Full Description
Featuring Engaging Podcasts Highlighting Major Public Health Case Studies in all 15 Chapters!
Public Health: An Introduction to the Science and Practice of Population Health is a foundational textbook designed for students who are launching their public health studies and preparing for professions in the field. Our health is generated throughout our lives and by the world around us—by where we live, where we work, and who we interact with on a daily basis. This book, therefore, takes a unique approach to teach public health. It combines an eco-social framework with a life course perspective on population health to help the student understand how our experiences and context shape our health and how this informs the practice of public health.
Written by leading public health educators, the textbook begins with the foundations—a history of public health and a discussion of the core values of health equity and disease prevention. An engaging survey of the eco-social framework and life course factors affecting health follows. The book concludes with a section dedicated to population health methods, implementation science, community engagement, advocacy, and health promotion. The book is illustrated throughout by cases that cross disciplines, that engage the student with issues of contemporary concern that are the remit of public health, and that offer systematic analyses that point toward solutions. With a focused approach to public health that guides the student through the causes of health—across levels and across stages in the life course—this groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind textbook integrates the core components of the field in clear and lucid language. Timely and relevant case studies, practical learning objectives, discussion questions in all chapters, numerous tables and illustrations throughout, chapter-based podcasts, and more make Public Health an innovative and lively platform for understanding the science of population health and the practice of public health.
Key Features:
A modern approach to the field that grounds the study of public health in life course and eco-social frameworks to better organize the science of population health and the practice of public health
Explains the central role that prevention and health equity play in improving population health
Features case studies that discuss contemporary issues affecting population health, including heart disease, Ebola, environmental exposures, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, health policy, and many more
High volume of figures and tables to illustrate key points
Includes a robust Instructor ancillary package with PowerPoints, an Instructor's Manual, test banks, discussion questions, and conversion guide
Ebook for digital download included
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Case Study Podcasts
Abbreviations and Common Definitions
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
1. Public Health and Population Health: Understanding Health and Disease
2. What Causes Health of Populations? An Eco-Social and Life Course Approach
3. At the Heart of Public Health: Prevention and Health Equity
SECTION II: AN ECO-SOCIAL APPROACH, WHAT CAUSES HEALTH, AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
4. Eco-Social Perspective: Individual Behavior and Health
5. Eco-Social Perspective: Social Networks and Health
6. Eco-Social Perspective: Neighborhoods, Cities, and Health
7. Eco-Social Perspective: Countries, Politics, Policies, and Health
SECTION III: ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE, WHAT CAUSES HEALTH, AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
8. Life Course Perspective: Perinatal Period, Infancy, and Childhood and Health
9. Life Course Perspective: Adolescence and Young Adulthood and Health
10. Life Course Perspective: Adulthood and Health
11. Life Course Perspective: Older Age and Health
SECTION IV: THE METHODS OF PUBLIC HEALTH
12. Analytic Approaches: The Evidence Base for Public Health
13. The Methods of Public Health Practice
14. Systems Science, Implementation Science, and Public Health Programs
15. Community Engagement and Advocacy to Promote and Protect Health
Index
