Public health is defined as a field of medicine that deals with community health. This science concerns itself with the protection and improvement of the health of a community through health education, preventive medicine, controlling communicable diseases, environmental hazard monitoring, and sanitary measures applications. The focus here is not on individual patients but whole populations.
2 milestones that have occurred in the field of public health include tobacco control and childhood immunization. Tobacco control was implemented in the nineteen nineties. The purpose of doing so was to protect the public from the effects of secondary smoke. Furthermore, this policy also intended on reducing the effects of smoking among real smokers because they would not smoke as much as they wanted; especially in public places. The overall result is that some of the common health problems that stem from smoking have been reduced dramatically. The second milestone in public health in childhood immunization. Vaccines were developed several years ago and can now be found in almost all parts of the world. Because of childhood immunization, children can be protected from certain diseases such as polio and measles. It should be noted that not all the problems have been eliminated but it can now be said that they are under control (PHI, 2011).
The link chosen can be found on the public health institute website under the heading “6th Biennial childhood obesity conference” and the date June 28, 2011. The entry talks about how the public health institute is calling for a national policy approach for childhood obesity. It asserted that childhood obesity is caused by a series of economic, social, and community factors, which can only be fully addressed when public policies on the issues exist. Lack of access to playgrounds and affordability of healthy foods have been cited as some of the reasons that can be changed by policies. Furthermore, agricultural policies and urban planning also contribute to these same problems.
The mortality rate of the state of California is slightly lower than the nation’s average. As of 2007, it was reported that 674.2 deaths occurred per 1000, 000 people while the national average was 760.2. This number decreased by about one percent in 2009. When assessed by gender, the number of male deaths per 100, 000 is 802.3, yet the national average is 905. Conversely, the number of female deaths is 571.2 per 100, 000 while the national average is 642.6. These results indicate that California is not doing so badly. The state is recording numbers that are lower than the national average probably because of certain health initiatives that have been targeted at its inhabitants. An example is the Public Health institute’s maternal mortality study (PHI, 2011).
When it comes to morbidity rates, the five key chronic diseases ailing the Californian population include asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and stroke. 38% of all adults in California have had one of these chronic conditions. Children suffer most from asthma, although diabetes cases have been increasing. There are several reasons why these diseases are highly prevalent in the state. First, only a small number of people take fruits and vegetables every day. Furthermore, few adults engage in physical activity. A high proportion of the population also smokes. If policies could be garnered towards these sources, then the morbidity rates of the five common diseases would reduce drastically.
Reference
Public Health Institute (2011). Home page. Web.