why public health essay

why public health essay

The Importance of Public Health

1. Introduction

Public health is an important issue. It affects the lives of all people in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Health is a fundamental human right and a common objective. The three main goals of WHO revolve around health in terms of survival, attainment of full potential, and an overall better quality of life. For people to maintain a good sense of health, it is essential for survival to take place. After which, people must be able to survive and grow. This is another way of stating that people must have the opportunity to complete their full potential of health in order to accomplish the best possible results. This includes preventing threats to health as a safe and successful future is the objective for survival and growth. The last goal of WHO is a very broad statement as it ultimately means an overall better quality of life. This can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, and a healthy society is a fundamental requirement to achieve this goal. So the common factor in achieving the goals of WHO is improving health. This is significant as it establishes health can be a goal. Even though improving health is the common goal of the WHO, the degree to which certain health issues are addressed varies among countries and societies.

2. The Role of Public Health in Disease Prevention

Public health holds a crucial role in disease prevention. It is a well-known fact that public health involves the use of systematic and organized initiatives to improve health, primarily by altering the conditions that lead to health impairment or by influencing the change in the behavior of a population. In addition, a focus on prevention and promotion makes public health efforts a potential cost-saving to the general healthcare system. An example of a public health effort on preventive medicine is that of a vaccination campaign. During the last decade, member states of the EURO have continued to spend money on trying to ensure the elimination of diseases such as polio, measles, and rubella. With long-term persistence and shared dedication, not only is the elimination of these diseases in the EU in sight, but a generation of future spending on trying to cure such diseases can be prevented. Another advantage of prevention is that it will not always be targeted to a specific disease or condition but can improve the overall health of a population. Health Impact Assessments have been encouraging policies outside of the health sector to consider the health effects of their decisions. This shows an increased awareness amongst public and private sector organizations of the costs of healthcare to treat illness and the costs of lost economic productivity due to illness. By making use of HIA, it has opened a new chapter of intersectoral cooperation for health. This was seen where road safety is being dealt with together with interior ministries as well as ministries of transport. An Austrian study on the cost of traffic-related air pollution demonstrated that it would be possible to reduce by half the number of people whose health is adversely affected by the environment, provided there is comprehensive action in other sectors. The study of “A future scenario of the burden of cardiovascular disease in the United States compared with Japan” had potentially avoided a costly increment in heart disease and stroke by Japan through the improvement in cardiovascular health in the US. By the US reducing the prevalence of CVD risk factors and applying acute event treatments, it is estimated that there would be annual cost savings of up to 94 billion dollars from 2010-2020 and 120 billion in 2040. This has the potential for a significant reduction in healthcare costs as well as improvement of health and quality of life for people in the US. By disease or condition-specific prevention to general improvements of overall health, public health proves its significance in disease prevention to the improvement of global health.

3. Public Health Strategies for Promoting Wellness

Environmental control is a means of promoting health by targeting the cause of disease and changing the environment to reduce the risk of disease. This has been done successfully in the past to eradicate diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. Recent applications of environmental control include changes in workplace or public facility environments to prevent accidents and injury, and the removal of carcinogens and other harmful substances from industry and the general environment.

Perhaps the most common and effective means to promote wellness is through health education. This begins in schools where children can be taught healthy habits and lifestyles to prevent them from learning and repeating damaging patterns that have led to a rise in chronic diseases. Health education can also be conducted through healthcare providers who may provide patients with information on specific diseases and methods to prevent or manage them. A wide variety of health education programs are also available to the public and targeted populations through an array of media channels.

Health policy can be used to empower individuals to make healthy choices by modifying the environment in a way that their health is promoted. Policies that generate an environment conducive to health include food regulation, health and safety regulations, fiscal policy, urban redevelopment, and transportation. Health policies can be designed at a local, national, and global level. An example of a global health policy would be the regulation and control of tobacco marketing through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Health communication can be used to promote positive health messages to the public at large as well as in targeted populations. Positive health messages can increase awareness, educate and inform people to take preventive measures to avoid chronic diseases. Health communication can be conducted through a number of channels including advertising, public relations, branding, social marketing, media advocacy, and public information campaigns.

Health promotion has been designated as one of the core functions of public health all around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and to improve their health.

1. Health communication 2. Health policy 3. Health education 4. Environmental control.

The cornerstone of public health is promotion of a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention strategies. There are primarily four types of strategies to promote wellness:

4. Addressing Health Disparities through Public Health Interventions

Tackling health disparities often involves a complex interplay of interacting causal factors based in the social, economic, and political fabric of societies. This complexity is daunting to researchers and policymakers aiming to identify points for intervention that can make a difference. Due to the intricate web of causation, some have expressed concern that funding action on disparities may divert resources from general public health initiatives that would benefit society as a whole. This is a false dichotomy. As an epidemiologic perspective is brought to the causal pathways that lead to increased disease burden for vulnerable populations, it becomes apparent that many disparities in disease outcomes are preventable, given knowledge of how to modify risk factors or interrupt disease progression and available resources to do so. Epidemiology uniquely informs public health action by identifying the who, what, where, and when of health disparities, allowing for the tailoring of interventions to the specific needs of target populations. Given that the goal of public health is to prevent illness and promote good health for all people, action on disparities is intrinsic to the field rather than a separate endeavor.

Health disparities are a paramount concern worldwide. The disease burden is heavier, the process leading to disease is more rapid, and the outcomes are often worse or more costly. Whether it’s a 33-year gap in life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa where the HIV/AIDS epidemic has raged, a social class gradient in health within wealthy countries, a higher rate of illness and mortality experienced by indigenous peoples, or the poor health of refugees and migrants, the disadvantaged are always those at greatest risk for preventable illness, disability, and death. This fact is neither morally acceptable nor cost effective. In light of the ethical and economic implications of such disparities, it is essential to use public health resources to implement preventive measures that can reduce the gap in health outcomes between the advantaged and the disadvantaged.

5. Conclusion: Advancing Public Health for a Better Society

An understanding of public health and the implementation of public health strategies into policy leads to the overall improvement of the health of the public in New Zealand and countries globally. To reach an understanding of public health and its complexity means there needs to be adequate teaching in the subject. A comparison of the undergraduate medical curriculum in New Zealand to the United Kingdom has been undertaken to get an understanding of the differences in the amount of teaching in public health, as the UK is said to have one of the best public health systems in the world (Gauld, 2003). It was found that in New Zealand, students receive very little teaching in public health and it is clear that the importance of and its understanding is not well recognized. Only after the recent rapid growth of the public health sector, it would be expected that an increasing amount of medical students would be interested in public health or be required to have some involvement with it. This suggests that in order to improve the public health sector in New Zealand, there needs to be greater teaching in the subject, not only for medical students but for nursing and various other health professionals.

In the past few years, public health has come into the spotlight and individuals around the world are becoming more aware and concerned about the many different threats to the public’s health. As Nancy Kass well put it in the talks of establishing a global framework in public health, “Global public health is quite a broad and perhaps amorphous category, meaning different things to different people” (Kass, 2004). This project has outlined many different issues related to public health, from understanding the term itself, the approach to public health, the role of the community, the politics of public health, and two current issues in New Zealand.