Skip to main content
Community Health:
 Yesterday, Today,
  and Tomorrow



     Chapter 1
Introduction
• Much progress made over last 100 years in
  health and life expectancy
• Achievement of good health is worldwide goal
  of 21st century
• Requires individual actions to improve
  personal health and organized community
  actions
20th Century Achievements in Public Health

• Vaccination              • Safer and healthier
• Motor vehicle safety       foods
• Control of infectious    • Safer workplaces
  diseases                 • Family planning
• Decline of deaths from   • Fluoridation of drinking
  CHD and stroke             water
• Healthier mothers and    • Recognition of tobacco
  babies                     use as a health hazard
Definition: Health
• Can mean different things to different people
• A dynamic state or condition of the human
  organism that is multidimensional in nature, a
  resource for living, and results from a person’s
  interactions with and adaptations to his or her
  environment
Definition: Community
• A group of people who have common
  characteristics
  • Can be defined by location, race, ethnicity, age,
    occupation, interest in particular problems or
    outcomes, or common bonds
• Characterized by
  • Membership, common symbol systems, shared
    values and norms, mutual influence, shared needs
    and commitment to meeting them, shared
    emotional connection
Other Definitions
• Public health – actions that society takes
  collectively to ensure that the conditions in which
  people can be healthy can occur
• Community health – health status of a defined
  group of people and the actions and conditions to
  promote, protect, and preserve their health
• Population health – health status of people who
  are not organized; have no identity as a group
• Public health is the most inclusive term
Personal Health Versus Community Health
• Personal health
  • Individual actions and decision making that
    affect the health of an individual or his or her
    immediate family members or friends
• Community health
  • Activities aimed at protecting or improving the
    health of a population or community
     • Maintaining birth and death records, protecting
       food and water supply, etc.
Factors that Affect the Health of a Community
Physical Factors
•   Geography
•   Environment
•   Community Size
•   Industrial Development
Social and Cultural Factors
•   Beliefs, traditions, and prejudices
•   Economy
•   Politics
•   Religion
•   Social norms
•   Socioeconomic status
Community Organizing
• A process through which communities are
  helped to identify common problems or goals,
  mobilize resources, and in other ways develop
  and implement strategies for reaching their
  goals they have collectively set
• Is not a science, but an art of consensus
  building within a democratic process
Individual Behavior
• Takes the concerted effort of many individuals
  to make a program work
• Herd immunity
  • The resistance of a population to the spread of
    an infectious agent based on the immunity of a
    high proportion of individuals
A Brief History of Community and Public
                    Health
• Almost as long as the history of civilization
• Knowledge of the past helps us better prepare
  for future community health challenges
Earliest Civilizations
• Many community health practices went
  unrecorded
• Practices may have involved taboos, rites, and
  spiritual beliefs
• Archeological evidence of community health
  activities dating back to 2000 B.C.
The Eighteenth Century
• Characterized by industrial growth
• Cities overcrowded, water supplies inadequate
  and unsanitary, problems with trash,
  workplaces unsafe
• 1796-Dr. Jenner demonstrated process of
  vaccination against smallpox
• Average age at death: 29 years
• First census taken: 1790
The Nineteenth Century
• Better agriculture lead to improved nutrition
• Federal government approach to health:
  laissez faire (noninterference)
• Epidemic problems in major cities
• Many scientific discoveries
• 1850: Shattuck report
• 1850: Modern Era of Public Health begins
The Twentieth Century
• 1900: life expectancy less than 50 years
  • Leading causes of death were communicable
    diseases
  • Vitamin deficiencies and poor dental health
    common in slums
Health Resources Development Period
                  (1900-1960)
•   Growth of health care facilities and providers
•   Reform phase (1900-1920)
•   1920s
•   Great Depression and WWII
•   Postwar years
Period of Social Engineering (1960-1973)
• Federal government became active in health
  matters
• 1965 Medicare and Medicaid established
• Improved standards in health facilities
• Influx of federal dollars accelerated rate of
  increase of cost of health care
Period of Health Promotion (1974-present)
• Identification that premature death traceable to
  lifestyle and health behaviors
• Healthy People publication established
Community Health in the Early 2000s
• Main Issues
  •   Health care delivery
  •   Environmental problems
  •   Lifestyle diseases
  •   Communicable diseases
  •   Alcohol and other drug abuse
  •   Health disparities
  •   Disasters
  •   Public health preparedness
Community Health in the 21st Century
• World Planning
  • Previous goals not met, but progress made
  • Widening inequities
  • Most attention on less developed and poorer
    countries
• United States Planning
  • Focused on 10 year blocks of time
  • Current plan outlines health agenda: Healthy
    People 2020
Healthy People 2020
• Four overarching goals:
  • Attain high-quality, longer lives free of
    preventable disease, disability, injury, and
    premature death
  • Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and
    improve the health of all groups
  • Create social and physical environments that
    promote good health for all
  • Promote quality of life, health development, and
    healthy behaviors across all life stages
Discussion Questions
• How do you define health?
• How can understanding the history of
  community health efforts better help today’s
  planning?
• How can Healthy People documents affect
  health outcomes?
• What role does the United States play in world
  health planning?