- Societal factors such as war, poverty, income distribution, health-care infrastructure, and civil rights that affect health are often included in the sphere of public health
- This definition considers health as more than the absence of illness
- To make these structural changes, public health agents must work together with professionals from all disciplines


California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

- Public Health plays a role scientific, ethical, legal, and social structures 
- A greater understanding and consensus on the meaning of public health could lead to “more efficient and effective public health interventions as well as increased public and political support for public health activities” 
- Many definitions classify public health as population health rather than individual 
- Definitions vary in who is viewed as responsible for public health, we as a society vs the government



Defining Public Health 

Rothstein M. A. (2002). Rethinking the meaning of public health. The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 30(2), 144–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-720x.2002.tb00381.x

Rethinking the Meaning of Public Health

Human Rights as Public Health

Environmental public health is an expansion of public health that focuses on how humans' effect on the earth affects their health. 

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