What is Public Health

Revision for Intro to Public Health module

WHO definition of health

A state of physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Biomedical perspective

Disease is the result of deviation from the norms of biological variables

Lifestyle perspective

Health choices result in good or bad health

Public health is about…

preventing health problems in the population

Population

At least two people sharing at least one common characteristic

Socio-economic perspective

factors in non-healthcare sectors influence a person’s health

Population perspective

Conditions that shape a population affect health

Eco-social health perspective

conceptualizes health broadly and focuses on multiple factors that might affect health

life-course perspective

health status is affected by cumulative life conditions

indicators

show how healthy a population is