Public health

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Public health

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals." (1920, C.E.A. Winslow

Charles-Edward Amory Winslow

Charles-Edward Amory Winslow was an United States bacteriologist and public health expert who was, according to the Encyclopedia of Public Health, "a seminal figure in public health, not only in his own country, the United States, but in the wider Western world."...
) It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health

Population health

Population health has been defined as ?the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.? It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire population....
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

Pandemic

A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide....
).

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Objectives

The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent rather than treat a disease through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors. In addition to these activities, in many cases treating a disease can be vital to preventing its spread to others, such as during an outbreak of infectious disease

Infectious disease

Vaccination

Condom

A condom is a device most commonly used during sexual intercourse. It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner....
s are examples of public health measures.

Most countries have their own government public health agencies, sometimes known as ministries of health, to respond to domestic health issues. In the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, the front line of public health initiatives are state and local health department

Health department

A health department is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entity, such as states, county and city, often also operate a health department of their own....
s. The United States Public Health Service

United States Public Health Service

Organization of the Public Health ServiceThe Public Health Service Act placed the United States Public Health Service as the primary division of the Department of Health Education and Welfare , which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services....
(PHS), led by the Surgeon General of the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency of the United States United States Department of Health and Human Services based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States adjacent to the campus of Emory University and northeast of downtown Atlanta....
, headquartered in Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the Capital and most populous city in Georgia , as well as the 33rd largest city in the United States of America with a population of 519,145....
and a part of the PHS, are involved with several international health activities, in addition to their national duties.

There is a vast discrepancy 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. There may not be enough trained health workers or monetary resources to provide even a basic level of medical care and disease prevention. As a result, a large majority of disease and mortality in the developing world results from and contributes to extreme poverty. For example, many African governments spend less than USD$

United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
10 per person per year on health care, while, in the United States, the federal government

Federal government of the United States

The Federal Government of the United States is the central current reigning United States governmental body, established by the United States Constitution....
spent approximately USD$4,500 per capita in 2000.

Many diseases are preventable through simple, non-medical methods. For example, research has shown that the simple act of hand washing

Hand washing

Hand washing is the act of cleaning the hands with water or another liquid, with or without the use of soap or other detergents, for the Sanitation purpose of removing soil and/or microorganisms....
can prevent many contagious diseases.

Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world and in developed countries, through local health systems and through international non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization is a term that has become widely accepted for referring to a legally constituted, non-business organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government....
s, like the

The two major postgraduate professional degrees related to this field are the Master of Public Health

Master of Public Health

The Master of Public Health is a professional master's degree awarded for studies in areas related to public health. The MPH degree focuses on public health practice, as opposed to research or teaching....
(MPH) or the (much rarer) Doctor of Public Health

Doctor of Public Health

The Doctor of Public Health is an Postgraduate education professional degree for those who intend to pursue or advance a professional practice career in public health and for leaders and future leaders in public health practice....
(DrPH). Many public health researchers hold PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian reform organization* PHD, a track on The Crystal Method album Tweekend* PHD finger, a protein sequence...
s in their fields of speciality, while some public health programs confer the equivalent Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science

Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated D.Sc., Sc.D., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world....
degree instead. The United States medical residency specialty is General Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

History of public health

In some ways, public health is a modern concept, although it has roots in antiquity. From the beginnings of human civilization, it was recognized that polluted water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
and lack of proper waste disposal spread communicable diseases (theory of miasma

Miasma

Miasma may refer to:* Miasma theory of disease, bad air causing disease* Homeopathy#Miasms_as_a_cause_of_disease, a specious cause of chronic disease...
). Early religion

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
s attempted to regulate behavior that specifically related to health, from types of food

Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
eaten, to regulating certain indulgent behaviors, such as drinking alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl Functional group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group....
or sexual relations. The establishment of government

Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
s placed responsibility on leader

Leadership

Leadership is one of the most salient aspects of the organizational context. However, defining leadership has been challenging. The following sections discuss several important aspects of leadership including a description of what leadership is and a description of several popular theories and styles of leadership....
s to develop public health policies and programs in order to gain some understanding of the causes of disease

Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
and thus ensure social stability prosperity

Wealth

Wealth is an abundance of valuable material possessions or resources. The word is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem....
, and maintain order.

Early public health interventions

By Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
times, it was well understood that proper diversion of human waste

Waste management

File:Kathmandu-M?llabfuhr.jpgWaste management is the waste collection, transport, waste treatment, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials....
was a necessary tenet of public health in urban areas. The Chinese

History of China

China civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River valley in the Neolithic era. The written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty ....
developed the practice of variolation following a smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple"....
epidemic around 1000 BC. An individual without the disease could gain some measure of immunity against it by inhaling the dried crusts that formed around lesions of infected individuals. Also, children were protected by inoculating

Inoculation

Inoculation is the placement of something to where it will grow or reproduce, and is most commonly used in respect of the introduction of a serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease; but also can be used to refer to the communication of a disease to...
a scratch on their forearms with the pus from a lesion. This practice was not documented in the West until the early-1700s, and was used on a very limited basis. The practice of vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to produce immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by a pathogen....
did not become prevalent until the 1820s, following the work of Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner, Fellow of the Royal Society, was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, England....
to treat smallpox

Smallpox

Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, it was believed that removing bodies of the dead would further prevent the spread of the bacterial infection. This did little to stem the plague, however, which was most likely spread by rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
-borne flea

Flea

Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects whose mouthparts are adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood....
s. Burning parts of cities resulted in much greater benefit, since it destroyed the rodent infestations. The development of quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is voluntary or compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease....
in the medieval period helped mitigate the effects of other infectious diseases. However, according to Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault was a French philosophy, historian, intellectual, Critical theory and sociologist. He held a chair at the Coll?ge de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley....
, the plague model of governmentality

Governmentality

Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Coll?ge de France during this time....
was later controverted by the cholera

Cholera

Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic or epidemic cholera, is an infectious gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxin-producing strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae....
model. A Cholera pandemic devastated Europe between 1829 and 1851, and was first fought by the use of what Foucault called "social medicine", which focused on flux, circulation of air, location of cemeteries, etc. All those concerns, born of the miasma theory of disease

Miasma theory of disease

The miasmatic theory of disease held that diseases such as cholera or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air"....
, were mixed with urbanistic

Urbanism

Urbanism is the study of City, their geographic, economic, political, social and cultural Social environment, and the impact of all these forces on the built environment....
concerns for the management of populations, which Foucault designated as the concept of "biopower

Biopower

'Biopower' was a term originally coined by French people philosopher Michel Foucault to refer to the practice of modern states and their regulation of their subjects through "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations." Foucault first used it in his courses at the C...
". The German conceptualized this in the Polizeiwissenschaft
Polizeiwissenschaft

Polizeiwissenschaft was a discipline born in the first third of the 18th century which lasted until the middle of the 19th century.Considered as the science of the internal order of the community, it was a comprehensive term, which included today's public law, Administration science, the early political economy, public health concerns, ur...
("Science of police").

The science of epidemiology

Epidemiology

John Snow (physician)

John Snow was a British physician and a leader in the adoption of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered to be one of the fathers of epidemiology, because of his work in tracing the source of a 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak....
's identification of a polluted public water well as the source of an 1854 cholera

Cholera

Miasma theory of disease

The miasmatic theory of disease held that diseases such as cholera or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air"....
. Although miasma theory correctly teaches that disease is a result of poor sanitation, it was based upon the prevailing theory of spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation or Equivocal generation is an obsolete theory regarding the origin of life from inanimate matter, which held that this process was a commonplace and everyday occurrence, as distinguished from Univocal generation, or reproduction from parent....
. Germ theory developed slowly: despite Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was a Netherlands tradesman and scientist from Delft, the Netherlands. He is commonly known as "Fathers_of_scientific_fields", and considered to be the first microbiologist....
's observations of Microorganisms, (which are now known to cause many of the most common infectious diseases) in the year 1680, the modern era of public health did not begin until the 1880s, with Robert Koch

Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....
's germ theory and Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur

Louis Pasteur was a France chemist and microbiologist best known for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of disease. His experiments supported the germ theory of disease, also reducing mortality from puerperal fever , and he created the first vaccine for rabies....
's production of artificial vaccine

Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that establishes or improves immunity to a particular disease.Vaccines can be prophylaxis , or Medication ....
s. Other public health interventions include latrinization, the building of sewer

Sewer

Sewer may refer to:*A system for transporting sewage:**Sanitary sewer, a system of pipes used to transport human waste**Storm drain, a collection and transportation system for storm water...
s, the regular collection of garbage followed by incineration or disposal in a landfill

Landfill

File:Wysypisko.jpgFile:Landfill face.JPGFile:Landfill.jpg A landfill, also known as a dump , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of list of solid waste treatment technologies....
, providing clean water and draining standing water to prevent the breeding of mosquitos.

Modern public health

As the prevalence of infectious diseases in the developed world decreased through the 20th century

Infectious disease in the 20th century

Many infectious diseases that killed by the millions were greatly reduced in the 20th century, with one notable achievement being the eradication of smallpox, and considerable progress being made toward the eradication of polio and Dracunculiasis....
, public health began to put more focus on chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease. An emphasis on physical exercise was reintroduced.

In America, public health worker Dr. Sara Josephine Baker

Sara Josephine Baker

Sara Josephine Baker , was an American physician notable for contributions to public health in New York City. She is best known for commenting on urban conditions for the poor in her statement that a person was more likely to die by being born in the United States than as a soldier in World War I....
lowered the infant mortality rate using preventative methods. She established many programs to help the poor in New York City keep their infants healthy. Dr. Baker led teams of nurses into the crowded neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and taught mothers how to dress, feed, and bathe their babies. After World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
many states and countries followed her example in order to lower infant mortality rates.

During the 20th century, the dramatic increase in average life span is widely credited to public health achievements, such as vaccination programs and control of infectious diseases, effective safety policies such as motor-vehicle and occupational safety, improved family planning

Family planning

Family planning is people Planning when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted disease, pre-conception counseling and pregnancy#management , and infertility....
, fluoridation of drinking water, anti-smoking measures, and programs designed to decrease chronic disease.

Meanwhile, the developing world remained plagued by largely preventable infectious diseases, exacerbated by malnutrition

Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or inadequate diet and nutrition.According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases....
and poverty. Front-page headlines continue to present society with public health issues on a daily basis: emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, making its way from China (see Public health in China) to Canada and the United States; prescription drug benefits under public programs such as Medicare; the increase of HIV-AIDS among young heterosexual women and its spread in South Africa; the increase of childhood obesity

Childhood obesity

Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on Body mass index....
and the concomitant increase in type II diabetes among children; the impact of adolescent pregnancy; and the ongoing social, economic and health disasters related to the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2006. These are all ongoing public health challenges.

Since the 1980s, the growing field of population health

Population health

Population health has been defined as ?the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.? It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire population....
has broadened the focus of public health from individual behaviors and risk factor

Risk factor

A risk factor is a variable associated with an increased risk of disease or infection. Risk factors are Correlation and not necessarily Causality, because correlation does not imply causation....
s to population-level issues such as inequality, poverty, and education. Modern public health is often concerned with addressing determinants of health across a population, rather than advocating for individual behaviour change. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these are known as "social determinants of health." A social gradient in health runs through society, with those that are poorest generally suffering the worst health. However even those in the middle classes will generally have worse health outcomes than those of a higher social stratum. The new public health seeks to address these health inequalities by advocating for population-based policies that improve the health of the whole population in an equitable fashion.

The burden of treating conditions caused by unemployment, poverty, unfit housing and environmental pollution have been calculated to account for between 16-22% of the clinical budget of the British National Health Service.

UK Public health functions include:

Health surveillance, monitoring and analysis
Investigation of disease outbreaks, epidemics and risk to health
Establishing, designing and managing health promotion
Health promotion

Health promotion has been defined by the 2005 Bangkok Charter as "the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health"....
and disease prevention programmes
Enabling and empowering communities to promote health and reduce inequalities
Creating and sustaining cross-Government and intersectoral partnerships to improve health and reduce inequalities
Ensuring compliance with regulations and laws to protect and promote health
Developing and maintaining a well-educated and trained, multi-disciplinary public health workforce
Ensuring the effective performance of NHS services to meet goals in improving health, preventing disease and reducing inequalities
Research, development, evaluation and innovation
Quality assuring the public health function

Public health programs

Today, most governments recognize the importance of public health programs in reducing the incidence of disease, disability, and the effects of aging, although public health generally receives significantly less government funding compared with medicine. In recent years, public health programs providing vaccinations have made incredible strides in promoting health, including the eradication of smallpox, a disease that plagued humanity for thousands of years.

An important public health issue facing the world currently is HIV/AIDS. Antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of a microorganism to withstand the effects of antibiotics. It is a specific type of drug resistance. Antibiotic resistance evolves via natural selection acting upon random mutation, but it can also be engineered by applying an evolutionary stress on a population....
is another major concern, leading to the reemergence of diseases such as Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacterium, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and even the...
.

Another major public health concern is diabetes. In 2006, according to the World Health Organization, at least 171 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that by the year 2030, this number will double.

A controversial aspect of public health is the control of smoking

Tobacco smoking

Tobacco smoking is the inhalation of smoke from burned dried or cured leaves of the tobacco plant, most often in the form of a cigarette. People may smoke casually for pleasure, habitually to satisfy an addiction to the nicotine present in tobacco and to the act of smoking, or in response to social pressure....
. Many nations have implemented major initiatives to cut smoking, such as increased taxation and bans on smoking in some or all public places. Proponents argue by presenting evidence that smoking is one of the major killers in all developed countries, and that therefore governments have a duty to reduce the death rate, both through limiting passive (second-hand) smoking and by providing fewer opportunities for smokers to smoke. Opponents say that this undermines individual freedom and personal responsibility (often using the phrase nanny state

Nanny state

Nanny state is a term that refers to state protectionism, economic interventionism, or regulation policies , and the perception that these policies are becoming institutionalism as common practice....
in the UK), and worry that the state may be emboldened to remove more and more choice in the name of better population health overall. However, proponents counter that inflicting disease on other people via passive smoking

Passive smoking

Passive smoking is the involuntary inhalation of smoke, called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke , from tobacco products....
is not a human right, and in fact smokers are still free to smoke in their own homes.

There is also a link between public health and veterinary public health which deals with zoonotic diseases, diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. (See also Vector control

Vector control

For vector control of induction motors, see Vector_control_vector control is any method to limit or eradicate the mammals, birds or arthropods, insects which transmit disease pathogens....
).

Public hygiene

Public hygiene includes public behaviors individuals can take to improve their personal health and wellness. Topics include public transportation, food preparation and public washroom use. These are steps individuals can take themselves. Examples would include avoiding crowded subways during the flu season, using gloves when touching the handrails and opening doors in public malls as well as going to clean restaurants.

Economics of public health

The application of economics

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
to the realm of public health has been rising in importance since the 1980s. Economic studies can show, for example, where limited public resources might best be spent to save lives or cause the greatest increase in quality of life.

Research

Public health investigates sources of disease and descriptors of health through scientific methodology. This can lead to a public health solution to an epidemic, or a community based intervention for chronic diseases. Either way, research can provide the link between cause and effect for public health issues.

Community based participatory research

In contrast to clinical, patient oriented, or literature review research, community based participatory research (CBPR) investigates community-based etiology

Etiology

Etiology is the study of Causality. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek , aitiologia, "giving a reason for" .The word is most commonly used in medical and philosophical theories, where it is used to refer to the study of why things occur, or even the reasons behind the way that things act, and is used in philosophy, physics, psy...
, involves community leaders, and overall respects the forces under which the community and its participants preside toward promoting and sustaining public health matters. CBPR describes the approach embraced by such institutions as the Gamelan Council

Gamelan Council

The Gamelan Council ? Asia-Pacific Microfinance, Public Health & Development Centre is an international non-governmental, non-profit initiative addressing the microfinance, public health, and international development needs of communities in, on, and around the Pacific Rim....
and, as described by the WK Kellogg Foundation Community Health Scholars Program, is a

"collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community, has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities."

CBPR methods have been necessary for implementation of certain public health actions. This have been difficult to accomplish because communities in poorer, less well developed areas often distrust researchers and scientists from "outside."

Education and training

Schools of public health offer a variety of degrees which generally fall into two categories: professional or academic.

Professional degrees are oriented towards practice in public health settings. The Master of Public Health

Master of Public Health

Doctor of Public Health

Master of Health Administration

The Master of Health Administration is a Master's degree-level professional degree granted to students who complete a course of study in the knowledge and competencies needed for careers in healthcare administration, involving the management of hospitals and other health services organizations....
(MHA) and Professional Further Education in Clinical Pharmacy and Public Health

Professional Further Education in Clinical Pharmacy and Public Health

Professional Further Education in Clinical Pharmacy and Public Health is a Denmark First professional degree#Advanced professional degrees Postgraduate education Higher education Further education education for Danish Pharmaconomist....
are examples of degrees which are geared towards people who want careers as practitioners of public health in health departments, managed care organizations, community-based organizations, hospitals, consulting firms, international agencies, state and federal agencies, among others.

Academic degrees are more oriented toward students wishing to seek a career in teaching at a college or university or conducting research at a university or other settings. Examples of academic degrees are the Master of Science (MS), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), and Doctor of Science (ScD).

Pathways to Public Health is a way for youth to learn more about public health education and public health careers. In addition to providing information for high school and undergraduate students, Pathways to Public Health also provides information for guidance counselors and teachers to connect their students with the exciting opportunities in public health.

The Association of Schools of Public Health represents CEPH-accredited schools of public health in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. ASPH-member schools prepare people to become public health professionals. In addition to representing its member schools, ASPH provides: education and training for students and graduates of its member schools, a job search website, funding opportunities, awards, an honorary society for graduate studies in public health, and publications.

Distance learning has increasingly become an attractive option for working professionals or people whose other life commitments prevent them from traveling to a physical location for classes. ASPH lists distance-learning programs from its member schools.

Academic resources

Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1010-5395
American Journal of Public Health
American Journal of Public Health

The American Journal of Public Health is a peer reviewed monthly journal of the American Public Health Association . The Journal also regularly publishes authoritative editorials and commentaries and serves as a forum for the analysis of health policy....
Annual Review of Public Health, ISSN: 0163-7525 & eISSN: 1545-2093
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
BMC Public Health
Canadian Journal of Public Health
Central European Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1210-7778 & eISSN 1803-1048
Communicable Disease and Public Health
Critical Public Health
European Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1101-1262 & eISSN 1464-360X
Journal of Public Health, ISSN 1741-3842 & eISSN 1741-3850
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, ISSN: 1078-4659
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, ISSN:1651-1905 (electronic) 1403-4948 (paper)

Industrial resources

Harvard Public Health Review

External links

at U.S. Centers for Disease Control