Public Healthcare and Principles of Health Promotion

RUNNING HEAD: PUBLIC HEALTHCARE
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Public Healthcare
System 0032
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PUBLIC HEALTH
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Introduction
Public healthcare is related to improving and protecting the health of communities and
people living in the society. This task can be achieved through promoting healthier lifestyle,
injury prevention and researching disease, and preventing, responding and detecting to infectious
disease. Basically, public healthcare is focused on promoting the healthier lifestyle and
preventing the health of whole population (Verweij & Dawson, 2007). The size of population
cannot matter in this case the prevention is done whether population size is bigger or smaller. “A
large part of public health is promoting healthcare equity, quality and accessibility”. Public
health professionals are trying to prevent problems from happening in the environment by
recommending policies, implementing education program and through conducting research. The
basis of public health is that it helps in analysing the threats that population is facing and the
health of population. The aim of public health is to enhance the quality or life of people by
treatment and prevention of diseases (Ryu, Kim, Lim, Tan & Chun, 2017).
The aim of this assessment is to understand the principles of health care at international
platform and national platform. Further, the ways through which public health can be promoted
are explained in this assessment that includes promotion through education programs, role
modelling and using effective communication techniques. This assessment is totally based on a
case study and analysis of that case helps in understanding the concept of public healthcare in a
better way and how this affect the lifestyle of people. At last, the choice of lifestyle and impact
of healthier lifestyle is highlighted with relation to the case study provided.

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Case Study
The case study focus on an 80 year old lady named Rose; she lived alone in a flat and
depends on her state pension. Her friends are concerned about her as her lifestyle impacted on
his body and led impact of obesity on her health. She doesn’t follow any healthy routine and
always spend time on eating junk, smoking cannabis and watching TV. On the basis of above
case below sections focus on the lifestyle that should be adopted by the people to reduce the
impact of diseases and to understand the benefits of adopting a healthier lifestyle. Public health is
basically concerned with prevention of diseases with the aim of improving public conditions and
quality of life. Government of countries are concerned for the health of public and formed
various policies and principles on national and international platform. The problems that are
identified in this case are obesity and poor lifestyle of lady and no education or guidance to her
that led her to this situation and resultant in major health issues. If proper education or health
related communication would be done with lady her lifestyle would be different and she might
be healthier at the age of 80 also as older adult lifestyle and their diets and societal environment
helps them to stay healthy and live longer life.
Public Health is defined as “the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and
promoting health through the organized efforts of society” (WHO, 2019).
Principles of Public health nationally and internationally
At national level, to promote public health some principles are developed by UK
government in order to improve nation’s health and to reduce inequalities related to health. The
principles that are made by Public Health England are, focus on antimicrobial resistance, climate
change, new emerging infections and cross border threats. PHE focus on three aspects that are
health protection, public health and health improvement (PHE, 2019). The public health issues

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that England facing are related to alcohol, antimicrobial resistance, bowel cancer, cervical, HIV,
mental health, smoking and obesity and the food environment.
Some of the public health principles that help in coping with these challenges are
developed that are principle for building healthy neighbourhood; that includes use of street and
enforce walkable neighbourhood as it impact positively on the health of older adults and increase
social interaction between them. Another one is principle for healthy housing that includes,
“retrofitting modifications to improve housing warmth and energy efficiency may help to reduce
health inequalities among those from low-income groups, notably older adults and those living
with chronic pre-existing conditions” and increase all the provision related to affordable housing
and diverse housing (Holland, Mossialos & Merkel, 2018). Principle of healthier food
environment and this indicate the quality and availability of food to all the people as increased
access to junk food ad unhealthier food leads to increase weight status in the local population and
lastly principle of sustainable and natural environment that includes, as poor quality of air is
directly link with the risk of developing various diseases in the population such as diabetes,
neonatal or poor birth outcomes, childhood mortality and respiratory problems (Smith &
Kandlik, 2014). Natural environment impact on the health of public in positive manner that
includes improvement in mental and physical health of people, reduce risk of disease that is
cardiovascular and reduce the risk of chronic diseases and mortality. Adaptation to climate
change helps the countries to prevent the public with health issues related to extreme temperature
such as fatal illness, heat stroke and issues related to respiratory diseases (Haines, Wilkinson,
Tonne & Roberts, 2009).
In the above case, principle of healthier food environment is applied as, lady lives alone
and has easy access to junk food and eateries and cannabis that impacted badly on her health and