What is Public Health?

Specific definitions of public health include the following: The American Public Health Association states “Public health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play.” (Binns & Low, 2015)

The Public Health Association of Australia discusses its role in the following way: “Public health includes, but goes beyond the treatment of individuals to encompass health promotion, prevention of disease and disability, recovery and rehabilitation, and disability support.” (Binns & Low, 2015)

The common theme of all discussions of public health is that it deals with the health of populations, in contrast to our clinical colleagues who in the first instance are concerned with restoring, maintaining and improving the health of an individual. Public health seeks to improve the health of the whole community with an emphasis on protection, prevention of disease, and promotion of well-being. (Binns & Low, 2015)

The principles that are fundamental to schools of public health are science, education, and compassion. These principles are expanded in the values of APACPH. To improve health public health interventions must be based on good science and hence this journal’s emphasis on good epidemiology and statistical analysis. (Binns & Low, 2015)

Public health works to monitor disease outbreaks, both acute and chronic, to prevent injuries and to understand the distribution of risk factors in our communities. By its very nature public health is global health as epidemics of disease, whether acute or chronic are no respecter of borders. (Binns & Low, 2015)

Those working in public health are expected to promote laws that protect health and the promotion of smoking controls and the use of seatbelts and helmets are important examples in our region. (Binns & Low, 2015)

Students graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Public Health Undergraduate Program will be stewards for the health of local, domestic, and global populations.

The public health department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst encompasses four undergraduate majors: Communication Disorders, Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Public Health Sciences. Students in the Public Health program are encouraged to explore the five main fields in Public Health: behavioral science/ health education, biostatistics, environmental health, epidemiology, and health services administration. Students then choose classes to build their personalized focus area, usually based on one of these fields.

The Public Health Sciences undergraduate program is rapidly increasing each year as students learn the merits of the program. Notably, the program is CEPH certified, meaning that it has met or exceeded all program requirements set out by the Council on Education for Public Health. Trends in this program reflect trends across the United States. The amount of students nationally who have received a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university increased from less than 1,000 in 1992 to more than 5,000 annually since 2010 (Leider, 2015).

Binns, C., & Low, W. (2015). What is public health?. Asia-Pacific Journal Of Public Health, 27(1), 5-6. doi:10.1177/1010539514565740

Leider, J. P., Castrucci, B. C., Plepys, C. M., Blakely, C., Burke, E., & Sprague, J. B. (2015, January 1). Characterizing the Growth of the Undergraduate Public Health Major: U.S., 1992–2012. From the Schools and Programs of Public Health, 130(1), 104-113. doi:10.1177/003335491513000114