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What is Public Health

The best-known definition was written by C-E. A. Winslow in 1920.

“Public Health is the science and the art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health; organizing these benefits in such fashion as to enable every citizen to realize his birthright of health and longevity.”

 

The 10 Essential Public Health Services

Levels of Preventions

Social Determinants of Health

The main determinants of health (Dahlgren and Whitehead, 1991)

"Conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. These conditions are known as social determinants of health (SDOH)." "We know that poverty limits access to healthy foods and safe neighborhoods and that more education is a predictor of better health. We also know that differences in health are striking in communities with poor SDOH such as unstable housing, low income, unsafe neighborhoods, or substandard education."

CDC Social Determinants of Health

Century, I. of M. (US) C. on A. the H. of the P. in the  21st. (2002). Understanding Population Health and Its Determinants. National Academies Press (US).