public health issues

public health issues

The Impact of Public Health Issues on Society

1. Introduction

The essay explores the impact of public health issues on society in the last century. The issue being explored is the gradual increase in average weight of humans over a long period of time up until now. This has given rise to many public health issues. This essay will look at how increased weight affects society and what public health issues are associated with it. Public health services will be lastly discussed with regard to how they can solve or prevent these issues. In order to prevent public health issues from increasing, a greater understanding is needed. This essay will aid in increasing the understanding the general public has towards public health and the issues associated with it. The future for public health has to start with awareness to bring about change, and this is a step in the right direction.

2. The Importance of Public Health

The Gradient in Health inequalities in Marmot illustrates how socioeconomic status impacts upon the health of the population. Those at the bottom end of the gradient experience much higher mortality rates, higher rates of ill/disease, and lower life expectancy. The underlying reasons for this disparity are complex, but can largely be simplified as poorer lifestyle choices and poor living/working conditions. These are all factors that can be modified through healthy public policy, community action, and creating healthier environments. The evidence found here concludes that the most effective way to improve the health of the population is through public health, rather than treating symptoms or attempting to cure individuals.

Health is often used synonymously with the mental well-being of a person, but it is also much more than the absence of disease or infirmity. Wilkinson posits the definition of health as “the capacity of each person to do what he or she wants to do in order to be the kind of person that they want to be”. With this in mind, the importance of health is not solely a matter concerning individual people, but the overall health of society has a direct effect on the quality of life for the population. Undoubtedly, public health is the most effective way to secure the health of a nation; this is because the major causes of mortality and illness can largely be attributed to lifestyle and environmental factors which are amenable to change through the efforts of public health.

3. Major Public Health Issues

Public health issues have in recent years caused widespread concern globally, nationwide, and even within local communities. The various issues can be classified into a number of categories, including environmental health, social health, and mental health. According to the necessity of prevention, the need for awareness and action provided by preventive approaches is far greater than the need for cures. This can help to reduce the costs and consequences of many chronic conditions. In general, public health threats are influenced by the interaction of people and communities with the environment. Globalization of trade and travel, unplanned urbanization, and continued degradation of the environment are all changing the way people and the world interact with infectious diseases and the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions in both developed and developing countries. These changes increase the need for knowledge of potential threats to public health, the ability to detect and assess such threats when they occur, and thus the possibility to counter such threats with timely preventative measures.

4. Strategies for Addressing Public Health Issues

Fifth is to “Utilize the laws as a health tool.” The laws and regulations are among the most powerful tools that exist to improve public health and health safety. In other words, the law can be protection of a good thing and prevention of a bad thing. Health is determined by the conditions in which people live, and those laws which best improve those conditions are the best health laws. Therefore, laws transcending sectors other than health can have a major health impact. This strategy is an extremely cost-effective way of precipitating widespread behavior change and it enhances the country’s ability to tackle a broad range of issues.

The next strategy is to “Reinforce, Improve, and Expand” the capacity of all the previously listed strategies. This means that there is a need to assure the better allocation of resources and build a workforce to improve the country’s access to public health services. An improved workforce can greatly improve the effectiveness and ROI on almost all health activities, and there are sure to be significant skill/capability improvements among those new to assuming a role in this field. This strategy can be both short-term and long-term, though it’s an ongoing process to assure that good work does not go to waste and bad situations do not get worse.

The third strategy is to “Develop Policies and Plans.” Essentially, the idea is to use the public planning process to make decisions that will solve identified health problems. This can mean creating a new policy or identifying an existing policy that has yet to be enforced, which will improve a health situation. Ideally, this involves using both public and private sector entities to assure that health and other public goals are considered in decision making and to engage a diverse range of interest groups with the common goal of health improvement.

The second strategy is to “Mobilize Community Partnerships.” Local communities are instrumental in identifying problems (especially but not exclusively for problems concerning the poor and the underserved) and developing the infrastructure to solve them. Because of this, communities need to be both nurtured and empowered to address their own issues. This strategy is to get a commitment from the community to identify and tackle health problems, and it can mean a short-term activity or a comprehensive long-term investment. At the local level, this method is the best way to ensure civil rights and the needs of the underserved are met.

The first strategy would be to “Inform, Educate, and Empower” individuals about health issues. Informed individuals and a sane community are the foundation of a healthy community. The idea is to help people make informed decisions about health behaviors and health services. Between informed choices and wise stewardship of resources, we believe that consumers empowered to make decisions will select the best possible health status.

After understanding the causation of health concerns nowadays, the next step would be identifying effective strategies to tackle these issues. According to Leiyu Shi and Douglas A. Singh in “Delivering Health Care in America,” there are six major strategies for addressing public health issues.

5. Conclusion

This is compared to an ending where survival is all that the people hope for. In modern-day Africa, chronic hunger and malnutrition are contributing to the deaths of two out of every three children under the age of five. In the continent of Africa, war and political unrest have caused rebellion and mass refugee migration. These conditions have given rise to threats of epidemics of easily preventable, communicable diseases. Recently, in the war-torn nation of Liberia, an epidemic of measles that was followed by an epidemic of meningitis claimed the lives of thousands of people. This situation involving a lack of adequate health infrastructure and prevention resources shows that the right of every person to a healthy life is often thwarted. In the article “Creating A New World For Public Health Professionals – Public Health Policy And Research At The Millennium,” Michael Merson discusses how modern public health professionals desire to improve the health and quality of life in all populations with local, national, global, and international interventions. This can be seen as a global mission to improve conditions and behaviors that affect the health of society and the quality of life within that society, which is the essence of public health.

Modern times pose many issues for the public health sector to address that have significant effects on the health of society. The worldwide threat of bioterrorism and the spread of disease from it have made public health preparedness a global priority. On March 1, 2003, the first global alert was issued by the World Health Organization due to an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). SARS spread to over 25 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, infecting more than 8,000 people and resulting in 774 deaths. Eight months later, the outbreak was contained after economic losses of $18 billion. Public health sector workers were heavily involved in the dissemination of information on preventing SARS infection and travel warnings to affected areas, as well as vaccine research. This is a good example of the efforts of public health workers to promote awareness and prevention of diseases to protect the health of society.

The comparison of the public health sector and the medical care sector has offered me a new insight into the public health field. The primary goal of public health is to improve conditions and behaviors that affect the health of society and the quality of life within that society. Public health professionals monitor and diagnose the health concerns of communities and promote awareness and prevention to those concerns from an injury or health issue. This, in comparison to the medical care sector’s diagnosis and treatment, where they seek to diagnose and treat individuals’ prevalent health conditions. In order to promote prevention of diseases and disabilities, public health professionals are always in search of new information that will allow them to better promote prevention and healthier lifestyles for communities. This, in comparison to the medical care sector, where treatments often reverse the effects of a disease but do not prevent recurrence of the condition.