PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM

Public Education Campaigns

Many diseases are preventable through healthy living, and a primary public health goal is to educate the general public about how to prevent noninfectious diseases.

Public health campaigns teach people about the value of avoiding smoking, getting treatment for high blood pressure, avoiding foods high in cholesterol and fat, and maintaining a healthy body weight.

Other campaigns educate the public on ways to prevent birth defects, such as abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome.

A broad area of public health education, called health promotion, places special emphasis on illness and disabilities that decrease the quality of life.

Health promotion efforts in the 1990s, for instance, increased public awareness of osteoporosis, a condition that causes disabling bone fractures among older women.

Programs educated women about how to maintain strong bones by including enough calcium in their diets, exercising, and to consider estrogen replacement therapy after menopause.

Health promotion also encourages people to take advantage of early diagnostic tests that can make the outcome of disease more favorable. Regular mammograms encourage early detection of breast cancer, for instance, increasing the chances of a cure.

Detection and proper treatment of high blood pressure reduces the risk of a stroke, the leading cause of permanent disability in older people.

Accidents, particularly automobile accidents, pose a major threat to public health, and officials have undertaken campaigns to reduce the number of automobile accidents by encouraging seat belt use and discouraging drinking and driving.

Violence, especially domestic violence and handgun accidents, is often regarded as a public health problem and public health departments sponsor family violence prevention programs and handgun safety programs.