Introducing public health

Introduction

Welcome to ‘Introducing Public health?, which is adapted from the course Promoting public health (K311).  This unit uses a case study of Coventry to introduce two important public health issues: factors that influence health and ill health; and the scope of public health work.

• Factors influencing health, or the ‘wider determinants of health and ill-health? as they are often called, are complex and contested. Family circumstances, poverty, education, work, housing and environment all impact on our health to some extent. You will see some of these influences at work in Coventry.
• Public health has become ‘everybody?s business? and is undertaken by a wide range of people, not just in the health sector but in other sectors too. It is both ‘multi-professional? ? involving professionals such as police, teachers, housing officers as well as health workers ? and ‘inter-sectoral? - involving different government departments, local government, the voluntary sector, private sector and so on.

Consider how to use your study of this unit, for example by recording your ideas in a paper-based or online journal. If you are a public health practitioner you may wish to use your work to help build portfolio evidence of your public health knowledge and skills. If you enjoy this unit you can also study the other units in this sequence:

• Public health in community settings: An introduction (K311_2)
• Factors that influence health: An introduction (K311_3)

Original Copyright © 2008 The Open University. Now made available within the Creative Commons framework under the CC Attribution – Non-commercial licence.