Introduction to Public Health

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from the introductory public health lecture covering core functions, disciplines, prevention levels, and ecological frameworks.

Assessment

The core function of public health focused on collecting data to monitor population health, identify community needs, and investigate health hazards.

Policy Development

The core function of public health involved in creating, championing, and implementing laws, policies, and plans that impact and protect community health.

Assurance

The core function of public health centered on checking that policies are working, enabling equitable access to care, and supporting a skilled workforce.

Equity

An overarching element in public health focused on ensuring that populations not benefiting from health services or assessments receive targeted assistance.

Public Health Investment

Financial allocation representing less than $3\%$ of the total national spending in the United States.

Medicine

A field of healthcare where the individual is the patient, and the primary goal is to cure sickness or manage existing disease.

Public Health

A field where the community is the patient, focusing on population-level trends, policy interventions, and preventing disease and disability before it occurs.

Epidemiology

The basic science of public health used to study populations, causes of death, disease frequency determinants, outbreaks, and disease transmission.

Statistics

The discipline of gathering and analyzing data to extract information, establish causation, calculate probabilities, and evaluate health risks and benefits.

Biomedical Sciences

A public health discipline focusing on human health through the study of microorganisms, genetics, infectious diseases, and molecular approaches.

Environmental Health

A public health discipline concerned with external factors affecting health, including air and water pollution, toxic waste facilities, and environmental hazards.

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Also called community health, this discipline explores how individual choices, behaviors, and structural social factors impact health.

Health Administration

A public health discipline studying the role, costs, and access issues associated with medical care and health insurance.

Primary Prevention

Interventions designed to prevent an illness or injury from occurring at all.

Secondary Prevention

Interventions aimed at minimizing the severity of a disease or injury once it has already occurred.

Tertiary Prevention

Interventions aimed at minimizing disability by providing medical and support services after a long-term illness or severe condition.

Health Disparities

Differences in health outcomes where specific groups or lower-income communities experience worse health due to unequal resources or structural factors.

Revised Model of Health

A public health framework considering external structural, economic, and environmental factors alongside individual health behaviors, rather than placing sole blame on the individual.

Intrapersonal Level

The component of the ecological model focusing on an individual's personal knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors regarding health.

Interpersonal Level

The component of the ecological model focusing on how social connections, family, and peers influence individual choices and behaviors.

Institutional Level

The component of the ecological model examining how organizational environments, such as schools or workplaces, shape health behaviors.

Community Level

The component of the ecological model looking at how surroundings, living conditions, and neighborhood resources influence health outcomes.

Ecological Approach

A perspective introduced to public health in the 1960s examining how biological, behavioral, psychosocial, and environmental factors influence health throughout life stages.