What Is Public Health

What is public health?

Public health is the health of the society as a whole, which is everyone's health. Health is the state of complete physical, mental and social well being and merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In the 19th century Britain became the world's first industrial society. It also became the first urban society. The population of Britain increased incredibly in the 19th century. Medicine and surgery made very big advances in the 19th century. Louis Pasteur proved that diseases were caused by microscopic organisms. He also invented a way of sterilising liquids by heating them. He also invented a vaccination for anthrax and rabies. Surgery was greatly improved as anaesthetics were discovered and surgeons could carry out more complicated surgeries.

Urbanisation is the increase in the proportion of people living in town's and cities. Urbanisation occurs when people move from rural areas to urban areas. Industrialisation or an industrial revolution is the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from pre-industrial society to an industrial one.

In the 19th century conditions were very bad, the towns were dirty, unsanitary and over crowded. In the early 19th century poor families had to share toilets. There were horrid conditions where it was very common for diseases to form. Life expectancy were very low and infant mortality rate was very high. British towns suffered from outbreaks of cholera. In the late 19th century most towns dug sewers and created piped water which made lives much healthier.

There have been many achievements made on public health such as:

* smoking has been banned in public places as tobacco has been made a health hazard

* control of infectious diseases as vaccinations have been put in place

* healthier mother and babies which been there is a decrease in the infant mortality rate

* safer and healthier foods as there have been many cases of people getting obese which leads to other health problems

* decline in deaths from heart diseases and strokes which means that there are fewer people dying from diseases as such and are treated better.

AO1- Demonstrate a clear understanding of the nature of the public health issue relevant to the chosen service

The public health issue that I have decided to focus on is smoking and the service user group will be teenagers from the years of 13-19. The service user group is most relevant to this as there have been outnumbered cases of teenagers smoking which have become a very big concern for most. This is a public health issue because everyone is doing it although it has been banned in many public places.

Signs and symptoms of smoking

The signs and symptoms of smoking are usually fairly obvious.

Signs of smoking are:

* nicotine stained fingers and teeth

* The smell impregnated on the smoker's clothes and house.

Symptoms of smoking are:

* shortness of breath may be a sign of emphysema or maybe even heart disease

* chest pains caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart and can cause heart attacks

* persistent coughs

* coughing up blood

* difficulty or pain in swallowing

* Unexplained weight loss.

Smoking symptoms usually refer to the various medical symptoms known to the patient and smoking signs usually