Public Health Essay Assignment
Health is one of the most important aspects for each single individual, as well as for the whole societies. The main task of the doctors is to help people, experiencing problems with their health. Here it is important to understand the difference between doctors and public health specialists, who are to do their best to encourage healthy behaviors in order to prevent diseases and various disorders. Thus public health could be defined as “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals.” (Turnock, 2009, p. 3). There is a special population health analysis usually done with the aim to point out the threats to public health. It is important to consider all aspects of health, including physical, mental and social states and not simply absence of diseases. Such scientific spheres as biostatistics, health services, epidemiology are incorporated by public health. These spheres could be further subdivided into behavioral health, health economics, public policy, community health, occupational safety, insurance medicine, etc. The major aim of public health activities is to improve state of health and life quality via promotion of healthy way of living and healthy behaviors. Breastfeeding, distribution of condoms, promotion of hand washing, etc. belong to the examples of the public health support measures.Public Health Essay Assignment
Unfortunately not all individuals are aware of the fact that there is a long list of diseases, which could be prevented with the help of non-medical procedures and hygiene rules. There are various programs, which are worked out in the frames of public health activities, aiming at spreading of public health communication, timely vaccination and other public health measures. Based on the statistical data, it is possible to state that public health measures contribute greatly to increase of general health level and prolonging of life expectancy.Public Health Essay Assignment
Usually to the public health facilities belong local health care systems, non-governmental organizations. In addition there is an international agency – the World Health Organization (WHO), which is busy with solving of global public health issues.
The history of public health is rather long and it starts from antiquity. When the first human civilizations were developing, when the first religions appeared, there were various attempts made in order to regulate the health issues. Leaders of those societies already were aware of the importance of supporting health of people to secure social stability. “The ancient Chinese medical doctors developed the practice of variolation following a smallpox epidemic around 1000 BC. An individual without the disease could gain some measure of immunity against it by inhaling the dried crusts that formed around lesions of infected individuals. Also, children were protected by inoculating a scratch on their forearms with the pus from a lesion” (Turnock, 2009, p.13).
There was a special Permanent Court of supervisors created in the Republic of Venice, the aim of which was to control the situation with the spread of epidemics. Development of public health sphere was influenced by such serious event as cholera pandemic. Starting from the outbreak of cholera and after it, people reconsidered various aspects, related to health, for example location of cemeteries or circulations of air. During the 18th century there were evident improvements in public health sphere, as there were voluntary hospitals created in Europe and vaccination was considered to be a necessary practice for supporting of the health of people. Generally health care issues were studied in various life spheres, for example “in 1752 the British physician Sir John Pringle published Observations on the Diseases of the Army in Camp and Garrison, in which he advocated for the importance of adequate ventilation in the military barracks and the provision of latrines for the soldiers.” (Turnock, 2009, p.15). Along with development of the Industrial Revolution, the new demands, related to the working population and their safety and health care conditions, arose. Nowadays the issues of public health are highly prioritized in developed countries, and not enough considered in developing countries. Taking into consideration that public health is a rather wide field nowadays, there are a lot of options for careers there. People, who are engaged into public health spheres, could choose either social sciences or statistics and math or any other specialty.Public Health Essay Assignment
Statistics in public health is defined as biostatistics, which is the analysis of data, applied to health care. Those professionals, who work in this sector, are responsible for tracking of the health of people and reveal the trends. “They may be involved in clinical trials, genome projects and spatial studies which seek to determine how geography can affect health and risk factors. Informatics is a related field that may focus more on surveillance and the collection of data for prevention and public health promotion rather than its application in research.” (Berridge, 2016, p. 8).
Community health is another subdivision of public health, where the specialists are concentrated upon consideration and analyzing of the dynamics, which is able to impact the overall state of health in a certain region or certain community. Their work is related to political science, biology and sociology.Public Health Essay Assignment
The basic science of public health is often considered to be epidemiology, actually uniting the aspects of community health and biostatistics. Specialists here are responsible for analyzing of the available statistical data and correct interpretation of the results of this analysis. Also there are specialists working in the sphere of environmental health and global health, studying the problems of environmental pollution, changes of the climates, working out and launching of global health programs and serving populations from all over the world.
Overall, public health is one of the most important spheres, as it helps to study and define the issues, related to state of health of people, contributes to revealing and preventing of the potential health problems and is responsible for promoting of healthy way of living.
References:
Berridge, V. (2016). Public Health: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press
Breslow, L. (2002). Encyclopedia of Public Health. New York: Macmillan Reference USA
Turnock, B. (2009). Public Health: What It Is and How It Works (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers Public Health Essay Assignment