Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. (context medicine English) The science and practice of community hygiene; includes preventive medicine, health education, sanitation and environmental safety.
Wikipedia
Public health refers to "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." It is concerned with threats to health based on population health analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people, or as large as all the inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a pandemic). The dimensions of health can encompass "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity", as defined by the United Nations' World Health Organization. Public health incorporates the interdisciplinary approaches of epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental health, community health, behavioral health, health economics, public policy, insurance medicine, mental health and occupational safety and health are other important subfields.
The focus of public health intervention is to improve health and quality of life through prevention and treatment of disease and other physical and mental health conditions. This is done through surveillance of cases and health indicators, and through promotion of healthy behaviors. Examples of common public health measures include promotion of hand washing, breastfeeding, delivery of vaccinations, and distribution of condoms to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
Modern public health practice requires multidisciplinary teams of public health workers and professionals including physicians specializing in public health/community medicine/infectious disease, psychologists, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, medical assistants or Assistant Medical Officers, public health nurses, midwives, medical microbiologists, environmental health officers / public health inspectors, pharmacists, dentists, dietitians and nutritionists, veterinarians, public health engineers, public health lawyers, sociologists, community development workers, communications experts, bioethicists, and others.
There is a great disparity in access to health care and public health initiatives between developed nations and developing nations. In the developing world, public health infrastructures are still forming.
Public Health is a bimonthly peer-reviewed public health journal. It was established in 1888 and is published by Elsevier on behalf of the Royal Society for Public Health. The editors-in-chief are Phil Mackie and Fiona Sim ( NHS Health Scotland). According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 1.434.
Usage examples of "public health".
It was as a result of these experiences-and in particular the atrocities against children that he uncovered while conducting an investigation into sexually transmitted diseases for the US Public Health Service in Ohio and West Virginia-that Vachss started writing to give vent to his sense of moral outrage and produced stories that are notable for their terse and uncompromising prose.
Boston: Harvard School of Public Health, Bulletin Series: Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.
When the officer saw this man, he called in the Public Health Service.
Beulah had been on too many academic and public health committees to be taken in by that particular tactic though.
I'm supposed to check the public health situation with the local authorities and exchange information with them.
Then Calhoun, representing Med Service, should confer gravely with planetary authorities about public health conditions on Maris III.