to prevent illness or injuries from occurring in a generally healthy population

  2. Secondary prevention: efforts to detect and treat existing health problems at an early stage

  3. Tertiary prevention: aims to minimize disability and restore or preserve function to reduce the extent and severity of a health problem