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Public Health Directory
Public health and health administration are increasingly important areas in the current environment. Information, resources, technology, research and new challenges are expanding tremendously in health care and medicine. The fields of public health and health administration are there to communicate relevant health information; account for health care priorities, policy and delivery; manage crises; and address major health concerns. All these activities are information intensive--that is, they rely heavily on systems of information access to support professional decision-making, practice and action.
Public health is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis. Public health has many sub-fields, but is typically divided into the categories of epidemiology, biostatistics and health services. Environmental, social and behavioral health, and occupational Health, are also important fields in public health. Since the 1980s, the growing field of population health has broadened the focus of public health from individual behaviors and risk factors to population-level issues such as inequality, poverty, and education. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these are known as "social determinants of health."
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