Introduction to Public Health Nutrition

January 2012

Nutrition 531

What is Health?

Health

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.

WHO

What is Public Health?

Mission of Public Health

“…to fulfill society’s interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy.”

IOM. Future of Public Health.

Population Health

Improving Everyone’s Quality of Life: Group Health Foundation, 2001

Population Health

• Considers a broad set of options for improving and sustaining health

• Highlights role of social and economic forces in combination with biological and environmental factors

• Results in benefits to all

Public Health Practice Compared to Clinical Nutrition Practice

  Public Health Practice

Clinical Nutrition Practice

Focus Prevention Disease treatment

Target Populations Individuals

Setting States & Communities

Clinics & Hospitals

Strategies Multiple, Reinforcing

Counseling and education

Core Functions of Public Health

Assessment

• Assess the problems and needs of the population

• Monitor the health of populations

• Assess and monitor the determinants of population health

Policy Development

• Develop policies, programs and activities that address health outcomes and the determinants of those outcomes

Assurance

• Assure the implementation of effective strategies by providing or monitoring policies, activities, and services.

What About Nutrition?

Mission of Public Health Nutrition

• To assure conditions in which people have access to adequate and appropriate food.

• To assure conditions in which people can achieve optimal nutritional health.

10 Essential Public Health Services: Public Health Functions Steering Committee - State and Local

• Monitor Health Status to identify community health problems

• Diagnose and investigate health problems• Inform, educate, and empower people about health

issues• Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve

health problems• Develop policies and plans that support individual and

community health efforts• Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and

ensure safety

• Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable

• Assure a competent public health and personal heath care workforce

• Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based public health services

• Research for new insights and innovative solutions to

health problems

Healthy People 2020

• Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans.

• Overarching Goals1. Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable

disease, disability, injury, and premature death. 2. Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and

improve the health of all groups. 3. Create social and physical environments that promote

good health for all. 4. Promote quality of life, healthy development, and

healthy behaviors across all life stages.

Last Decade: Strong Emphasis on Policy & Environmental Change

Ecological Framework for Influences on What People Eat