Public Health 101 Healthy People–Healthy Populations
Second Edition
Richard Riegelman, MD, MPH, PhD Professor and Founding Dean
The George Washington University
School of Public Health and Health Services
Washington, DC
Brenda Kirkwood, MPH, DrPH University at Albany, State University of New York
School of Public Health
Albany, NY
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To Nancy Alfred Persily, whose enthusiasm for teaching public health to undergraduates inspired Public Health 101:
Healthy People–Healthy Populations.
Dedication
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Acknowledgments xv Preface: What Is Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations All About? xvii About the Authors xix
Section I Principles of Population Health 1
Chapter 1 Public Health: The Population Health Approach 3 Learning Objectives 3 What Do We Mean by “Public Health”? 4 How Has the Approach of Public Health Changed Over Time? 5 What Is Meant by “Population Health”? 9 What Are the Implications of Each of the Four Components of Public Health? 9 Should We Focus on Everyone or on Vulnerable Groups? 10 What Are the Approaches Available to Protect and Promote Health? 11 What Factors Determine the Occurrence of Disease, Disability, and Death? 11 What Changes in Populations Over Time Can Affect Health? 14 Key Words 17 Discussion Question 18 References 19
Chapter 2 Evidence-Based Public Health 21 Learning Objectives 21 How Can We Describe a Health Problem? 22 How Can Understanding the Distribution of Disease Help Us Generate
Ideas or Hypotheses about the Cause of Disease? 24
Contents
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Contentsvi
How Do Epidemiologists Investigate Whether There Is Another Explanation for the Difference or Changes in the Distribution of Disease? 25
What Is the Implication of a Group Association? 26 Etiology: How Do We Establish Contributory Cause? 27 What Can We Do if We Cannot Demonstrate All Three Requirements
To Definitively Establish Contributory Cause? 28 What Does Contributory Cause Imply? 31 Recommendations: What Works To Reduce the Health Impact? 32 Implementation: How Do We Get the Job Done? 35 Evaluation: How Do We Evaluate Results? 36 Key Words 39 Discussion Questions 42 References 43
Section I Cases and Discussion Questions 44 HIV/AIDS Determinants and Control of the Epidemic 45 Smoking and Adolescents—The Continuing Problem 45 Reye’s Syndrome: A Public Health Success Story 46 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) 47 Oxygen Use in Premature Infants and Blindness 48
Section II Tools of Population Health 51
Chapter 3 Public Health Data and Communications 53 Learning Objectives 53 What Is the Scope of Health Communications? 54 Where Does Public Health Data Come From? 55 How Is Public Health Information Compiled To Measure the
Health of a Population? 55 How Can We Evaluate the Quality of the Presentation of Health Information? 58 What Factors Affect How We Perceive Public Health Information? 60 What Types of Information Needs To Be Combined To Make Health Decisions? 61 What Other Data Needs To Be Included in Decision Making? 63 How Do We Utilize Information To Make Health Decisions? 67 How Can We Use Health Information To Make Healthcare Decisions? 67 Key Words 70 Discussion Questions 71 References 72
Chapter 4 Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Health 73 Learning Objectives 73 How Is Public Health Related to the Social and Behavioral Sciences? 74
Contents vii
How Are Social Systems Related to Health? 75 Complex Interactions 75 Influencing Behavior 76
How Do Socioeconomic Status, Culture, and Religion Affect Health? 76 Socioeconomic Status 76 Culture 78 Religion 79
What Are Social Determinants of Health? 79 10 Key Categories of Social Determinants of Health 80
How Do Social Determinants Affect Health? 81 Can Health Behavior Be Changed? 82 Why Are Some Individual Health Behaviors Easier To Change than Others? 83 How Can Individual Behavior Be Changed? 83 How Can Health Behavior Be Explained and Predicted? 84 What Are Some Key Theories and Models Used to Address Health Behavior? 84
Intrapersonal Level 84 Interpersonal Level 85 Population and Community Level 88
How Can Theories Be Applied in Practice? 90 Choosing a Theory/Model 90 Planning Frameworks 90
Key Words 93 Discussion Questions 94 References 95
Chapter 5 Health Law, Policy, and Ethics 97 Learning Objectives 97 What Is the Scope of Health Law, Policy, and Ethics? 98 What Legal Principles Underlie Public Health and Health Care? 99 What Do We Mean by “Health Policy”? 100 How Are Public Health Policy Priorities Established? 101 How Do Philosophies Toward the Role of Government Affect Health Policies? 101 Is There a Right to Health Care? 103 How Does Public Health Attempt To Balance the Rights of
Individuals and the Needs of Society? 104 What Bioethical Principles Are Used to Address Public Health Issues? 104 How Can Bioethical Principles Be Applied to Protecting Individuals
Who Participate in Research? 106 Key Words 108 Discussion Questions 109 References 110
Contentsviii
Section II Cases and Discussion Questions 111 Don’s Diabetes 112 A New Disease Called SADS—A Decision Analysis 113 José and Jorge—Identical Twins without Identical Lives 113 The Obesity Epidemic in the United States—The Tip of an Iceberg 114 Changing Behavior—Cigarette Smoking 115 The Elderly Driver 116
Section III Preventing Disease, Disability, and Death 117
Chapter 6 Noncommunicable Diseases 119 Learning Objectives 119 What Is the Burden of Noncommunicable Disease? 120 How Can Screening for Disease
Address the Burden of Noncommunicable Diseases? 120 How Can Identification and Treatment of Multiple Risk
Factors Be Used To Address the Burden of Noncommunicable Disease? 124 How Can Cost-Effective Interventions Help Us Address the Burden of
Noncommunicable Diseases? 127 How Can Genetic Counseling and Intervention Be Used To Address
the Burden of Chronic Diseases? 129 What Can We Do When Highly Effective Interventions Do Not Exist? 130 How Can We Combine Strategies To Address Complex Problems of
Noncommunicable Diseases? 131 Key Words 132 Discussion Questions 133 References 134
Chapter 7 Communicable Diseases 135 Learning Objectives 135 What Is the Burden of Disease Caused by Communicable Diseases? 136 How Do We Establish that an Organism Is a Contributory Cause of
a Communicable Disease? 138 What Factors Affect the Ease with which a Communicable Disease
is Transmitted? 138 Route of Transmission 138 Asymptomatic Transmission 138 Reproduction Ratio 139
What Public Health Tools Are Available To Address the Burden of Communicable Diseases? 139
How Can Barriers Against Disease Be Used To Address the Burden of Communicable Diseases? 139
Contents ix
How Can Immunizations Be Used To Address the Burden of Communicable Disease? 140
How Can Screening and Case Finding Be Used To Address the Burden of Communicable Disease? 140
How Can Treatment of Those Diagnosed and Their Contacts Help To Address the Burden of Communicable Disease? 141
How Can Public Health Efforts Maximize Effectiveness of Treatment and Prevent Resistance? 141
How Can Public Health Strategies Be Used To Eliminate Specific Communicable Diseases? 141
What Options Are Available for the Control of HIV/AIDS? 143 What Options Are Available for the Control of Influenza? 146 What Options Are Available for the Control of Rabies? 147 Key Words 148 Discussion Questions 149 References 150
Chapter 8 Environmental Health and Safety 151 Learning Objectives 151 What Is Meant by “Environment”? 152 What Is the Burden of Disease Due to the Physical Environment? 153 How Do We Interact with Our Physical Environment? 155 How Does Risk Assessment Address the Impacts of
the Physical Environment? 156 What Is a Public Health Assessment? 158 What Is an Ecological Risk Assessment? 158 What Is an Interaction Analysis Approach to Environmental Diseases? 160 What Do We Mean by “Intentional and Unintentional Injuries”? 162 What Is Being Done To Keep the Population Safe? 162 Key Words 165 Discussion Questions 166 References 167
Section III Cases and Discussion Questions 168 High Blood Pressure: A Public Health and Healthcare Success 169 Testing and Screening 169 H. pylori and Peptic Ulcers 170 What to do about Lyme Disease? 171 Sharma’s Village 172 Legal Drugs that Kill—Death from Prescription Drug Overdoses 172
Contentsx
Section IV Health Professionals, Healthcare Institutions, and Healthcare Systems 175
Chapter 9 Health Professionals and the Health Workforce 177 Learning Objectives 177 What Do We Mean by a “Health Professional”? 178 How Do Education and Training Serve To Define Health Professions? 179 What Are the Educational Options within Public Health? 179 What Is the Education and Training Process for Physicians? 181 What Is the Education and Training Process for Nursing? 184 What Roles Do Physicians, Nurses, and Other Clinical Health
Professions Play in Public Health? 185 What Is Meant by “Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Care”? 185 How Are Clinical Health Profesionals Rewarded and
Compensated for Their Services? 186 How Can We Ensure the System has the Right Number of
Healthcare Professionals? 188 Key Words 189 Discussion Questions 190 References 191
Chapter 10 Healthcare Institutions 193 Learning Objectives 193 What Institutions Make up the Healthcare System? 194 What Types of Inpatient Facilities Exist in the United States? 194 What Types of Outpatient Facilities Exist in the United States? 196 What Do We Mean by the “Quality of Healthcare Services?” 196 How Can Health Care Be Coordinated Among the Multiple
Institutions that Provide Healthcare Services? 198 What Types of Coordination of Care Are Needed and What
Purposes Do They Serve? 198 What Types of Healthcare Delivery Systems Are Being Developed
and How Can They Help Ensure Coordination of Health Care? 198 How Can Electronic Medical Records Be Used To Facilitate
Coordination of Care and Improve Quality? 200 How Is Technology Being Used To Improve the Quality of Care? 202 What Mechanisms Are Being Used To Monitor and Ensure the Quality
of Health Care in the United States? 203 Can Disclosing Medical Errors Contribute to Quality of Care
and Serve as an Alternative to Malpractice? 203 Key Words 205 Discussion Questions 206 References 207
Contents xi
Chapter 11 Health Insurance and Healthcare Systems 209 Learning Objectives 209 How Much Money Does the United States Spend on Health Care? 210 What Types of Government-Supported Health Insurance Are Available? 211
Medicare 211 Medicaid 212
What Types of Employment-Based Health Insurance Are Available? 213 What Are the Key Health Insurance Changes Incorporated into
the ACA Legislation? 215 What Might the United States Health Insurance System Look Like
When the ACA Phase-In Is Completed? 216 How Can We Describe Heathcare Systems in General
and the United States Healthcare System in Particular? 217 How Can We Describe the Healthcare Systems in Canada
and the United Kingdom? 217 What Conclusions Can We Reach from These Descriptions of the Healthcare
Systems in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom? 217 How Can a Healthcare System Be Scored? 219 Using the National Scorecard, How Does the United States’ Healthcare
System Perform Compared to Those of Other Developed Countries? 219 How Can the Costs of Health Care Be Controlled in the United States? 220 Key Words 223 Discussion Questions 224 References 225
Section IV Cases and Discussion Questions 226 When Nursing Meets Medicine 227 Jack and Continuity of Care 227 Donna’s Doctor—To Err Is Human 228 Health Care in the United States—For Better or Worse? 229 Excess Costs—How Much Can Be Saved? 230
Section V Public Health Institutions and Systems 231
Chapter 12 Public Health Institutions and Systems 233 Learning Objectives 233 What Are the Goals and Roles of Governmental Public Health Agencies? 234 What Are the 10 Essential Public Health Services? 235 What Are the Roles of Local and State Public Health Agencies? 237 What Are the Roles of Federal Public Health Agencies? 239 What Are the Roles of Global Health Organizations and Agencies? 242 How Can Public Health Agencies Work Together? 243 What Other Government Agencies Are Involved in Health Issues? 243
Contentsxii
What Roles Do Nongovernmental Organizations Play in Public Health? 244 How Can Public Health Agencies Partner with Health Care To
Improve the Response to Health Problems? 244 How Can Public Health Take the Lead in Mobilizing Community
Partnerships To Identify and Solve Health Problems? 245 Key Words 247 Discussion Questions 248 References 249
Chapter 13 Food and Drugs as Public Health Issues 251 Learning Objectives 251 What Are Important Milestones in the History of Food
and Drugs as Public Health Issues in the United States? 252 Food and Food Safety 253
What Ways Can Food Affect Health and Disease? 253 How Important Is Foodborne Communicable Disease
as a Cause of Morbidity and Mortality? 255 What Are the Steps in Foodborne Outbreak Investigation? 255 What Is Being Done To Prevent Foodborne Diseases? 256 In the United States, What Other Programs Aim to
Prevent Food-Related Disease and Disability? 257 Drugs and Drug Safety 258
Why Is Drug Safety Considered an Important 21st Century Public Health Issue? 258
What Do We Mean By “Preclinical Research” on Drugs? 259 What Is Phase 1? 259 What Are Phase 2 and Phase 3? 260 What Are the Implications of FDA Approval of a Drug? 260 How Are Adverse Effects of a Drug Monitored in Phase 4,
after FDA Approval? 262 What Else Can Be Done? 262 Do All FDA-Regulated Products Receive the Same Effectiveness
and Safety Assessment as Prescription and Nonprescription Drugs? 264 What Other Products Does the FDA Regulate? 264
Key Words 264 Discussion Questions 265 References 266
Chapter 14 From Single Solutions to Systems Thinking—The Future of Population Health 267 Learning Objectives 267 What Makes Systems Thinking Different? 268 What Is a System? 269
Contents xiii
How Can Systems Analysis Be Used To Understand the Health Research Process? 269
What Are the Initial Steps in Systems Analysis? 270 What Additional Steps Are Needed To Complete a Systems Analysis? 271 How Can We Use a Systems Analysis To Better Understand a Problem
such as Coronary Artery Disease? 272 How Can We Use Systems Diagrams To Display the Workings of a System? 273 How Can We Apply Systems Thinking to Population Health Issues? 278 How Can Systems Thinking Help Us Incorporate Interactions
Between Factors To Better Understand the Etiology of Disease? 278 How Can Systems Thinking Help Take into Account
the Interactions Between Diseases? 279 How Can Systems Thinking Help Us Understand the Impact of
a Disease over the Life Span? 279 How Can Systems Thinking Help Identify Bottlenecks and Leverage Points
that Can Be Used To Improve Population Health? 280 How Can Systems Thinking Help Us Develop Strategies
For Multiple Simultaneous Interventions? 280 How Can Systems Thinking Help Us Look at Processes as a Whole To
Plan Short-Term and Long-Term Intervention Strategies? 281 How Can Systems Thinking Help Us Predict the Future Frequency
of Diseases? 282 What Can Systems Thinking Contribute to Public Health,
and What Are Its Limitations? 283 Key Words 283 Discussion Questions 284 References 285
Section V Cases and Discussion Questions 286 Public Health Departments—Getting the Lead Out 287 Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) 287 Hurricane Karl and the Public Health Success in Old Orleans 288 Lung Cancer: Old Disease, New Approaches 289 Restorital—How Do We Establish Safety? 290 The Future of HIV/AIDS 291
Glossary 293
Index 305
Acknowledgments
Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations, Second Edition, is the culmination of 15 years of effort aimed at introducing public health to undergraduates. The effort originated with the teaching of an introductory course in public health in 1998 at the then newly created The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The new course, organized by associate dean Nancy Alfred Persily, inspired efforts to teach and to learn from a new generation. The approach was designed as part of a liberal arts education, stimulating the movement that came to be called the Educated Citizen and Public Health.
Efforts to think through the content of an introductory course in public health have involved a large number of people throughout the United States. Public health, arts and sciences, and clinical educators all participated in the 2006 Consensus Conference on Public Health Education, which put forward the framework for Public Health 101 upon which this book is based. Among those who led and continue to lead this effort is Susan Albertine, whose insights into the relationship between public health and liberal education have formed the basis for much of the Educated Citizen and Public Health movement.
I have taught Public Health 101 since 2002, which has provided me with an opportunity to teach and to learn from over 400 undergraduate students at The George Washington University. Their feedback and input has been central to writing and rewriting this book. Madison Hardee and Katie Harter deserve special recognition for their extensive feedback on many chapters of the first edition. Yifen Liu provided important feedback for the second edition. I would also like to thank Alan Greenberg and Dante Verme, the chair and vice chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, for their support of my efforts to expand the audience for undergraduate public health.
A key change in the second edition is the addition of a second author. I am pleased to welcome and acknowledge the contributions of Brenda Kirkwood, MPH, DrPH. I first had the opportunity to work with Brenda while she was a DrPH student at The George Washington University. Dr. Kirkwood has made extraordinary contributions to the sec- ond edition. She has taken the primary responsibilities for writing and rewriting several chapters. Her careful reviews and dedication to getting the details right have been key to the quality of this edition. Brenda is truly exceptional and a pleasure to work with, as will be confirmed by all who work with her.
The draft of the second edition went through extensive review and feedback. I am grateful to all those who read chapters and provided constructive input. Mike Brown, Publisher of the Public Health and Health Administration line of products for Jones & Bartlett Learning, has made special contributions to this book and the series as a whole. His vision has helped craft the series, and his publishing expertise made it happen. The production, marketing, and editorial staff of Jones & Bartlett Learning deserve special recognition. Their commitment to this book and the entire Essential Public Health series has gone well beyond the expectations of their jobs.
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Acknowledgmentsxvi
Last, but by no means least, is my wife, Linda Riegelman, who encouraged this book and the Essential Public Health series from the beginning. She saw the need to reach out to students and make real the roles that public health plays in their everyday lives. Linda went the extra mile by reading and rereading both the first and the second edition. She deserves the credit for what works, but the blame for what fails is all mine.
Confronting the challenge of putting together Public Health 101 has been one of the great joys of my professional life. I hope it will bring both joy and challenge to you as you enter into the important and engaging world of public health.
Richard Riegelman, MD, MPH, PhD
Public health is more than a profession; it is a way of thinking. Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations introduces you to the profession and also the way of thinking that we will call population health. Population health is an important way of looking at the world, whether you are going into public health as a profession, a clinically oriented health profession, business, law, international affairs, or a range of other professions.
Population health is also a key way of thinking, which prepares you for the challenges of citizenship in a democ- racy. Many of the issues that come before us as a society stem from or benefit from a population health perspective. Whether we are dealing with AIDS, the impact of aging, climate change, or the costs of health care, the population perspective can help us frame the issues and analyze the options to intervene.
In addition, the population perspective leads us to look broadly at the way issues intertwine and interact with each other. We call this systems thinking. In population health, systems thinking is taking center stage as we increas- ingly struggle with complex problems that require us to look beyond the traditional boundaries of health and disease.
Until recently, public health was considered a discipline taught only at the graduate level. Today, undergraduate public health is booming at four-year colleges and is beginning to take hold at community colleges as well. Its roots in general and liberal education go back to the 1980s, when David Fraser, the president of Swarthmore and an epi- demiologist who led the investigation of Legionnaires’ disease, wrote a now classic article called “Epidemiology as a Liberal Art.”1
In 2003, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences recommended that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health.”2 That recommendation encouraged the development of the Edu- cated Citizen and Public Health initiative, a collaboration of undergraduate educators and public health educators to define and stimulate public health curricula for all undergraduates. Public Health 101 was written to implement the recommendations that came out of this initiative and continue to form the basis for undergraduate education in public health.
This second edition of Public Health 101 has been thoroughly updated and expanded. Each chapter includes new material designed to expand your understanding of public health. Two new chapters have been added, one on food and drugs as public health issues and the other on systems thinking as the future of population health. These chapters are designed to keep Public Health 101 at the cutting edge of new developments and ways of thinking. In addition, each of the five sections includes new case studies challenging you to apply what you have learned.
Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations will not try to overload your mind with facts. It is about providing you with frameworks for thinking, and applying these frameworks to real situations and thought-provoking scenarios. Each chapter begins and ends with vignettes designed to show you the types of situations you will confront in public health. After each section, there are cases studies that relate to one or more chapters in the section. They
Preface: What Is Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations All About?
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Preface: What Is Public Health 101: Healthy People–Healthy Populations All About?xviii
provide realistic, engaging exercises and open-ended questions to help you think through the application of the key concepts presented in each section.
Public Health 101 is designed as a gateway to the world of public health. It provides an introduction to the Essential Public Health series, a comprehensive series designed primarily for undergraduate public health education. You should take advantage of the Essential Public Health series’ website at www.essentialpublichealth.com. It provides information on all the books in the series.
Hopefully, you will come away from reading Public Health 101 with an appreciation of how the health of the public is influenced by and can be improved by efforts directed at the population level, as well as at the individual level. Let us begin in Chapter 1 by exploring the ways that public health affects everyone’s daily life.
RefeRences 1. Fraser DW. Epidemiology as a liberal art. N Engl J Med. 1987;316:309–314. 2. Gebbie K, Rosenstock L, Hernandez LM. Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Professionals for the 21st Century. Washington DC:
National Academy Press; 2003.