Public health is a community-oriented field that addresses the needs of groups of people. It involves preventing disease, injury, and premature death among them. It is a broad science that incorporates behavioral and social sciences, environmental sciences, mathematics, statistics, and laboratory sciences. Its practitioners often have education and training in such disciplines as medicine, nutrition, environmental health, epidemiology, and biostatistics. Public health activities include such things as distributing influenza vaccines, running water and sanitation systems, disaster planning and response, and teaching children wellness programs.
Public health activities are usually carried out by government agencies at the local, state, and national levels. At the federal level, the Public Health Service and the Health Care Financing Administration are the main units with responsibilities in this area. However, there are a wide range of other agencies and private organizations involved in public health as well—professional membership associations, universities, foundations, and private and insurance companies, for example.
Increasingly, public health is concerned with the broader social determinants of health. These are the upstream drivers that affect the distribution of health within a population and are related to such factors as income, race, education, and region. They also include such personal behaviors as smoking and drug use and such social structures as incarceration and homelessness. As a result, efforts are being made to tailor public health efforts more closely to the needs of different populations. This is called the “health impact pyramid”. It is also being recognized that addressing a wide range of determinants is required to reduce disparities in health outcomes.
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