Healthcare is a vast industry that affects nearly everyone. With such far-reaching consequences and widespread importance, it’s no surprise that this field is connected with several vital medical, scientific, and sociological research initiatives. Population health is one concept that stands at the center of it all. It’s a term that healthcare practitioners and public policymakers generally use but what exactly does it mean? Population health is the science of the elements that influence a population’s well-being at a high level, but there’s a lot more to this notion to understand such as how population health and public health work together. Continue reading to discover more about population health and the difference between public health and population health.
1. What is Meant by Population Health?
Before learning the difference between public health and population health, let us start with the basics. Population health can be defined as the health outcomes of a group of people, including the distribution of those outcomes within the group. These groupings are frequently geographic populations like nations or towns, but they can also be other groups like workers, ethnic groups, disabled people, prisoners, or any other specified group. Policymakers in both the public and business sectors are interested in the health outcomes of such populations.
It should be noted that population health encompasses not only a population’s total health but also the distribution of health. Overall health could be pretty good if the bulk of the population is relatively healthy even if a significant portion of the population is not doing well. Usually, such disparities would be avoided or significantly reduced.
2. What is an Example of Population Health?
We can assess the health of a population by following aspects:
- Life expectancy
- Infant mortality
- Death rates
- Disability
- Life Quality
- Self-evaluation of health
- Happiness and well-being
However, population health challenges encompass the major elements that influence the health of a group of individuals. These challenges frequently include the basic structure of society and extend beyond medical procedures or healthcare, for example:
- Income disparity
- Political, economic, and social status
- Gender
- Race
- Education
- Social capital and unity
- Psychosocial relationships
- Access to food, safe drinking water, shelter, and a secure environment
- Poverty
3. What are the 4 Components of Population Health?
Population health is referred to as the general study of factors affecting the physical, mental, and complete well-being of people in a specific region. This involves a demographic study of the population and innovation of techniques to protect and improve the health of people. It has 4 major components, namely-
- Strategic component: This involves the identification of prime areas of importance as they are then listed as a priority to improve the general system of population health. This is done to tackle major problems first.
- Structural: An organization focused on population health needs to then create a structure that helps in tackling issues in order of their priority and also to spread education regarding various topics.
- Cultural: The prime figures in different fields will have to coordinate to create general awareness regarding the issues of population health.
- Technical: No long-term goals can be achieved without ample investment as it helps in the formation of databases of information to analyze available data so necessary steps can be taken to improve population health.
4. What is the Meaning of Public Health?
To know the difference between public health and population health, it is essential to understand the terms first. Public health is the science and practice of protecting and promoting a community’s health, such as through preventive medicine, health education, communicable disease control, sanitary measures, and environmental hazard monitoring. In the past few years, the government has constructed extensive healthcare infrastructure, including qualified people at various levels.
The government has laid down various initiatives and policies to benefit public health like the promotion of healthy lifestyles, the study of disease and prevention of injuries, and the diagnosis, prevention, and response to infectious diseases. Generally, public health is concerned with the safety of entire populations’ health which can range from a tiny community to an entire country or part of the world. (See What Makes and Enforces Public Policy in Real?)
5. What are Examples of Public Health?
You must also know the example of public health before exploring the difference between public health and population health. Public health is the science and systems that are designed to produce community, state-wide, and national settings that promote health, prevent disease, and support healthy behaviors throughout the entire population. Good health originates not only from effective medical care but also from public policy and program initiatives to safeguard and improve the health of individuals and communities.
Educating the public about healthier choices, promoting physical activity and fitness, preventing illness outbreaks and the spread of infectious diseases, providing clean food and water in communities, planning for emergencies, preventing complications, treating water with fluoride for dental and oral health, and creating smoke-free environments to discourage tobacco use are all examples of public health measures. But this is not it as we will further explore the difference between population health and health promotion.
6. What is Another Word for Public Health?
Public-health synonyms and related words include epidemiology, hygiene, hygienic, and sanitation. Learn What is Definition of Physical Needs?
7. What are the 3 Categories of Public Health?
These three domains of public health provide broad public health viewpoints and abilities required for effective healthcare leadership:
- Health improvement
- Health protection
- Health service quality
8. What is Difference between Public Health and Population Health?
The difference between public health and population health is:
| Public health | Population health |
| The term public health, which is commonly used to describe health policies and practices of state and federal government, encompasses a wide range of activities, roles, and responsibilities that all strive to promote improved health outcomes for both the public as well as all the diverse populations that comprise it. | While the terms population health and public health are often used interchangeably and may even refer to the same group healthcare professionals working within population health usually concentrate their efforts on relatively specific groups defined by common demographic features such as geographical area, race, age, ethnicity, or shared disability. |
| Concentrated on a specific community or sub-community. | Concentrated on the overall health of the population and this is the basic difference between public health and population health. |
| While some public health positions require laboratory research, others allow you to interface directly with the public or cooperate with others to establish public policy. | Population health experts, similar to public health professionals, can work in research settings and closely with community members to resolve their health concerns. |
| The outcomes find effective approaches to improve community health and attempts to reduce health disparities among different demographic groups. | The outcome analyzes prevention methods and identifies the causes of health-related problems that may influence the greater community. |
| To establish the outcomes, societal problems, attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors are examined because these are the primary elements that influence a population’s health. | Examples include covid, smallpox, influenza, and polio vaccination programs. |
9. How do Population Health and Public Health work together?
After learning about the difference between public health and population health do you know how population health and public health work together? Population health is the science and art of improving the health standards and lifespan of people in a specific region and community by providing them education and basic health services, while public health is a wider term which does not limit to any specific region or community instead works to improve the life span and general quality of health of people.
Even with this difference between public health and population health, these both walk hand in hand to provide better health services and help in ensuring better health of people. They both rely on digital assets to collect and analyze data for better implementation of health services. Check out What does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation do?
10. Why are Public Health and Population Health Important?
Since you are well aware of how population health and public health work together, you must also explore the importance. Public health is the study of methods and their implementation to improve the quality of life as well as increase the life span of people in a society, community, or region. The study of public health is a very important task as it provides numerous benefits:
- The study of public health helps in tackling various lethal diseases like cancer and diabetes which cause the deaths of numerous people every year.
- Public health helps in preventing various diseases by spreading education about them and implementing preventive measures to fight such diseases.
- Public health works for improving the quality of life at a bigger level instead of just providing benefits to certain individuals.
- Access to basic health services and good health is a human right and public health helps in ensuring that most people in a specific area or community enjoy the benefit of this right.
11. What is Public Health approach to Population Health?
Now that you understand the difference between public health and population health, let us move forward. Do you understand the public health approach to population health? If not, continue reading to know more.
Population health involves activities undertaken to improve the quality of health and the lifespan of people in a specific region or community whereas public health refers to the study and implementation of activities that focus on improving the general health of people through prevention and education.
It can be said that public health is a wider term as compared to population health since it focuses on people as a whole instead of focusing on people of a specific region or area. The public health approach to population health is aiming at enhancing the overall health of a population. It aims to improve the physical and mental health outcomes and well-being of people within and across a specified local, regional, or national population, while also reducing healthcare disparities. Must see Why do We Need a Government?
12. What is the Difference between Population Health and Health Promotion?
The difference between population health and health promotion are:
| Health Promotion | Population Health |
| Health promotion refers to the process of educating people, which allows them to maintain better control over their health and have better health standards. | Population health is an approach that focuses on improving health by providing education, information, and basic health services to people of a specific region and area. |
| Health promotion focuses on providing people with better skills and services to fight health challenges. | Population health works on the general improvement of the health of people of a specific region or community. |
Population health and public health are both concerned with improving the health of communities by providing them with the required treatment and information, with public health focusing on a specific community and population health encompassing the entire population. As we reach the end, you may have learned that both areas are concerned with educating the public, improving healthcare, and understanding the social factors that influence health to improve the availability of primary care for those who need it. (Also read Which is the Most Basic Fitness Training Principle?)
