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EURASIAN EXPERIMENT JOURNAL OF MEDICINE AND MEDICAL
SCIENCES (EEJMMS) ISSN: 2992-4103
©EEJMMS Publications Volume 5 Issue 2 2024

Page | 35
The Impact of Public Health on Community Health
Fabiola Mwendwa G.

School of Applied Health Sciences Kampala International University Uganda

ABSTRACT
Public health has a significant impact on community well-being by addressing population-level health
issues through prevention, health promotion, and policy development. This study investigates how public
health activities affect community health by lowering illness risks, managing epidemics, improving living
conditions, and promoting mental and physical health. It discusses the importance of preventative
measures, public health education, epidemiology, and surveillance in addressing health concerns. The role
of healthcare professionals and public health policies in reducing health disparities is examined, as well as
case studies of successful interventions. The study also emphasizes the need for collaboration between
public health systems and community stakeholders in improving health outcomes, with an emphasis on
long-term preventative tactics and proactive approaches that promote public well-being.
Keywords: Public Health, Community Health, Disease Prevention, Health Promotion, Health Disparities.
INTRODUCTION
Public health is community health because it deals with the health of society as a whole. Public health is
the sum of all official or governmental efforts to maintain or improve the health of the individual through
the prevention of disease, aid in the maintenance of personal and community health, the control of
communicable diseases, the control of conditions of the environment, and a concern for the individual and
community’s mental health as well as for physical health. It must concern society in general rather than
individuals. Public health enables people to remain healthy for longer periods. There are many threats to
community health, such as epidemics, malnutrition, unhealthy living conditions, poor sanitation, and
violence. Many of these health threats can be minimized or prevented by understanding and controlling
community health risks [1, 2]. The main purpose of this essay is to discuss public health and policy
development. In addition, public health education and the role of healthcare professionals will be
examined. All these topics will be addressed so that they can inform the policy-making process for health
in general and cancer control policy in particular. Public health is a multifaceted field that focuses on
disease prevention, health promotion, and health protection for populations. In the United States, the shift
in public health philosophy from a medical model to a prevention model has resulted in dramatic changes
that emphasize prevention, the importance of health education, and the role of nurses and physicians in
prevention activities. Many health problems in the United States, such as heart disease, stroke, and
cancer, are linked to behaviors learned in adolescence. This long view of prevention typifies public
health’s primary and most effective mission. Public health is a multifaceted field that focuses on disease
and injury prevention, health promotion, and health protection for populations. Public health takes a
proactive approach to preventing a disease from occurring, as opposed to a general approach of treating
the symptoms of the disease. Public health also involves an approach consisting of three main
components: health assurance, fundamental public health, and today's main focus on personal health care.
Today, public health serves everyone in the United States, employed and unemployed, privately insured
and uninsured, working within voluntary, not-for-profit, and for-profit organizations. Public health
prevents health crises from occurring alone by interrupting the virus, but also from other disease
outcomes. The disease outcomes that are averted depend on the magnitude of the health consequences.
Public health also prevents people from dying in their daily lives. It can help those who have critical
illnesses. Public health protectors are not only doctors and clinics. Health departments at the state, local,
tribal, and territorial levels, as well as public health systems and partnerships across independent
facilities, play a critical role in this [3, 4].
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Definition And Importance of Public Health
There is an abundance of reasons and ways to prevent illness and promote the health and well-being of a
community. These methods and topics are extensively explored in the field of public health. Public health
is defined as 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. In other words, public health is concerned with the betterment of the overarching health of a
populace. The goals of public health are to prevent epidemics and the spread of disease, protect against Page | 36
environmental hazards, prevent injuries, promote and encourage healthy behaviors, respond to disasters,
assist communities in recovery from these disasters, and ensure that there are resources available for
these efforts in all communities [1, 5]. Preventing epidemics and the spread of diseases involves action to
prevent acute or chronic illness. Public health does not simply build medical treatment centers; rather,
efforts are made to prevent disease through education and policy. Health policy is the process by which
society must contend with the three major arenas of control that affect health: politics, economics, and
ethics. Public health also includes practice in the areas of health promotion and disease prevention.
Integrated within these practices is the health-to-healthier literature, where public health efforts strive to
ensure that the health and well-being of the majority of communities are accounted for by avoiding
solutions that will trim the health margins of susceptible and vulnerable populations. Public health
currently accounts for some of society’s health practices, including those of public agencies, bi-phasic
governmental efforts, and non-profit agencies. Public health and healthcare systems and practices need to
work together to ensure comprehensive care and adequately protect the health of a populace. Public
health and health care also need to collaborate to provide education, work within the politics and funding
of health, and address the social and societal issues that impact public health, including policies for
smoking, obesity, healthy food access, pollution, violence, injury, and access to health care [6, 7].
The Role of Public Health in Community Health
Public health has been said to be the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting
the health of the community. Both public health policies and a strengthened and accessible health system
are also among the supposed underlying prerequisites for better health and greater longevity of the
population of any nation. Public health, as defined, services of public health departments are concerned
with three broad visions of population health: funded health system-based personal health care services,
behavior change, and reduction in health risk. Public health's main interest is in the third of these visions.
It is difficult to develop policy, funding, and specific intervention programs when health issue priority
setting is conducted. In sum, public health is about the health of populations who need protection [1, 8].
Preventive actions are especially important and are a crucial component of public health. In combination
with preventive modifications to the broader society, it underpins three initiatives: individual measures,
health promotion activities that empower individuals to improve their health, and population-based public
health education, including health literacy for people and the community. Public health initiatives
targeted at vulnerable populations are shown by the 10 Essential Public Health Services; most relate to
reducing health disparities and indicate the plan for the elimination of health disparities. Victory in
establishing public health policy is seen in several of these initiatives, programs, and services. Moreover,
the participation of public health practitioners in setting these objectives and policies is increased by these
initiatives, programs, and services [9, 10].
Preventative Measures and Education
Preventive measures and education are two important focal points in public health to reduce the
prevalence of diseases or the incidence of disease in a community. The long-term focus is to change the
attitudes and behaviors of people to embrace habits that could lead to better health in the long run. The
role of vaccinations, screenings, doctor’s visits, and workshops is to prevent and limit the effects of disease
on your life. Taking some additional steps can help us manage our conditions and could benefit treatment
outcomes in the future. In addition to prevention services, education in the community is also very
important. For example, a nutrition class or prenatal classes can provide the community with information
about the best foods during pregnancy. This is direct communication about health and interaction with
community members. If a large health gap exists, creating a program could have an impact on the
community quicker than waiting for educational programs to address health disparities. Developing
health education campaigns that are broadcast on television or engaging a radio show that is popular
within the community could support rapid growth and capture the community’s attention. When multiple
organizations combine efforts, the collaborative work can have a ripple effect on the community by
increasing the number of people who are reached. Sometimes an education program or access to services
is not available in the community; introducing a model program could meet the needs of the underserved
population. Identifying new opportunities in the community can have a huge impact. Current health
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initiatives aimed at identifying and implementing these programs benefit both the organization and the
community [11, 12].
Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance
Epidemiology is often referred to as the cornerstone of public health. It is the study of disease distribution
and determinants across a population. The discipline ranges from tracking the spread of disease or health
behaviors throughout a school, a neighborhood, a city, a state, or globally to understanding the social,
behavioral, or biological factors influencing health and disease. The Department of Health Services is Page | 37
home to an exemplary team of epidemiologists noted for their commitment to prevention. One of the first
medical authors of ancient times wrote about the occurrence and spreading of disease. His observations
paved the way for the work of epidemiologists today [13, 14]. Disease surveillance systems, whether
infectious or non-infectious, track diseases and health problems. They alert public health or healthcare
providers about changes in disease rates and can lead to the rapid allocation of resources to limit the
spread of disease. Data from these systems drive the recommendations that inform public health policy
and treatment. Any good surveillance system requires real-time data—the quicker, the better—so that
information can be utilized immediately. Good surveillance systems use the right data to ensure that the
most appropriate interventions are put into place. The surveillance system is really in place: public health
practitioners, healthcare providers, and communities all get something from it. Timely, accurate data
enable decision-makers to better respond to public health threats. Public health practitioners use the data
to develop new interventions or policies, or to revise existing strategies, and healthcare providers use the
data to inform the public [15, 16].
Public Health Policies and Interventions
Policies are usually formed based on epidemiological data about the incidence and prevalence of a disease
within a competitive assessment of community health needs in the community health assessment, health
priorities that are set in concert with the availability and capability of programs to address these needs,
and a commitment by the community to invest resources in improving the public's health. Health in All
Policies initiatives are well entrenched in the public health literature as a strategy from rural societies to
reduce individual health-risk behaviors, as is the case with age and low socioeconomic status, housing
conditions, violence, family ties, community social cohesion, employee health and work loss, child health,
social inequalities, and the governance role of local officials. In order to change risky individual behaviors,
policies provide structure and consistency over time; power and authority beyond that possible through
persuasive efforts alone; and they facilitate policy evaluation [17, 18]. Legislation can be used to regulate
and criminalize risky behavior, for example, seatbelt and helmet laws, smoking bans, the legal drinking
age, and legislation requiring state-level financing for public health. Laws within this realm are an
example of upstream prevention, where interventions and policies strategically shift conditions to create
health, such as to facilitate physical activity and nutrition, to ensure the availability of community
programs that are cost-effective and accessible to people not at high risk, and to integrate the objectives
into various facets of community life. These show how public health interventions include those that set
standards for a healthy lifestyle that are universally applied, promote healthy behavior that is supported
through policy activation, and focus on the customer. Agencies may design policy agendas that are user-
oriented as well, or take into account what the public wants and when it is wanted. They can evaluate
policies and programs to assess to what extent the process, outcome, or impact objectives are met as part
of achieving prevention goals. There are also tools available to implement continual and collaborative
policy learning and create mechanisms for ongoing stakeholder engagement that inform public health
policy decisions. Development of health policy may start with creating an understanding of the problem
and encourage stakeholders to invest in an evidence-based problem identification process to show which
health issues are legitimately important to focus on [19, 2].
Case Studies and Success Stories
Dozens of case studies and success stories exist about the impact of public and community health on the
well-being of individuals, communities, and entire populations. They are notable not just for their success,
but for the ways in which they have made efforts to guide a research base, motivate public health policies
and practices, and engage multi-disciplinary partnerships in reducing health disparities. These projects
show how health begins in communities of all sizes and reaches its greatest potential to improve human
well-being when the people who live and work in those communities are involved in the process of
assessing needs and raising solutions. As the case studies from various locations spark a vision and model
of genuine solutions for different needs in diverse communities, many effective strategies for improving
health are revealed. Labs, coalitions, community boards, faith sector involvement, and political buy-in all
begin to reveal the power of addressing chronic disease, urgent care, and other health issues with
prevention and system solutions. The three-component infrastructure model of public health, principles of
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healthy people in healthy communities, and interventions for closing gaps and evaluating results follow
through as those health improvements are made. And, time after time, those successes led to even more
values more effectively communicated about the influence of public health works [20, 21].
CONCLUSION
Public health remains indispensable in fostering community health by preventing diseases, promoting
healthier lifestyles, and reducing health disparities. Through education, preventive measures, and
coordinated efforts between public health systems and healthcare professionals, communities experience Page | 38
improved overall well-being. The collaboration between government bodies, non-profit organizations,
and local health departments is key to achieving sustainable health improvements. Case studies and
success stories exemplify how targeted public health initiatives can create significant, long-term positive
impacts. A continued focus on prevention, policy development, and health literacy will further strengthen
public health efforts, ensuring healthier communities and a better quality of life for all.
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CITE AS: Fabiola Mwendwa G. (2024). The Impact of Public Health Page | 39
on Community Health. EURASIAN EXPERIMENT JOURNAL OF
MEDICINE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES 5(2):35-39