Important Features of Public Health

• Osman M. Osman, BSc HO, MPHN, PhD

Candidate in MPHN
• Senior Lecturer at UOH.

• Contact Address:
• Email: abucafiifa10@gmail.com

• Nov, 2023

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 Important features of PH
1. Social justice orientation
2. Inherently Political nature
3. Expanding agenda
4. Link with government
5. Grounded in science
6. Focuses on prevention
7. Uncommon culture

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1. PH has a Social Justice Philosophy

– It is the central pillar of public health

– Justice: is fairness in the distribution of

benefits and burdens

– Injustices: when persons are denied

some benefit or when some burden is
imposed on them unduly

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Cont’d
– Factors that impede the fair distribution of
benefits and burdens
• Social class
• Racism
• Disability
• Education
• Income
• Gender, etc..
– Collective action is necessary to neutralize
or overcome those impediments
– PH works to overcome those impediments.
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Cont’d

• In the context of PH, social justice refers to

– Reducing differences in current health

status

– Ensuring equal opportunities and

resources to enable all people to achieve
their fullest health potential

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 2. PH is Inherently Political Nature
• Science and Politics
– Science is how we:
• Understand threats to health
• Determine what interventions might work
• Evaluate whether the interventions worked
– Politics is how we as a society make decisions
about what policies to implement.

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Cont’d

• Thus, PH is both public and political in nature

– It serves population
– It allows issues to be considered, negotiated
to make decision for population
– Differing values and perspectives as to both
the ends to be achieved and the means for
achieving those ends

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Cont’d
• The social justice component stimulates
political conflict
• Public health advocates at times appear as
anti-government
• Governmental public health agencies serving
both the government and public- are
frequently caught in the middle

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3. PH is Expanding Agenda/Ever Evolving
• Prior to 1900: the primary problems
addressed by PH were infectious diseases and
related environmental risks.
• After 1900: focus expanded to include
problems and needs of children and mothers
• Middle of the 20th century: chronic disease
prevention and medical care fell into public
health
• Later: substance abuse, violence, injuries
• Recently: Bioterrorism, other disaster
preparedness
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 4. PH is Link with Government
• Public health is linked with government in
two ways:

1. Issuing policies that govern the health of

the population

2. Directly provide programs and services

that are designed to meet the health
needs of the population

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 5. PH is Grounded in Science
• Often there are five basic sciences in PH:
- Epidemiology
- Biostatics
- Environmental science
- Management sciences
- Behavioural sciences
- Occupational health
- Nutrition
- Maternal and Child Health
• Epidemiology and biostatics are essential tools of
PH
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Cont’d

• Other related disciplines

– Biomedical and laboratory practice
– Dental public health
– International public health
– Occupational health and safety
– Preventive medicine
– Public health nursing, etc..

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6. PH Focus’s on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

• Prevention is the purpose of PH and is aimed at

preventing
- Disease
- Deaths
- Hospital admissions
- Bed occupancy
- Days lost from school and work
- Consumption of human and fiscal
resources
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 7. PH has Uncommon Culture
• Factors which influence health are complex and
wide-ranging
• Any attempt to understand and change these
factors must involve many disciplines
• Thus, the study of PH draws on the expertise of
people from a variety of backgrounds
• Health has an issue of Information asymmetry,
Externality, adverse selection, cream-skimming,
Moral hazard, public goods

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 Cont’d
• Some of the specialties which contribute to the
study of public health are
– Anthropology, economics, sociology,
psychology, politics, engineering, statistics,
management, law, as well as the biological
and clinical sciences
• Hence, PH is unique because the many different
- Sciences, activities and methods are linked
together to improve the health of populations
or communities

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Cont’d

• People who practice PH come from many

walks of life, but might not identify their
activities as ‘public health’ e.g.,
– Nurses and doctors running screening
programmes
– Local residents campaigning for better housing
– Engineers drilling bore holes to provide clean
water
– Politicians introducing legislation to ban
cigarette smoking in public places
– ‘Pop stars’ who speak to school children on the
dangers of drug misuse
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 Main Public Health Disciplines
• Epidemiology
• Statistics
• Biomedical Sciences
• Environmental Health Science
• Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Health Policy and Management

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 Epidemiology
• PH has developed its own science of
epidemiology, Epidemiology is the basic
science of PH
• It is the study of the health and illness of
populations.
• Aims to control the spread of infectious
diseases
• Seeks to identify causes of chronic disease
and ways to limit harmful exposures

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 Statistics
• Collection of data on the population
• These numbers are diagnostic tools for the
health of the community
• The science of statistics is used to calculate
risks, benefits.

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 Biomedical Sciences

• Infectious diseases – pathogens

• Chronic diseases
• Genetics

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 Environmental Health Science
• Health effects of environmental exposures
• Air Quality
• Water Quality
• Solid and hazardous wastes
• Safety of food and drugs
• Global environmental change (Climate change)

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 Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Behavior is the leading factor in affecting people’s
health
• Theories of health behavior: social environment
affects people’s behavior
• Major health threats in the developed world:
tobacco, poor diet and physical inactivity, injuries
• Major Health threats in developing world:
infectious disease, poverty, diet, health seeking
behavior

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 Health Policy and Management

• Role of medical care in public health

• How is cost of medical care in the Ethiopian
context?
• How is health insurance, access to medical care?
• Quality of medical care ?

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 Public Health Approach
1. Define the health problem
2. Identify the risk factors associated with the
problem
3. Develop and test interventions to control or
prevent the cause of the problem
4. Implement interventions to improve the
health of the population.
5. Monitor the interventions to assess their
effectiveness

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THANK YOU

THANK YOU

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