Historical Overview
This 19th-century discovery identified microorganisms as the cause of many diseases.
What is germ theory?
These three core functions define public health practice: assessment, policy development, and this third one.
What is assurance?
This approach uses data and research to guide decision-making in public health practice.
What is evidence-based public health (EBPH)?
These official records of births and deaths are a key source of population data.
What are vital statistics?
Income, education, and housing conditions are examples of these broad influences on health.
What are social determinants of health?
Improvements in this area—like sewage and clean water—were among the earliest public health victories.
What is sanitation?
The CDC, FDA, and HHS operate at this level of government.
What is the federal level?
The first step of the EBPH process is defining this.
What is the health problem?
This federal agency conducts the Census every ten years to collect demographic information used in public health.
What is the U.S. Census Bureau?
Individuals with strong social networks and community support tend to have this type of health outcome.
What are better health outcomes?
This major transition describes how countries shift from infectious to chronic diseases as main causes of death.
What is the epidemiological transition?
These organizations, such as the American Red Cross, support public health through advocacy and education.
What are non-governmental organizations (NGOs)?
These three “E” terms—efficacy, effectiveness, and efficiency—evaluate interventions by testing how well they work under different conditions.
What are measures of intervention performance?
This type of data measures illness, while mortality data measure death.
What is morbidity data?
Public health policies that target education, employment, and housing address these types of inequalities.
What are structural inequities?
Increased life expectancy in the 20th century is largely due to these public health advancements.
What are vaccines, safer workplaces, and improved sanitation?
Public health and healthcare systems overlap in programs such as vaccination and disease screening—examples of this type of collaboration.
What is integrated or cross-sector collaboration?
This type of analysis compares the health benefit of an intervention to its cost.
What is cost-effectiveness analysis (or cost-benefit analysis)?
This national surveillance system tracks notifiable diseases across the U.S.
What is the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)?
Systemic racism contributes to health disparities by limiting access to these vital resources.
What are housing, employment and healthcare?
The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized this critical role of public health systems.
What is emergency preparedness and global coordination?
Fragmented funding, workforce shortages, and inconsistent policies are examples of these barriers to effective public health systems.
What are coordination and accountability challenges?
Engaging communities and policymakers in intervention design ensures programs are sustainable and culturally appropriate.
What is stakeholder engagement?
Protecting privacy and preventing stigmatization are examples of these when using public health data.
What are ethical considerations?
Programs like early childhood education and affordable housing target these “upstream” factors that cause poor health.
What are root social causes of health disparities?