public health essay topics

public health essay topics

The Importance of Public Health Education

1. Introduction

Ultimately, the goal of public health education is to promote health, improve quality of life, and enable people to live healthier lives. This concept is reflected in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. This is a document from the World Health Organization that identifies the prerequisites for health and the need for full public participation in its attainment. The charter lists “healthier today, healthier tomorrow” as its final action area. To reach this goal, public health education attempts to enhance the conditions of living. This can mean clean water, nutritious food, quality housing, and safe communities. It can also mean a higher level of education, which has a significant effect on an individual’s health and available health care services. An increase in access to preventive and curative health services is a key way to enhance the conditions of living. This will ensure that the duration and quality of life are improved. Health promotion is a very complex and challenging enterprise. However, the continued effort to achieve a healthier society has significant payoffs, and the field of public health education is a vital component in this process of improvement.

Public health education provides a foundation for a healthy society and is a major economic development tool. Educated citizens make responsible consumers of health care, which in turn makes its delivery more cost effective. Economists have estimated that, on average, each dollar invested in public health generates a 400% return. Public health education is more than a simple attempt to improve the health of individual citizens. Rather, it is an effort to influence society’s attitude and behavior in a way that will ultimately benefit the health and well-being of the public. This is achieved by addressing the social, economic, and environmental factors that affect health. By doing so, public health education can help change public policy to allocate resources more effectively and equitably. This is very important when dealing with the health of the poor and the elderly, who often suffer a greater burden of disease due to limited resources. Public health education can also advocate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and help people make better-informed decisions. This is often a long-term and indirect process, requiring changes in societal values and beliefs about health, and at times it can be quite challenging. An example would be anti-smoking public service announcements. While more direct efforts, such as health education in schools, can effectively contribute to the prevention of diseases like childhood obesity and diabetes.

2. The Role of Public Health in Disease Prevention

The study of the course of diseases and the development of methods of combating their progressive threat to the health of people has been known as chronic diseases control (Winslow 1920). One of the most successful measures of combating diseases comes in the form of primary prevention measures, such as the eradication of smallpox through immunization, improvement of hygienic conditions to prevent water and foodborne illnesses, and the education of safer sexual practices to curb the spread of sexually transmitted infections. A slightly different approach to preventing disease comes in the highly controversial area of genetic screening, which falls under the category of specific protection measures aimed at predisposed individuals to prevent the occurrence of diseases (Holland 1982). This area of public health raises many difficult ethical issues, but it is undeniable that public health is fully engaged in the fight for a healthier tomorrow through the prevention and control of diseases.

Public health differs from traditional medical care in a few ways. Primarily, its concern lies in the health of populations unlike the more traditional view of the individual’s health in medical care. Public health’s area of focus in addressing health problems or disease is another factor that differentiates it from conventional medical care. Medical care is concerned with curing or alleviating unhealthy state during the onset of illness, whereas public health takes preventative measures to ensure the health of a population by addressing underlying health problems or disease. Public health efforts underway to combat the spread of SARS in 2003 are testaments to this preventative approach to ensuring a healthy population, such as advising travelers to routinely monitor their health, adopt hygienic practices, and take precautions that inhibit further transmission of the disease from affected countries.

Public health’s central concern is the study of diseases and the promotion of healthy health. According to Lalonde in 1974: A main theme in this report has been that health is not a static state but a process of continuous development, in the holistic sense of the term. The improvement of people’s health, and the creation of conditions in which they can be healthy… is a shared task of society as a whole and, in a very real sense, a political task.

3. Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in the Community

A consensus that the most vital measures to improving the health status of the community are promotion of healthy lifestyles and disease prevention. The realization is based on an understanding that the vast majority of health problems are lifestyle related and can therefore, be largely prevented through changes in behavior. It is important to rate the burden of these preventable conditions in the community and to implement a successful strategy. Both of these tasks are not simple. Evaluating the burden of a disease in a community and coming to an accurate conclusion can be a complex task. Firstly, it is useful to define the distribution of the condition such as who is affected, the extent of the effects and how long the condition will last. Following on from this, it is important to find out why the condition is prevalent in the community. These answers can be hard to find and often it is a case of secondary conditions having an impact the original illness. Nonetheless, it is important to evaluate the reasons behind the high prevalence as it is these assessments that will help to build an effective strategy. The WHO’s “conscious process of making choices on the most effective ways to allocate resources to improve health.” is a definition of health policy. This is where the tough process making a successful strategy is made. The effects of many conditions are long-term and though the condition can be improved, the prevention of relapse is a priority on limited resources. The existence of this transition of acute care to long-term management is both a pitfall and an opportunity to health promoters. A general move in health care towards prevention means this is a growing field in which it is easier to build a strategy. The successful strategy will need to encapsulate the findings of the burden of the conditions to allocate to best resources and it often underpins an education program to inform the affected members of the community. This education program is the best way of promoting healthy lifestyles. Any education program in the community needs to be relevant to its target audience. An assessment of the health literacy at the individual and community level is essential. What is the current knowledge of the health issues and is this knowledge being converted into health behaviour change. If the health literacy is low, it may be best to target an improved literacy as the first step in behaviour change for the condition in question. The education program should also seek to influence the socioeconomic factors and environment that are linked to the unhealthy behaviour thus, making an effective change to the determinants of health. Measures to promote healthy lifestyle and successful prevention usually take the form of group education and advocacy targeted at the community. This is the most efficient way to affect the change in the determinants of health. Group education can be an on a condition specific or a general health issue and can take the form of an information session, a program or a public display. The use of mass and social media is prevalent in today’s society and these methods are also a part of the campaign to affect a change. In advocacy, often alliances are formed between various community organisations that have a stake in the issue. The combined effort and the pooling of resources can make a powerful awareness and affect a political change to the issue. The overall strategy described here is a complex intervention, but the importance and process of promoting healthy lifestyle in today’s society is one that is often taken for granted. Public health education has a close relationship with this promotion of healthy lifestyles. An increase in knowledge will change personal beliefs and attitudes, and this in turn will lead to a change in behaviour. Education the individual ill often lead to an improvement in his/her health and an interest in a same issue education the community will led to a prevention of said issue and improvement the health status.

4. Addressing Health Disparities and Inequalities

The increase in the unsatisfactory health of individuals and communities with lower social status, as well as the difference in health across different countries, is an issue that can be observed globally. The issue between health disparities is the differences in the presence of disease, as well as the availability and quality of treatment between different groups of people. The differences in health between populations are health outcomes in which one group has an advantage over another, and these are stemmed from the unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental conditions. This is something that is not only unfair but is unnecessary and preventable. Global health inequalities are still increasing; these are the differences in health status between different countries or regions. It is observed that countries with higher income provide a better standard of living and care, whereas poorer countries are unable to maintain a high standard and provide basic needs. This then leads to a wider gap between the health status in the richer and poorer countries. These inequalities in health, both within countries and between countries, are a great concern and are increasing. It is public health that is only able to address global health inequalities. Measures to prevent diseases and promoting healthy living are not only more cost-effective, they are also more efficient in improving healthcare for the poor and the elderly. Public health is the only hope for improving health on a global scale.

5. Conclusion: Investing in Public Health for a Better Future

However, public health education has been a contentious issue with some disputing its cost-effectiveness. Advocacy continues to be a mainstay of public health activity, and yet, often its results fall far short of its intentions. Education must be seen as a vital form of prevention. It is essential that the right messages are communicated to the right people. Programs of education must be focused and only through a clear understanding of the factors contributing to health can this be achieved. Health knowledge is a powerful tool and the science of public health aims to disseminate this knowledge to maximize its effects. Public health education is any ‘combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their health, by increasing their knowledge or influencing their attitudes’. This encompasses a vast range of activities; it can be directed to individuals or to the general public, it can involve the promotion of healthy lifestyles or the protection of the health of certain groups; it can take place in a great variety of settings, from schools and colleges to the healthcare system as a whole. This is because health is a major issue in all communities, large or small, simple or complex, and it is a fundamental human right. Health education seeks to start a positive spiral of health promotion and health knowledge. Yet in reality too often the emphasis is on health treatment rather than prevention and tired initiation is met with weary abandonment. A sunnier future lies ahead with a greater commitment to public health and education.

We are living in a world of unprecedented challenges of health, from heart diseases to obesity. Today, we are on the verge of another major advancement in health. This is the point when knowledge of the intricate ways of maintaining health and preventing diseases is translated into successful action, creating a safer and healthier world. This is the promise that the science of public health is providing. All around the world, from Europe to North America, Africa, and Asia, public health is an imperative that can no longer be ignored. It is a simple fact that the better educated a populace is, the better they are able to make decisions which affect their health. This means a better quality of life and a lessened likelihood of succumbing to illness and disease. Public health education is an investment, but this investment will not only improve individual lives but also the health of entire communities and countries in a world where health is an increasingly important issue. Public education is a tool for changing behavior in individuals and in whole societies, thus it is logical that the science of public health and education so neatly complement each other.