What is public health?
Public health promotes and protects the health of all people and their communities.
This science-based, evidence-backed field strives to give everyone a safe place to live, learn, work and play.
Why is public health important?
Public health improves our quality of life, helps children thrive, reduces human suffering and saves money.
Every day, the public health field is working – often behind the scenes – to prevent hazards and keep people healthy. For example, public health is responsible for:
- Tracking disease outbreaks and vaccinating communities to avoid the spread of disease.
- Setting safety standards to protect workers.
- Developing school nutrition programs to ensure kids have access to healthy food.
- Advocating for laws to keep people safe, including smoke-free indoor air and seatbelts.
- Working to prevent gun violence.
- Addressing the impact of climate change on our health.
- Declaring racism as a public health crisis.
Who are public health professionals?
Public health work spans government, business and nonprofit sectors. Here are some examples of public health professionals:
| Restaurant inspectors | Health educators |
| Community health workers | Scientists and researchers |
| Nutritionists | Community planners |
| Social workers | Epidemiologists |
| Public health physicians and nurses | Occupational health and safety professionals |
| Policymakers | Sanitarians |
| First responders | Biostatisticians |
What’s the difference between health care and public health?
The healthcare industry treats people who are sick, while public health aims to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place.
Public health also focuses on entire populations, while health care focuses on individual patients.
How does the American Public Health Association advance public health?
APHA champions the health of all people and all communities. We strengthen the public health profession. We speak out for public health issues and policies backed by science.
We are the only organization that combines more than 150-years’ perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to influence federal policy to improve the public’s health.
APHA publishes the American Journal of Public Health and The Nation’s Health newspaper. At our Annual Meeting and Expo, thousands of people share the latest public health research.
We lead public awareness campaigns such as Get Ready and National Public Health Week. We work closely with our affiliates to improve health at the state and local level.
