Public health is the science and art of improving the health and well-being of communities. Public health interventions go beyond individual healthcare to focus on preventing diseases and injuries, promoting healthy behaviors, and addressing sociocultural, economic, and environmental factors that impact health.
While topics of public health, such as maternal health, child health, and epidemiology of infectious and noncommunicable diseases, require familiarity with clinical terms and concepts, the author demystifies medical knowledge to make it accessible to a wider audience. Challenges faced by low-income countries, as well as success stories from developed nations, are included to make the book relevant for global readers.
With a focus on essentials and priority issues, the author employs simple and straightforward language to present situational cases that shed light on global public health challenges and possible interventions. To stimulate analytical thinking and encourage readers to approach the subject with scientific rigor, concepts and facts are substantiated with their background, rationale, or application. Readers should be able to relate learnings with their field experience.
While this book is primarily for public health practitioners, including community health nurses and physicians, social workers, and health managers, it may be a valuable resource for anyone interested in public health and its application in creating healthier societies.
Health and Disease
1 What is public health?
2 Concept of primary health care
3 What is health?
4 Determinants of health
5 What is infection?
6 What are noncommunicable diseases?
7 Classification of diseases
Basic Epidemiology
8 What is epidemiology?
9 Disease transmission
10 Natural history of diseases
11 Measuring mortality
12 Measuring morbidity
13 Indirect indicators of health
14 Disease surveillance
Applied Epidemiology
15 Screening of diseases
16 Disease prevention
17 Epidemiological study designs: An introduction
18 Descriptive study
19 Case-control study
20 Cohort study
21 Experimental study
22 Association and causation
23 Bias and confounding
24 Epidemic management
Biostatistics
25 What is statistics?
26 Organizing data
27 Analyzing data
28 Measures of dispersion
29 Presenting data
30 Sampling methods
31 Tests of significance
32 Correlation and regression
Public Health Nutrition
33 Nutrition and nutrients
34 Nutritional assessment
35 Protein-energy malnutrition
36 Iron-deficiency anemia
37 Iodine deficiency disorder
38 Vitamin A deficiency
39 Other micronutrient deficiencies
40 Diet planning
41 Food fortification and food additives
42 Meat hygiene and mushroom poisoning
Environmental Health
43 What is environment?
44 Air pollution
45 Water and its sources
46 Water pollution and treatment
47 Water harvesting
48 Solid waste management
49 Human excreta disposal
50 Hospital waste management
51 Noise pollution
52 Radiation
53 Pesticides
54 Housing and family
Sociocultural Dimensions of Health
55 Sociocultural practices
56 Gender and health
57 Poverty and social security
58 Health-seeking behavior
Maternal and Child Health
59 Maternal health
60 Adolescent health
61 Child health
62 Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses
63 Immunization
64 Family planning programs
65 Methods of contraception
66 What is demography?
Health Promotion
67 Health promotion and health communication
Other Topics of Public Health
68 Health of the elderly
69 Mental health: a public health concern
70 Occupational health hazards
71 Occupational safety of healthcare workers
72 Disaster management
73 Emerging diseases
74 International health
Management of Health Projects
75 Health project management
76 Planning
77 Implementation, and monitoring & evaluation
78 Quality improvement
79 Basic communication skills
Biography
Dr. Hari Singh holds an MBBS and an MD in Community Health Administration from Delhi University. He has extensive experience in managing public health projects pertaining to maternal health, child health, adolescent health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Additionally, he has provided technical assistance to several state governments in India to improve the quality of services in public health institutions. He has also been involved in evaluating numerous national health programs and has worked with international funding agencies such as USAID and Danida.
Currently, Dr. Singh serves as dean of the School of Public Health at SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Chennai, India, where he teaches public health. He is passionate about developing technical content in a simple language to ensure his readers can easily understand complex medical and health topics.
