What is PH

Question 1

What are the main characteristics of PH?

Answer 1

• About protecting and promoting health
• Focuses on groups of people and communities (where they live, work, or play)
• Represents organized collective efforts

Question 2

How is PH different from healthcare?

Answer 2

• Healthcare –> one patient, one provider, treating illness or disability
• PH –> patient = community, provider = society, focuses on prevention

Question 3

What are the main values of PH?

Answer 3

• Social justice
• Prevention and wellness
• Community-led solutions
• Health equity
• Science and evidence-based decision making
• Accountability and transparency

Question 4

How much impact does healthcare have on health?

Answer 4

Modest.

Health care - 10%
Genetics - 20%
Social + environmental - 20%
Individual behavior - 50%

Question 5

What are some factors of PH that contribute to longer life?

Answer 5

Life expectancy has improved over the 20th century, and 25 years are attributed to PH and only 5 to healthcare
- Sanitation
-Housing
- Nutrition
- Job Safety

Question 6

What are some reasons for the funding imbalance between PH and health care?

Answer 6

• Market systems - How much are individuals willing to pay? PH is public and benefits everyone in an area
• Rule of rescue - people want to be saved when something bad happens, which is not the focus of PH (PH is about prevention). Rescuing is more expensive.
• Relative risks - Shifts focus towards individual outcomes over providing widespread prevention (e.g., being more scared about something terrible but unlikely happening, rather than common threats that usually affect people)

Question 7

Explain what is meant when they say public health had a PR problem

Answer 7

When it’s working, PH is invisible.

Health promotion activities:
Benefits: abstract and deferred (e.g., eating healthy and exercising)
Costs: tangible, immediate

Disease promotion activities:
Benefits: tangible, immediate (e.g., eating unhealthy)
Costs: abstract, deferred

Post-COVID PH has a credibility problem because guidelines changed frequently as scientists’ were learning everyday

Question 8

What are the 3 core functions of PH, and what do they entail?

Answer 8

• Data collection –> Data collection, statistical, and epidemiologic analysis, dissemination of findings
• Policy development –> use scientific knowledge, engage communities, appreciate and use the political process
• Assurance that needed services are available–> encouraging appropriate actions by other entities, laws and regulations, and directly providing services

Question 9

What are the 10 essential PH services that are shaped by the 3 core functions of PH?

Answer 9

Assessment: Monitor health, diagnose, + investigate

Policy development: Inform, educate, and empower; mobilize community partnerships, and develop policies

Assurance: Enforce laws, link to/provide care, assure a competent workforce, evaluate

Question 10

Why is PH so contentious (controversial)?

Answer 10

• PH efforts may restrict individual liberty –> tragedy of the commons (restrict individual liberty for the common good). E.g., pollution restraints
• Question the role of individual responsibility
• Conflict with economic interests
• May touch on moral issues (sex ed, embryonic research, medical weed)