Public health is about identifying and responding to the issues that affect the health and wellbeing of all of us. The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, opioid abuse--these are a few of the pressing issues in the field today. Understanding the Science and Practice of Public Health introduces you to these and a handful of other urgent concerns and their possible solutions. Public health focuses on the public--and so it's also about you. This book turns you into an informed citizen ready to contribute to protecting health in your community and worldwide.
Written by a leading public health researcher and a longtime educator, this is a pedagogy-forward textbook full of features that promote easy learning, including emphasis of key points, definitions of important terms, and visual elements to convey ideas. Its discussion of public health issues is prevention-oriented, and it focuses on public health as a civic duty at the individual and policy levels. If we can promote prevention and keep people from developing risks that lead to premature morbidity and mortality, we will all benefit. This important new textbook inspires students to act now to protect global health in the future.
"The book "Understanding the Science and Practice of Public Health (A Civic Responsibility)" is a tour de force that should be required reading for any student interested in health. It captures the broad continuum of points that intersect, creating population-level health threats, and provides a glimpse into the future as new emerging threats loom ominously on the horizon. Written by a public health researcher and scholar, this book offers a broader contextual understanding of "health" that is often lacking in similar textbooks and provides some valuable historical insights, experiences, and potential solutions to the health challenges we confront today and those that lurk in the not-too-distant tomorrow."
--Dr. Ralph J. DiClemente, Professor and Chair in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, in the School of Global Public Health at New York University
"In Dr. Crosby's provocative and informative textbook, Understanding the Science and Practice of Public Health, he describes and examines, from a sociopolitical framework, leading global health issues including gun violence and climate change, while promoting solutions aimed at the societal level that target policy rather than the individual."
--Laura F. Salazar, Ph.D., Professor, Second Century Initiative Scholar in Health Equity, Department of Health Policy & Behavioral Science, School of Public Health, Georgia State University
"I deeply value this text for its capacity to break down boundaries between disciplines and promote the urgency of public health. The author has crafted a publication that will appeal not only to educators, students, and scholars in public health but also to those working in medicine, nursing, and other allied health fields. It concisely yet powerfully encapsulates some of the most urgent public health issues."
--Gregory Carter PhD, MSN, RN, Assistant Professor Community and Health Systems Indiana University School of Nursing
