Book contents
- Essential Public Health
- Essential Public Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Public Health Toolkit
- 1 Health Needs Assessment
- 2 Health Information
- 3 Epidemiology
- 4 Evidence-Based Health-Care
- 5 Decision-Making and Priority Setting
- 6 Improving Quality of Care
- 7 Management, Leadership and Change
- 8 Improving Population Health
- 9 Screening
- 10 Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control
- Part 2 Contexts for Public Health Practice
- Glossary
- Index
- References
8 - Improving Population Health
from Part 1 - The Public Health Toolkit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2023
- Essential Public Health
- Essential Public Health
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1 The Public Health Toolkit
- 1 Health Needs Assessment
- 2 Health Information
- 3 Epidemiology
- 4 Evidence-Based Health-Care
- 5 Decision-Making and Priority Setting
- 6 Improving Quality of Care
- 7 Management, Leadership and Change
- 8 Improving Population Health
- 9 Screening
- 10 Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control
- Part 2 Contexts for Public Health Practice
- Glossary
- Index
- References
Summary
The causes of ill health and death are changing and, as we live longer, new health-preventable problems emerge, bringing new challenges. Improving health (physical, mental or both) and promoting general well-being remain major priorities.
Just as important, the difference in health status between rich and poor continues to grow. At a global level, the picture is even more complex. Although there is some evidence that life expectancy is beginning to plateau in developed countries such as the UK, the biggest potential to improve health still lies in addressing inequality between or within countries.
Therefore, this chapter:
summarizes the models of health improvement that are prevalent today;
introduces a combined conceptual model to describe the factors affecting health in modern times; and
presents some case studies of interventions designed to improve health which offer important insight and learning.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Essential Public HealthTheory and Practice, pp. 145 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023