What is Public Health?

Public Health is the effort to preserve and improve the health of the population as a whole. It is the field that links the biological basis of health and disease with the social and political processes of society. 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".

While physicians treat individuals, public health professionals are concerned with the health of the community, including the causes and risk factors underlying the spread of disease, the developing and promoting of models for health services, and the shaping of health policies.

With this focus on public health is a growing importance for trained public health professionals and increasing opportunities for employment in the field.

Public Health as you will see has many definitions attributed to it, each the same in meaning but different merely in the wording. A well-written attempt to define public health is that of the Association of Schools of Public Health.