Table of Contents
Intro
Public health deals with promoting and protecting the health of people and the communities in which they live, learn, and work. While it is the job of doctors to treat people who are sick the people who work in The American Public Health Association deals with promoting wellness and healthy behaviors and preventing people from getting sick or injured. This is accomplished by promoting healthy lifestyles, researching disease and injury prevention, as well as detecting, preventing, and responding to infectious diseases.
This organization conducts scientific research and educates people about their health, and they work to ensure that conditions are healthy for people to be living in. This can be accomplished by promoting things such as vaccinating the public in order to prevent the spread of disease and educating people about the health risks of consuming drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Public health also works to set the safety standards that protect workers, as well as setting food safety standards to ensure people are not eating unsafe food.
These public health organizations have also made nutrition programs in schools in order to ensure that kids are getting access to healthy food to continue to combat America’s growing problems of obesity and heart disease. Public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations, which can be as small as a neighborhood or as large as an entire country (“What Is Public Health?”).
127 our experts are availableright now
CDC
There are many organizations and topics within the large category of public health. One such organization is The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC. The CDC is the nation’s leading public health agency and deals with saving lives by protecting the health of people living in the United States. The CDC is in charge of controlling disease outbreaks, making sure that food and water are safe, helping people avoid heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes and working internationally to reduce health threats to the nation.
This agency also works with state and local health departments all across the United States in order to determine patterns of disease and be able to respond accordingly to solve the problem at hand. By monitoring health it allows this organization to inform decision makers and provide the public with information that allows them to take responsibility for their own health and make informed decisions based on the information studied and collected by the CDC.
The CDC is in charge of training state and local health laboratories to ensure that these labs can detect and respond to hazardous health threats. To ensure that all their responsibilities are obtained the CDC consists of a staff with more than 14,000 employees in 170 different occupations who work in all 50 states and also more than 50 other countries besides the United States (“What Is Public Health?”).
Vaccinations
A major issue that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention deals with is vaccinations. The CDC promotes the use of vaccinations to protect people from getting sick and helps with reducing the potential spread of disease on a national and international level. The purpose of a vaccine is to “teach” the immune system how to recognize and eliminate an organism to prepare your body if it is ever exposed to something harmful. Through vaccination we have been able to control the spread of life threatening diseases and save lives. It is recommended to children and adults that they should get a certain number of vaccinations, at different ages to help with illnesses they may encounter throughout their lifetime.
Sometimes when traveling to different areas around the world it is also suggested to get certain vaccinations because certain diseases can be more common in other countries and we do not want people bringing diseases back into the United States and infecting the population. The Center for Disease Control provides many lists on their website of suggested vaccinations that one should get at different ages and doctors can also educate their patients on which vaccines they should be getting from time to time (“Travelers’ Health”).
Nutrition
The Food and Drug Administration or FDA is working hard to improve diet and nutrition guidelines for the United States population at large. The FDA deals with the food we eat, the drugs we take, and the medical devices and products we use. In May of 2018 the Food and Drug Administration announced that food manufacturers had received an eighteen month extension on compliance with updated nutrition information on their product labels.
The goal of these updated nutrition information panels are to help better inform consumers about what is actually in the products they are buying. This also includes more realistic serving size estimates, more clearly displayed calorie counts, updated daily intake values and more accurate reporting of added sugar content. By improving the labels on food, it gives the public a better picture of what is in the food and drinks that they are consuming. It also may contribute to helping making diets healthier by helping consumers make more informed decisions and forcing producers more willing to reformulate their products to make them healthier.
The more informed consumers are about what is in their products the more demands they can make on the producers to continue to make their food healthier. To make this happen there needs to be stronger regulations and there needs to be mandatory criterion to ensure that companies are doing what they should be doing. However, there are some limitations when it comes to nutrition labelling. For example, there is a focus on the total calorie count, and macronutrient information cannot report differences in the food quality.
Obesity
With regard to poor nutrition, statistics show that obesity can lead to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Obesity is soon to be the leading cause of premature death, over tobacco use. To combat the growing problem of obesity and diet related chronic illnesses in our society, the food environment must change to encourage healthy eating. Specifically in poorer communities there needs to be greater affordable healthy food options and less access to processed foods. Poverty has caused people to not be able to have access to health care and good education.
This leads people to be living in poor and stressful conditions which ultimately affects health. This will ultimately affect the health of the population. The greater the exposure to this unhealthy environment, the greater the health concerns. The public health policies to combat obesity should be focused on advocating for children’s health, such as encouraging the eating of nutritious foods, providing physical activity, and teaching about how to self-monitor eating habits and manage stress.
There also needs to be policies to provide treatment and support to overweight people. It is mostly thought that lack of physical activity is the cause of obesity, however, it really all comes back to the food choices readily available. Unhealthy food is inexpensive and easily available and accessible. There is a focus on processed snacks and ready-made meals which are easy and convenient. This has led to the has decreased consumption of healthy foods.
A good starting point for these policies would be in schools. Obesity among young people is due to lack of activity, poor nutrition, and easy access to large food portions. Schools can often be the cause of a negative food environment because the food choices that are offered, such as pizza, French fries, and sugary drinks. There is evidence shown that school based policies can be very effective in improving the health of children. It has been shown that by eliminating junk food and vending machines, students tend to have lower rates of obesity.
By promoting the eating of fruits and vegetables to young children it has been shown that there was a significant increase in consumption. Increasing the accessibility of a diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruits, and meats must be made to replace processed and fast food rich diets. Food industries need to take responsibility for their products in order to reform the nation’s diet. I recommend that doctors participate in educating their patients on the consequences of obesity and unhealthy eating.
Heart Disease and Stroke
Not only does Public health deal with health problems such as obesity, but they also deal with combatting the increase of heart disease and stroke. This is fast becoming an epidemic in the United States. Heart disease and stroke are among the nation’s leading causes of death and a major cause of disability and can be expected to continue to increase as the “baby boom” generation ages.
These conditions can be prevented and Public health experts along with heart disease and stroke prevention specialists are working with the United States Center for Disease Control and the US Department of Health and Human Services to develop recommendations and specific steps to combat these problems. In order to implement this plan, there needs to be communication with the public and policy makers that there is an urgent need to prevent heart disease and stroke.
There are 5 steps of this plan with the first being to “Develop new policies in accordance with advances in science and implement new intervention programs in a timely manner in multiple settings, for all age groups, for whole populations, and especially for high-risk groups, on a scale sufficient to have measurable impacts. Strengthen public health agencies and create training opportunities, model standards, and resources for continuous technical support for these agencies and their partners.
Enhance data sources and systems to monitor key indicators relevant to heart disease and stroke prevention and to systematically evaluate policy and program interventions. Fostering research on policies and public health programs aimed at preventing atherosclerosis and high blood pressure, especially at the community level. Work with regional and global partners to reap the full benefit of sharing knowledge and experience in heart disease and stroke prevention with these partners.”
Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs
The problems associated with substance abuse, weather its drugs or alcohol, are becoming a major concern in our country today. People all the time are getting killed from being hit by a drunk driver. Drunk driving not only harms the individual who is driving drunk but it also harms everyone else on the road. People also turn to alcohol and drugs to solve their problems, which can only lead to alcoholism or drug addiction. Many people are dying from drinking too much or overdosing on drugs. Public Health has been studying these topics very carefully in order to develop ways that these people can get help with their addiction and they are also working to help stop the spread of alcohol and drug related problems.
According to the Public Health Institute’s website it says that the “PHI is building the evidence base for what works to reduce the rates of substance abuse and mental health issues, with nationally recognized epidemiological research and an eye on inequities across populations.” They also focus on substance abuse related things such as physical injury, violence, and mental health issues and they are working to keep improving interventions in treatment settings. PHI studies gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status and how it relates to drinking and drug use.
The Alcohol Research Group conducted a study dealing with the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis and how it relates to drunk driving. They found that compared to adults who solely use alcohol, simultaneous users had double the odds of drunk driving, social consequences and harms to self. I recommend that there needs to be more regulations in place when it comes to protecting people from drunk drivers such as placing more check points on the road where people will get stopped and checked to see if they have been drinking too much.
The Public Health Institute is also working to solve the health problems associated with tobacco addiction and are working on policy approaches to reduce its spread. When it comes to tobacco use the PHI’s Center for International Tobacco Control found that a small tax increase on cigarettes in China caused 4 million smokers to quit which saved 1 million lives. I think that something similar should be conducted in the United States because tobacco related health problems are becoming very prevalent such as cancer, lung disease, heart disease, fertility problems and emphysema. On television you now see many commercials discussing the harmful effects of tobacco use, which is a great step to educate people about the health risks of smoking.
Another thing that is becoming a major problem is the Juul. On television it is being promoted as a great alternative to smoking, however, Juul’s actually contain more nicotine than cigarettes. One Juul pod equals the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes. Juul’s are also becoming a major problem with teenagers as they are the new trendy thing to do. It is very dangerous that all these young kids are being exposed to such large amounts of nicotine. A recommendation that I have is that Juul’s should become illegal in order to prevent people from starting to use them.
In 2005 a study showed that almost 95% of people with substance abuse problems are considered unaware of their problems. Substance abuse can have major impacts on individuals, families and communities. Some problems associated with substance abuse include, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, other STDs, domestic violence, unemployment, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, physical fights, crime, homicide and suicide.
There has also been an increasing problem with addiction to prescription pain killers such as Vicodin and OxyContin. People who are prescribed drugs for injury or surgery are getting addicted to pain killers which is contributing to the opioid addiction in America. A recommendation I have is that doctors need to better educate their patients on the effects of these medications and that the patient should not have the expectations that they will be pain free when taking these pain killers.
I also think that doctors should not be prescribing as many pills at one time. For example, a surgery patient does not need 40 day’s worth or pain killers. People also dealing with mental health issues often turn to drugs such as cocaine and marijuana which can also cause problems with addiction. The Federal Government is working to implement health reform legislation. It will focus attention on providing services for individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders, including new opportunities for access to and coverage of treatment and prevention services.
Food Safety
Food safety refers to the reduction or removal of potential foodborne illnesses caused by microbiological pathogens, chemical additives, and environmental contaminants. The duty of public health organizations is to look for ways to improve health through the access of healthy foods. Food safety concerns can become present through unprocessed fresh produce, donated foods, school gardens and farm to school programs. There are many state and local laws that have been passed to enforce food safety such as the Federal Food Safety Modernization Act.
This act was passed in 2011 to improve food safety and management in order to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Many food vendors on their own have developed voluntary food safety guidelines such as recommending that farms develop food safety plans, training employees in proper food safety, and documenting farm practices to reduce the risk of bacteria in farm products being sold to consumers that could make them sick.
The major concern with food safety is that a company would be liable if someone gets sick from food that they served or from food that someone bought from them. For example, Jeni’s Ice Cream had a listeria outbreak where people were getting sick from consuming their products. In order to fix the problem they shut down production and removed all ice cream sold on store shelves and they also shut down all their scoop shops which cost them millions of dollars.
For any new construction or remodeling of a food facility the Department of Public Health must perform a plan check to review construction plans to ensure that the physical requirements are being met. The Department of Public Health also monitor all restaurants, markets, and any other food events such as street fairs, concerts, and farmers markets to ensure that people are getting access to clean food.
If any retail food operation is not in compliance with the health and safety regulations they will take action including suspension of permits when needed. The Public health department also deals with providing food safety manager training, and certification courses, investigating food borne illness complaints and educating food facility operators on safe food handling practices.
In order to combat the problems with foodborne illness there need to be tougher laws and regulations, more random inspections, and some type of accountability for the food growers because they are only held liable after someone gets sick or dies. People are still getting sick so I think that a lot more needs to be done to prevent this from happening.
Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is an important public health issue that can be prevented and comes with negative impacts for both the pregnant teens and their children. Teen birth rates in the United States have continued to decline since the early 1990s. Between 1991 and 2015 the teen birth rate decreased by more than half. Even though there has been a decline the teen birth rate in the United States is still higher than many other developed countries including Canada and the United Kingdom.
Some risks associated with babies born from teenagers are that they are more likely to have lower birth weights, increased infant mortality, increased risk of hospital admission in early childhood, less supportive home environments, poorer cognitive development and if they are female they also have a higher risk of becoming pregnant when they are a teenager.
It has been found that teenage mothers are more likely to be socially isolated, have mental health problems and have fewer educational and employment opportunities. They are less likely to finish high school, they are also more likely to come from low income households and are more likely to be poor as adults. Parents, educators, public health and medical professionals, and community organizations all have a role to play in reducing teen pregnancy.
STD Prevention
The public health organization, the Center for Disease Control deals with reducing the prevalence of STDs by working to interrupt their transmission, reduce the duration of infection and prevent the development of complications in those infected. Around 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted diseases are estimated by the World Health Organization to have occurred throughout the world in 1995 in men and women aged 15-49 years. In developing countries, STDs and their complications rank in the top five disease categories for which adults seek health care. Primary prevention of STDs are encouraged through health education and involves the practice of safe sex through the use of condoms.
Secondary prevention involves treating people infected with STDs. A major problem with sexually transmitted diseases is that they often exist without symptoms which can lead to serious complications. Also, it may be difficult for some people to access STD services or they may lack privacy or confidentiality. Some people also may not want to attend these facilities because the stigma attached to STD clinics. I feel that there needs to be more education to the public about promoting safe sex and educating people about the risks. Schools and community based programs should also be providing appropriate sex education to kids before sexual activity starts.
There have been studies done that have shown that sex education tends to delay the onset or frequency of sexual intercourse. Health care authorities should also be integrating STD care into primary health care facilities, maternal and child health centers, and family planning clinics in order to promote a friendly environment where people can get treated with privacy. This would also help to make these STD services more easily accessible to people who need to seek care and will help to avoid the stigma or attending an actual STD clinic.
Conclusion
Overall public health organizations do a lot of things to help protect the health of the public as a whole and they work to improve people’s lives. Public health officials work to assure that the conditions in which people live are healthy. Each organization within the department of public health has a different role in contributing to ensuring the health of the public. Without the department of public health we would have very unsafe health standards and there would be widespread disease and illness. The department of public health does a great job at spreading awareness about ways to stay healthy and giving science based solutions to the problems.
