Public Health: The Basics

Public Health: The Basics is the essential introduction to this evolving and vital subject.

Accessible and engaging, the book takes readers through the key principles and themes that inform contemporary public health, encompassing both physical health and mental wellbeing. It spotlights the most pressing issues we’re facing today, from demographic changes and widening inequalities, to addictive behaviour, the importance of public policy and industry to our health and, of course, climate change. But by outlining how the idea of public health has changed historically, highlighting how governments have approached the health of their populations differently over time, the book also provides a holistic understanding of the social context in which public health should be understood.

Including a glossary of terms and end of chapter further reading, this is the definitive primer for anyone approaching this area for the first time, including students considering embarking on a degree, apprenticeship or other course in Public Health, careers teachers at schools, colleges and universities, or interested general readers.

Fiona Sim qualified in medicine before training, first in family medicine and then public health. Much of her career has been in senior roles in public health, with particular interest in building capacity to improve health and tackle inequalities. She is a former chair of the Royal Society for Public Health and was joint editor in chief of the journal Public Health for 20 years. She was appointed OBE for services to public health in 2015.

Jenny Wright spent most of her career working for, or within, the NHS in England, as a researcher and planner, then as a specialist in public health, leading an NHS public health consultancy delivering project work for the health service, local government, the Faculty of Public Health and Department of Health. In recent years, she has completed a doctorate on public health women doctors.

This is the fourth book on public health that Fiona and Jenny have co-authored.