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Chapter 1

Public Health: Science, Politics, and Prevention

Core Functions of Public Health

• (^) Assessment
• (^) Policy Development
• (^) Assurance

Public Health vs. Medical Care

• (^) In medicine the patient is the individual; in public health, the patient is the community
• (^) Public health diagnoses the health of the community using public health sciences
• (^) Treatment of the community involves new policies and interventions
• (^) Goal of medicine is cure; goal of public health is prevention of disease and disability

Public Health Disciplines

• (^) Epidemiology
• (^) Statistics
• (^) Biomedical Sciences
• (^) Environmental Health Science
• (^) Social and Behavioral Sciences
• (^) Health Policy and Management

Epidemiology

• (^) The basic science of public health
• (^) The study of epidemics
• (^) Aims to control spread of infectious diseases
• (^) Seeks causes of chronic disease and ways to limit harmful exposures.

Biomedical Sciences

• (^) Infectious diseases – pathogens
• (^) Chronic diseases
• (^) Genetics

Environmental Health Science

• (^) Health effects of environmental exposures
• (^) Air Quality
• (^) Water Quality
• (^) Solid and hazardous wastes
• (^) Safe food and drugs
• (^) Global environmental change

Health Policy and Management

• (^) Role of medical care in public health
• (^) Cost of medical care in U.S. is out of control
• (^) U.S. has a high percentage of population without health insurance – these people often lack access to medical care
• (^) Quality of medical care can be measured, and is often questionable.

Public Health: Prevention and

Intervention

• (^) Primary prevention
• (^) Secondary prevention
• (^) Tertiary prevention

Chain of Causation

• (^) Agent
• (^) Host
• (^) Environment
• (^) Interventions can focus on any of these targets.

Public Health and Terrorism

• (^) Events of 9/11 and the anthrax letters highlighted the importance of public health.
• (^) The public health response to disasters, both natural and man-made, helps to control the damage and prevent further harm to survivors and rescuers.
• (^) Bioterrorism is recognized primarily through classical public health measures similar to those used in natural epidemics.

Discussion Question 2

• (^) What are the three core functions of public health?
• (^) How do these functions compare with the functions of medical care?
• (^) How are the six disciplines of public health used to accomplish the core functions?

Discussion Question 3

• (^) Identify a health problem in your community.
• (^) What are some risk factors associated with the problem?
• (^) Suggest a possible intervention that the community might take to ameliorate the problem.