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Population health “brings significant health concerns into focus and addresses ways that resources can be allocated to overcome the problems that drive poor health conditions in the population.” Two examples of strategies developed by CDC to address population health are:
- Overview
- What is Population Health?
- Population Health: Defining Health
- History
Production of this resource has been made possible through a financial contribution by Health Canada prior to the announcement of the establishment of the Public Health Agency of Canada on September 24, 2004. Any reference to Health Canada should be assumed to be to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The population health approach is positioned in the Public Health Agency of Canada as a unifying force for the entire spectrum of health system interventions -- from prevention and promotion to health protection, diagnosis, treatment and care -- and integrates and balances action between them. The approach is integral to the Department's broader role of improving the health of Canadians.
In January 1997, the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Advisory Committee on Population Health (ACPH) defined population health as follows: Population health refers to the health of a population as measured by health status indicators and as influenced by social, economic and physical environments, personal health practices, individual capacity and coping skills, human biology, early childhood development, and health services. As an approach, population health focuses on the interrelated conditions and factors that influence the health of populations over the life course, identifies systematic variations in their patterns of occurrence, and applies the resulting knowledge to develop and implement policies and actions to improve the health and well-being of those populations.
-from Toward a Healthy Future, Second Report on the Health of Canadians,
Population health is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of the entire population and to reduce health inequities among population groups. In order to reach these objectives, it looks at and acts upon the broad range of factors and conditions that have a strong influence on our health.
See also Focus on the Health of Populations.
A population health approach reflects a shift in our thinking about how health is defined. The notion of health as a positive concept, signifying more than the absence of disease, led initially to identifying it as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. However, making health synonymous with well-being, human development and quality of life confused health with its determinants and made it unmeasurable as the outcome of action addressing those determinants. Moreover, it became impossible to talk about the contribution of health to social well-being and quality of life - yet their relationship should be seen as reciprocal and (potentially) mutually reinforcing.
The population health approach recognizes that health is a capacity or resource rather than a state, a definition which corresponds more to the notion of being able to pursue one's goals, to acquire skills and education, and to grow. This broader notion of health recognizes the range of social, economic and physical environmental factors that contribute to health. The best articulation of this concept of health is "the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life's challenges and changes" (Frankish et al., 1996).
- Health Impact Assessment as a Tool for Population Health Promotion and Public Policy by C.J. Frankish et al., Institute of Health Promotion Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: 1996
See also What is health? This question was prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development.
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Population health builds on a long tradition of public health and health promotion. In 1974, the federal government's White Paper, A New Perspect ive on the Health of Canadians (Lalonde Report), proposed that changes in lifestyles or social and physical environments would likely lead to more improvements in health than would be achieved by spending more money on existing health care delivery systems. The Lalonde Report gave rise to a number of highly successful, proactive health promotion programs which increased awareness of the health risks associated with certain personal behaviours and lifestyles (e.g., smoking, alcohol, nutrition, fitness).
More information is available on the history of population health.
Population health is the health status and outcomes of a specific group of people, influenced by various factors such as social, economic, environmental, and behavioral. Learn how population health differs from public health, what data analysis is involved, and what challenges it faces.
This article defines population health as the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group. Population health includes health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions that link these two.
- Mina Silberberg, Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, Michelle J. Lyn
- 2019
Jan 10, 2020 · Population health allows physicians to address some of the shortcomings in the U.S. health care system, which spends a higher percentage of its gross domestic product on health care than other nations, yet lags others when it comes to life expectancy and prevention of chronic diseases.
Jan 22, 2013 · Explains what a population health approach means, discusses what determines health, how such an approach could be implemented, and lists federal initiatives.
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Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". [1] It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. It has been described as consisting of three components.
